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Royal Revelation: Duchess Kate And Prince William Admit To Parenting Worries, ‘I Will Be In Floods Of Tears’ Says William At Helpline Charity

By Ven Lanyon
Published on: 07:32 PST, Aug 25, 2016

Prince William and Duchess Kate Middleton visited a charity called YoungMinds this week, and William really opened up about his fears while they were there. It seems like Princess Diana’s son and the heir to the throne might not be all that tough for an airforce pilot and royal prince. YoungMinds is a charity that helps parents and carers when they are worried about how the children are doing. The helpline offers support and someone to listen, but William, the father of Prince George and Princess Charlotte, wasn’t too sure he could handle the intensity of real phone calls and “pleaded to be excused from hearing any too distressing stories,” during the visit.

The Mirror reports that the royal couple had to listen to real calls from real people, and it all proved to be too much for Prince William, though Duchess Kate seemed to cope just fine. The prince said that his work as a pilot with Air Ambulance has put him in the hard position of seeing “too many sad stories” and sometimes it’s just too much for him to bear. He was even scared that he might end up crying after listening to parents reaching out for help and support, and he asked to be given a break and allowed to listen to something easy.

“Can I have an easy one please? I’m carrying a lot of things at the moment. I will be in floods of tears at the end otherwise.”

The Express wrote that William told the staff at YoungMinds that he didn’t think he could “deal with any more stuff” unless they set him up for easier calls. Prince William thought that he could probably get through listening to less tragic tales and assured everyone, including his wife, Duchess Kate, that he was “steeling myself the best I can.” Kate didn’t ask for any special treatment when it was her turn to listen to calls.

It might seem a bit selfish of William to think that he shouldn’t have to step up like anyone else, but the Inquisitr points out that the prince and Kate also visited Keech Hospice, where he helped a young boy who just lost his mom to cancer. William and Harry are dealing with the approaching 20th anniversary of their mother Diana’s sudden death when they were only 14- and 12-years-old. He told the boy that it’s important to “talk about it” and made sure the teenager knew that “it’s okay for you to miss her.”

“I still miss my mother every day–and it’s 20 years after she died.”

Later, Kate Middleton and her husband talked about how they also experience “parenting worries” even though it may look to the rest of the world that they live in a protected bubble of luxury. Kate explained that they “do face worries, because we’ve got small young children.”

“As a parent and as a mother, having that feeling that there is somebody there that is non-judgemental, that can provide the professional support, and that can really provide helping hand at a really difficult time.”

William’s empathy for others showed through clearly when he and Duchess Kate spoke about the experience afterwards. He said that parents should “understand that you can’t be brilliant at everything,” adding that parents can’t be “superheroes” and talking about parenting worries is the best thing to do.

“There is a lot of pressure on parents, and most of it is self-made by parents themselves, where you feel you have to be able to handle everything. “You have to show strength and resilience to everything. But there are some times when it all gets too much and you need to reach out, and that’s totally fine.”

It’s so cool that with Duchess Kate’s help, William is beginning to show his soft side publicly. Kate and William’s mental health campaign, Heads Together, was recently launched to help everyone to become “more open about mental health,” but he himself wasn’t talking. Now, he’s opened up twice in as many days during public engagements with Kate. Prince Harry has also finally starting to talk about how he felt when Diana died and how the Princess of Wales’ death still affects him.

What do you think? Was William right to admit his weakness and ask for an easy phone call, or is his job as a royal prince mean that he has to be tougher than that?

[Photo by Arthur Edwards/WPA Pool/Getty Images]

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