Royals

Duchess Catherine met with the director of Love Actually to talk about a new mental health initiative

Kate reportedly invited Richard Curtis to Kensington Palace on Wednesday.
kate middleton smilingGetty Images

The Duchess of Cambridge invited director and screenwriter Richard Curtis to her home at Kensington Palace on Wednesday, to discuss a new mental health initiative, The Daily Mail reports.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex launched their Heads Together initiative in 2016 to try and tackle the stigma surrounding mental health and help people have better access to mental health and wellbeing support, when they need it.

Richard Curtis, who directed Love Actually and co-founded Comic Relief, has also supported the need for better mental health initiatives, following the death of his sister who died from suicide “after years of battles”.

Speaking at the Public Health England conference, Curtis said: “I was so privileged and we had so much money and so much access and still couldn’t do anything.

“I can’t believe what it must be like for someone whose relatives aren’t in that situation and they have nothing.”

He suggested more could be done for those with mental health issues, for example the lack of resources.

Kate and Richard at the UK premiere of The War Horse in 2012. (Image: Getty)

While there’s no word on what the project the Cambridges and Curtis may collaborate on may be, the project will be just one of the many initiatives and projects the Cambridges and the Sussexes have launched this year.

Just this week Prince William visited Hendon FC to learn about the club’s mental health initiative as part of the Heads Up mental health campaign, which encourages people, particularly men, to feel comfortable talking about mental health and feel comfortable being able to support their friends and family through difficult times.

Kensington Palace and Sussex Royal also acknowledged World Suicide Prevention Day and posted a powerful video – featuring the national text helpline service, Shout, the couples helped to launch – in which eight men and women read out heartbreaking messages, like the ones Shout might receive, explaining there are thousands of ways to start a conversation about your crisis and that Shout was there for all of them.

The video also comes just a day after William revealed he wants to train as a Shout volunteer counsellor.

WATCH: Prince William and Duchess Kate’s powerful video to mark World Suicide Prevention Day. Story continues below…

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At the end of July, just two months after launching Shout, both the Kensington Palace and Sussex Royal Instagram pages shared a congratulatory post to the team at Shout, who have announced they had taken 100,000 text conversations, equating to around 4 million messages of support.

Reposting a post from the official Shout UK Instagram page, Kensington Palace wrote: “Shout operates 24/7 and connects people in need to trained volunteers who provide help at a time when it is most needed; enabling them to move from a moment of crisis to a calm state and form a plan for next steps to find longer-term support.”

While Harry and Meghan have since broken away from the Royal Foundation under which the Heads Together campaign was launched, they are still very much involved, with better supporting mental health and wellbeing a big focus for all four of the royals.

In fact, Mental Health Awareness Month was the first theme of Harry and Meghan’s Instagram concept, where each month they shine a light on a particular theme or cause and follow a number of accounts doing incredible work within those fields.

Announcing the month’s theme they wrote on Instagram: “To pay tribute to all the incredible work people across the globe are doing in this space, we are hoping to shine a light on several Instagram accounts that promote mental well-being, mental fitness, body positivity, self-care, and the importance of human connection – to not just hear each other, but to listen.”

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