The Royal Family has been showing its commitment to promoting mental health awareness — and they've recruited Lady Gaga to help.
Following Prince Harry's discussion of undergoing therapy to deal with his grief after the 1997 death of Princess Diana, his brother Prince William has joined in by having a conversation about mental health challenges with Gaga. The pair spoke over FaceTime in a video that was live-streamed on Facebook.
Why Gaga? The A Star is Born actress has been frank about her being raped at age 19 and battling post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result. Her experience makes her a natural partner for the royal's Heads Together campaign, to "change the conversation on mental health."
The 6-minute video shows the pop star sipping tea as she FaceTimed Prince William from her kitchen.
"I am so grateful to speak to you," the Coachella headliner told him. "I'm a very big fan of what you've done with Heads Together and #oktosay... The beautiful films you made with the Heads Together campaign told beautiful stories and it reminded me how much my mental health changing changed my life."
The feeling was mutual.
"Harry, Catherine, and I really felt this was such an important area that throughout all our charitable work, whether it was the veterans, homelessness, addiction, most of it seemed to stem back to mental health issues,” Prince William responded, noting his work with his brother Harry and his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge. “I read your open letter you wrote the other day and I thought it was incredibly moving and very brave of you to write down such personal feelings.”
He asked the singer how speaking out affected her.
"It made me very nervous at first," she admitted. "For me, waking up every day and feeling sad and going on stage is something that is very hard to describe. There's a lot of shame attached to mental illness. You feel like something's wrong with you. In my life I go, 'oh my goodness, look at all these beautiful, wonderful things that I have, and I should be so happy,' but you can't help it if in the morning when you wake up you are so tired, so you are so sad. You are so full of anxiety and the shakes that you can barely think. But...this is a part of me and that's okay."
Via The Royal Family Facebook.Prince William, who will join his wife and brother in supporting runners at this Sunday's London Marathon on behalf of Heads Together, agreed.
"It's okay to have this conversation," he told Gaga. "It's important to have this conversation."
She added that sharing her story with fans was "the best thing to come out of my mental illness."
The two are now planning to meet in the U.K. in October in hopes of another Heads Together collaboration. Click here to learn more about the campaign.
If you are experiencing depression and need support, please contact the Samaritans on 116 123
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