Mother hopes emotional chat about suicide with William shows ‘it’s OK to talk’

A woman who had an emotional conversation with the Prince of Wales about her husband’s suicide said she hopes seeing their chat will show people it is OK to open up and talk.

William was filmed in a moving conversation with campaigner Rhian Mannings, whose one-year-old son George died after suffering a seizure in 2012 and whose husband Paul died by suicide five days later.

The footage marked the launch of a new National Suicide Prevention Network, spearheaded by the Prince and Princess of Wales’s Royal Foundation, on World Mental Health Day on Friday.

William travelled to Rhian’s home near Cardiff, south Wales, having first met her eight years ago as part of his, Kate and then-Prince Harry’s Heads Together mental health campaign in 2017.

In a frank discussion between the pair around the kitchen table, Rhian, who set up the charity 2wish to support families affected by the sudden death of a child, said: “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.”

Reflecting on her husband’s suicide, Rhian, 48, who has two older children – Holly, 17, and Isaac, 16 – told the PA news agency: “It didn’t have to happen, it doesn’t have to happen. It will be OK.

“You just need to be able to talk about it. You need to have someone to talk to, but people are just embarrassed and ashamed to open up, and I’m hoping this video will show that it’s OK to open up, it’s OK to talk about it, but also you know the devastation that’s left behind can be avoided.”

Rhian said William is “so passionate” about the issue and wants to raise awareness.

In their filmed chat, the prince asked: “If you could say something or wanted to say something to Paul, what would you have said?”

Rhian said: “There’s only one thing I would ever say to him if I had time with him and that would be: ‘Why didn’t you speak to me?’

“I think, I ask myself that every single day. He was absolutely devastated. He did keep blaming himself that weekend.

“But 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 OK. And I think that’s what the hardest thing is, we would have been OK.”

As he listened to her answer, William looked up and became emotional, and brought his hand to his mouth, as Rhian asked him: “Are you OK?”

He reached out to touch her hand and told her: “I’m sorry. I just, it’s hard to ask you the questions,” with the campaigner telling him: “No it’s fine. It’s just you’ve got children. It’s hard and you’ve experienced loss yourself.”

Talking about her late husband, Rhian told PA: “Paul was amazing. He lit up every room, he was funny, charming, he was just the whole package and we were very happy.”

She said she was blessed to have him as her husband and to have created a beautiful family, “a very sort of everyday family who had the same things going on in their lives as everybody else”.

Rhian added: “We lost George so suddenly and then obviously to lose Paul. And for me, it just shows that anybody could go through this, anyone could now be sat here in this position.

“So please talk about it, please look for help and seek help, because really, honestly, you can get through this.”

The National Suicide Prevention Network is aimed at transforming suicide prevention in the UK across the four home nations, and will be boosted by a £1 million investment from William and Kate’s philanthropic foundation.

The initiative is being joined by four charities – James’ Place, PIPS Suicide Prevention Ireland, Mikeysline and the Jac Lewis Foundation, representing England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales – as founding partners, alongside the Hub of Hope, the UK’s largest mental health support directory.

It will aim to deliver lasting change in how suicide is understood and improve universal pathways for suicide prevention.

Chaired by Professor Ann John, an expert in the prevention of suicide and self-harm and consultant in public health medicine for Public Health Wales, it will work over the next three years to identify the root causes of suicide, provide accessible support for everyone, and foster greater collaboration, innovation and action.

The prince met Rhian in 2017 for the BBC One documentary Mind Over Marathon which followed a group running for William, Kate and Harry’s Heads Together Mental Health campaign.