- The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have both been working
mental health hotlines during thecoronavirus pandemic . Prince William revealed that he has been answering messages on a mental health text hotline, Shout, the UK-based 24/7 crisis text line he and Princess Kate started in May 2019, CNN reported.- Similarly, Princess Kate has been taking phone calls with people who are feeling isolated, Kensington Palace reportedly announced.
"I'm going to share a little secret with you guys, I'm actually on the platform volunteering," Prince William said in a video call last month with employees from Shout, a mental health hotline in the UK, CNN reported.
The first of its kind, Shout is a service you can text to get help with emergency mental health needs in the UK, and recently, Prince William has been on the other end of the line.
Texting "shout" to 85258 will connect one with a trained Crisis
Princess Kate has also been volunteering with mental health support, answering "check-in and chat" calls for vulnerable people experiencing isolation amid the pandemic, per an announcement from Kensington Palace, CNN reported.
She does this is via the Royal Voluntary Service's National Health Service Volunteer Responders program, which was created in support of the National Health Service amid the pandemic.
This isn't the first time Prince William has thrown support behind mental health crises. In January, the prince narrated a video about mental health for soccer players. He has also appeared in a BBC documentary about mental health in 2019, where he discussed his mother's death, saying men should talk about their feelings.
"We've got to relax a little bit, and be able to talk about our emotions because we're not robots," he said in the documentary.
More recently, Prince William worked on a BBC documentary about discussing men's mental health using soccer as a starting point for the conversation. The documentary was released on May 28, 2020.