Prince William's visit to widow Rhian Mannings' home was 'weird', says her children
Prince William's "compassion" came across in "bucketloads"
Prince William appears to have made quite the impression during a recent interview on World Mental Health Day.
The Prince of Wales sat down with Rhian Mannings. It was here that Rhian told the prince how her husband, Paul, died by suicide just five days after they lost their one-year-old son, George, in 2012.
The interview was based at Rhian’s home in Cardiff, where William also met her family.
Prince William makes big impression during interview
Rhian Mannings has gone on to found a bereavement charity, named 2wish. Rhian’s charity has now been supported by a £1m donation from Prince William’s Royal Foundation to create a UK suicide prevention network.
She said of welcoming Wills into her home that it was “really special” and “meant the world”.
To mark World Mental Health Day, Prince William asked Rhian how she had coped following such heartbreaking losses.
In footage filmed by Kensington Palace, Rhian also discussed the stigma that surrounds suicide.
At one point, Prince William appeared visibly overwhelmed with emotion. He even fought back tears during their discussion.
Clearly moved, the prince poignantly spoke of his commitment to “building a bold, unified national response to the heartbreaking and preventable tragedy of suicide”.
How Prince William came to interview 2wish founder Rhian Mannings in her home
As reported by BBC, Rhian was first invited to Windsor Castle to discuss the topic of suicide. She described the initial outreach as “surreal in the first place”.
However, plans quickly changed and a new message explained that Prince William wished to visit her home.
“To be honest, I just laughed,” she told the BBC. “I was giggling, thinking, this can’t be serious. I thought they meant Cardiff. Not my actual house.”
Upon clarification that Prince William wished to visit her home, Rhian felt a mixture of emotions and thought it was a nerve-wracking but amazing proposal.
She said: “It’s a difficult subject that we were going to talk about as well, so obviously it was going to be emotive. For him to come into my home, where I lived with Paul and George – there’s something really special about that. It felt like he was stepping into my life.”
Rhian was ‘surprised’ by William’s emotional nature
Rhian said she was “surprised” by how hard William found the conversation and that she found it “tough” when he became emotional.
Despite this, she said the atmosphere between them was “incredibly relaxed” and with “lots of hugs” and hand-holding throughout, they made it through the conversation.
Rhian described William’s compassion as “lovely” and said how much the topic mattered to him came across in “bucketloads”.
Prince William stayed at Rhian’s home for over an hour and “never looked at his watch” and even chatted with her as he got into the car, she described.
Teens share verdict on ‘normal’ Prince William
Her children, Holly, 17, and Isaac, 16, also shared their verdict.
The two teens were said to be surprised by how “normal” he was.
Rhian said her two children told her: “That was weird – he’s just so normal. He spoke to them like someone we knew. He makes it very easy to forget who he is. It was a very special day.”
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