Years later, Prince William appeared to acknowledge his mother’s battle with disordered eating during an appearance on a documentary.
“We need to normalize the conversation about mental health,” he said on Wasting Away: The Truth About Anorexia. “These are illnesses. Mental health needs to be taken as seriously as physical health.”
In 2017, Prince Harry also spoke out on the importance mental health and his own decision to seek out therapy.
“I can safely say that losing my mum at the age of 12, and therefore shutting down all of my emotions for the last 20 years, has had a quite serious effect on not only my personal life but my work as well,” he shared on Telegraph‘s Mad World podcast. “I have probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions when all sorts of grief and sort of lies and misconceptions and everything are coming to you from every angle.”
“Because of the process I have been through over the past two and a half years, I’ve now been able to take my work seriously, been able to take my private life seriously as well, and been able to put blood, sweat and tears into the things that really make a difference and things that I think will make a difference to everybody else.”