Prince William has spent the past decade trying to carve out a slice of the “mental health” issue-pie for himself. He tried to make “racism and mental health, but only when it pertains to football” into his cause du jour for a while. He actually claimed that he solved racism (in football) soon after he declared himself “bored” with racism. That blew up in his face spectacularly, given… well, everything. Now you won’t catch him uttering one word about racism and mental health. He’s tried something different: staying in his lane and only talking about “men’s mental health.” And when I say “men,” I mean exclusively white men, and even more exclusively, just William talking about himself and what affects his mental health. The last time he spoke about this subject, it was during a BBC interview and everyone trashed him for being so tone-deaf and male-centered. Well, William was back at it again on Monday, only he managed to not center himself the entire time:

Prince William is keeping up his commitment to men’s mental health. The Prince of Wales, 43, showed his support for a life-saving charity which works to tackle the crisis of men facing suicide. On May 11, as Mental Health Awareness Week began, he opened a new center for the charity James’ Place, which was set up 20 years ago in the name of a young man who died by suicide.

The center in Birmingham, in the English Midlands, is the fourth that Prince William has opened, following those operated by the charity in Liverpool, London and Newcastle.

Prince William toured the new center, meeting staff, local partners and service users who have been helped by the charity.

Official statistics highlighted by the prince’s office at Kensington Palace say that men are three times more likely to die by suicide than women. Suicide is the single leading cause of death for men under 35, and in 2024, there were 560 deaths by suicide registered in the area around Birmingham, known as the West Midlands, and 415 of these (74%) were men.

The new centre offers rapid, professional therapy that addresses the root causes of suicidal crisis.

Prince William has made it a key part of his public work to tackle male suicide. When he was an air ambulance pilot, he saw the devastating effects on families after attending to tragedies in his work, and he has spoken about how one of his first calls in his job at East Anglia’s air ambulance service was to a young man who had died by suicide.

[From People]

I’ll say something not entirely anti-William: I sometimes believe that William’s causes are worthy, while also believing that he’s the absolute wrong person to put his name on certain issues. I felt the same way about many of William’s homelessness initiatives, a few of which were actually good pilot programs focused on the right things. The problem is, as always, William himself. He’s the wrong person to talk about homelessness because he has five or six homes and his income is derived from slumlording. He’s also the wrong person to talk about homelessness because he constantly centers himself and promotes himself as a savior of homeless people. It’s the exact same thing with issues of suicide and mental health: William has zero authenticity, and in fact, he comes across like a massive hypocrite given his aggressive and even abusive behavior towards his family and staff. And that’s before we even get to William’s history of rage-briefing specifically about his brother being “brainwashed by an army of therapists” and referring to Prince Harry as “paranoid” for years. Like… what is it in William’s character or background which makes him believe he has any authenticity on the topic of men’s mental health?

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.