Prince William has openly discussed his mother’s eating disorder for the first time.
In a new documentary, Wasting Away: The Truth About Anorexia, Prince William talks to Mark Austin and his daughter, Maddy, who suffers from anorexia about normalising mental health.
When asked whether he is proud of his mother for publicly addressing her health battle, Prince William replied: “Absolutely. These are illnesses. Mental health needs to be taken as seriously as physical health.”
At the time, some 22 years ago, Princess Diana told BBC that her lack of self-esteem and public marriage breakdown led to her eating disorder.
“I didn’t like myself, I was ashamed I couldn’t cope with the pressures.” “I had bulimia for a number of years, and that’s like a secret disease. It’s a repetitive pattern which is very destructive. It was my escape mechanism,” she revealed.
Both Prince William and Prince Harry, alongside William’s wife Kate Middleton, have been praised for their work with mental health organisation Heads Together.
Most recently, Harry revealed his own struggles with depression following his mother’s death when he was 12.
“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 said on the 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.”
