Prince William pauses, looks away and chokes up, his voice catching as he talks about the devastating impact of suicide with a widow.
In a moving new film, the Prince of Wales speaks with Rhian Manning, who lost her husband, Paul, in 2012 — just five days after their one-year-old son, George, died — as they sit together in her kitchen.
The eight-minute video, released on World Mental Health Day, Oct. 10, captures William’s emotional visit with Rhian, who has since founded a charity supporting families grieving the loss of a child.
Over tea and Welsh cakes, the conversation turns to her surviving children, Holly and Isaac. Then William gently asks what she might say to Paul. “I would just like to sit him down like this and just say, ‘Why didn’t you come to me?’ Because he’s missed out on just so much joy, and we would have been okay. And I think that’s what’s hardest — we would have been okay.”
Then, as William takes in what Rhian has shared, he looks away, rubs his chin, his eyes reddening. “Are you O.K.?” she asks.
The prince reaches across the kitchen table to touch her hand and replies, “I’m sorry. It’s just… it’s hard to ask these questions that I…”
Rhian gently interjects, “No, it’s fine. It’s just… you’ve got children,” before adding, “It’s hard… and you’ve experienced loss yourself.”
When he says he is “okay,’ Rhian adds, “Life can throw you these awful curveballs, but by talking about it, by, you know, having hope, you can continue.”
The prince responds, “The best way to prevent suicide is to talk about it. Talk about it early, talk about it with your loved ones, those you trust, your friends. So thank you for talking about it.”
The Royal Foundation, led by Prince William and Kate Middleton, has donated around $1.3 million (£1 million) over an initial three-year period to help establish the National Suicide Prevention Network.
The network brings together charities across the U.K. to foster better understanding of suicide and how it can be prevented. Four leading charities — one each from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales — serve as founding partners, alongside the Hub of Hope, the U.K.’s largest mental health support directory.
The prince has long been committed to raising awareness about men’s mental health and suicide, drawing on his own experiences witnessing the issue firsthand while serving as an air ambulance pilot.
In September, William supported a Welsh charity set up in memory of a young man. The Jac Lewis Foundation, created to honor Jac, who died by suicide in 2019, recently launched a mental health hub in partnership with the Welsh Rugby Union, of which the Prince is patron. He also supports James’ Place, an organization that provides help for men facing suicidal crises.
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William reflects in the film, “From the families I’ve spoken to who have had to endure suicide, there’s a lot of unanswered questions that live with you forever, really, don’t they?”
Rhian, whose own charity works to support grieving families, adds, “I will forever go over those last few days with him, wondering what I missed. Before we lost George, we were just so happy. And I think this just shows that it really can happen to anyone.”
The new Royal Foundation–backed network will be chaired by Professor Ann John, a leading expert in suicide and self-harm prevention and Consultant in Public Health Medicine for Public Health Wales. The initiative will focus on understanding and addressing the root causes of suicide, providing accessible support for everyone, and fostering greater collaboration, innovation, and action across the U.K.
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