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  • Interviewer: So, a real insight into why you and Prince Harry set up the Royal foundation.

  • Did you ever imagine it will grow like this?

  • William: I think when we first started it, it started as a very small idea with Harry

  • and I scratching our heads going, “How... how can we do something that's going to help

  • us in the future?

  • How are we going to build something that's going to provide almost a vehicle to allow

  • us to impact in charitable areas?”

  • Because it was quite difficult at the time.

  • Harry and I used to go to a lot of engagements and see these incredible charities doing really

  • great work, but felt that we... we could give more, and how could we do that?

  • And so, the foundation idea sort of bubbled up as a sort of vehicle to be able to do more

  • when we... when we walked away from these engagements.

  • Interviewer: So, you both take credit for coming up with the idea?

  • William: Totally.

  • Interviewer: Are there any particular moments that stand out for you or people you've met

  • along the way?

  • William: I think, for me, I think, probably, you know, after while it was quite a big moment

  • for me, when I realized the convening power of what we could do.

  • I think getting the 7 leading global conservation NGOs and charities together in 1 room, and

  • getting them to unite behind 1 particular focus, I thought that was... that was when

  • I realized, actually, maybe this... this has got some legs, this has got some real ability

  • to do something.

  • Because I found uniting people together, bringing them together made so much... broke down barriers.

  • It made things move much quicker, much smoother.

  • And actually, we got more impact from that.

  • And then leading on to that, that the mental health campaign Heads Together, I think, you

  • know, basically replicated the same thing, again, on a sort of national scale.

  • And I think it surprised all of us how much it took off.

  • And, again, the fact that we had these leading experts who've been working in the mental

  • health field for way longer than we had, but we felt that we could... we could provide...

  • well, they provided the foundation and the solidity of the campaign, and we could then

  • help provide some of the... some of the other conduits.

  • Interviewer: Duchess, we can definitely give you credit for coming up with the idea to

  • work together on the campaign around mental health.

  • How did that come about?

  • And why was that important for you?

  • Catherine: That's pretty generous of you to say.

  • It was an idea.

  • But actually, it was actually going back to the beginning, when we were looking at the

  • different ways in which we could all work with the foundation.

  • And I suppose I'd learned through sort of meeting some of my managers, that there was

  • sort of all these underlying causes across so many different sectors.

  • Mental health just kept on flagging up every time, whether it's with addiction or school

  • support and with vulnerable young children.

  • So, it's something that I felt very passionate about.

  • It's obviously such a huge topic.

  • It wasn't as big as I actually thought it was, but it was something that I think all

  • 3 of us at the time felt that we really could make a far bigger impact together, rather

  • than just 1 of us acting alone on it.

  • Interviewer: And how much of a difference did it make the 3 of you behind that call

  • to action?

  • Catherine: Right.

  • I felt...

  • I've always felt really strongly and sort of putting... putting ideas together.

  • And sort of, we all had very different areas that were working... working with sort of

  • Harry with... with knife crime, William with a lot of homelessness, with me with sort of,

  • yeah, addiction and things.

  • And I just think being able to sort of come to... come together to find some sort of common...

  • common ground, and... and be able to sort of, yeah, draw ideas together and find a way

  • forward, I think that's really, really exciting.

  • Interviewer: Meghan, you are new to the foundation, but you have lots of experience working with

  • charities, especially grassroots organizations.

  • It would be interesting to find out, first of all, your impressions of the Royal foundation

  • so far, and what you're hoping to do.

  • Don't be too critical.

  • Meghan: Yeah, no, of course.

  • Well, obviously, it's incredibly exciting.

  • And yes, I think, for me, it's been a very long time working on cause-driven work, specifically

  • with women and girls' rights.

  • But, you know, to see the model of the foundation is really interesting.

  • Because while I've worked with larger NGOs, I've also worked with really small grassroots

  • organizations where you can see a higher level of impact, in my opinion, because there's

  • a lot less red tape.

  • What you're seeing here, and what I noticed with Heads Together from a global perspective

  • (because I wasn't here, obviously, when it was happening) was the power of convening

  • all of these smaller organizations who have the same issue, but need that extra push and

  • support, under this umbrella, you're able to achieve that.

  • And the impact they all made with Heads Together was tremendous.

  • So, I'm very excited to be able to work on initiatives similarly, and that can have that

  • same sort of impact globally.

  • Interviewer: And it's great that you are now able to work together (that's exciting) on

  • things that you are passionate about.

  • How do you think, Prince Harry, you can make the most impact through your work with the

  • foundation going forward?

  • Harry: I think as Williams touched on, as we've mentioned in the past, it's all about

  • changing mindsets.

  • I think the biggest successes that... that the Royal foundation has had to date is all

  • based around changing mindsets, whether it's the perception of wounded, injured, and sick

  • servicemen and women across the globe.

  • Interviewer: The Invictus Games.

  • Harry: Invictus Games... well, part of the Invictus Games and endeavor fund as well.

  • But also Heads Together.

  • You know, Heads Together was a... is an amazing convening power, but also the perception of

  • mental health now across this country and also in other countries has changed without

  • a doubt.

  • I think the timing was... the timing was... was absolutely perfect on that.

  • But again, it's... it's all about tackling the cause and not the symptom.

  • I think in today's society, we have... it's very easy to get sucked into trying to sort

  • out the symptom.

  • We... we have the 4 of us and everybody at the Royal Foundation, and all of our supporters,

  • hopefully, believe that actually, in order to have long lasting change, to have a long

  • lasting impact, you have to somewhat ignore the symptom, or go to the symptom, talk, listen

  • to them, and then come wind all the way back to find out the cause.

  • Because otherwise, you're just putting a Band-Aid on the problem.

  • And, you know, in some instances, I think some organizations, that's... that's all they

  • can do.

  • But we realize that with this very unique opportunity, this unique platform, that we

  • have to be tackling the cause of the problem.

  • And I think youth violence within... within the UK at the moment is a classic example

  • where, you know, back end of last year, knife crime skyrocketed.

  • And I spoke to some of... some of the people at Royal Foundation said, “Right, knife

  • crime, let's look into it.”

  • But in reality, knife crime is a symptom of a cause.

  • So, therefore, go and speak to the young people (which is what we're doing), speak to those

  • communities, and actually listen to what they think the problems are.

  • And then rewind all the way back and go, “Right, what is... what is the root cause of all of

  • these different issues?”

  • Then you...

  • I mean, effectively, you're saving money as well, because you'll say, “Right, we're

  • investing all of our time, all of our effort into this problem.

  • And we're going to... by fixing that, we're going to fix...”

  • Interviewer: So, you're not coming in telling them what to do.

  • You are helping them to come up... facilitating them coming up with the solutions.

  • Harry: Exactly what William said in his speech, you know, we are the Royal Foundation.

  • I'm not saying that other foundations don't listen, but we pride ourselves on going into...

  • going into a situation, convening people and listening, and hoping that all of those partners

  • or all those people agree that the problems are the same thing.

  • Interviewer: So far, your work has covered a wide range of issues, supporting the armed

  • forces, conservation, young people, mental health.

  • What do you want to focus on next?

  • William: And I think we've looked at ways of collaborating again.

  • I think it'd be wonderful if we could do another project or another campaign, you know, sort

  • of similar impact Heads Together with, you know, as a unit, as a family.

  • But I think we've got to be careful how and when we target those moments.

  • You've got to use them carefully, and you've got to plan for them.

  • They take a lot of preparation to do.

  • And I think each of us have got our own ideas and work streams that we'd like to build them.

  • For me personally, I think, following on from Heads Together, tackling male mental health.

  • There's still a huge stigma and taboo around male mental health.

  • Suicide, for instance, among young men is one of the biggest killers in the country.

  • Some of the statistics that came out from Heads Together was that we've managed to create

  • 800,000 new conversations amongst men on mental health, which we thought was really good.

  • And the other interesting facts as well was that only 2% of people at work go to HR to

  • talk about mental health, 2%.

  • So, that shows that, you know, work is one of the most stressful places that we go to

  • every day.

  • And the fact is that people aren't feeling like they can go to work and actually speak

  • to those people who, in theory, know the system and know what your... the environment you're

  • working in.

  • And that we've got to... we've got to really do something about mental health in the workplace

  • as well.

  • So, I think on that side of things, there's quite a lot to do there.

  • I'm still very keen on working with Glasgow Life from the conservation.

  • The Glasgow Life trade has got a big year.

  • We've got the last conference coming up in London in October, and I'm hoping we get senior

  • representation from around the world comes to that.

  • Cyberbullying is another area.

  • Recently, we got a bit of traction with social media companies and the internet companies

  • came together onto the task force, which The Royal Foundation helped put together to try

  • and bring everyone together to fix what is a growing problem, which is obviously cyberbullying

  • and online activity, basically keeping children safe online.

  • So, I think those are sort of key areas I'm really working on.

  • One of the big things that we've discussed as well, which we'd really love to obviously,

  • it's sort of pie in the sky theory at the moment, it's kind of ambitious (but we like

  • to be ambitious, very ambitious) is the idea of a big tackling or linking into all the

  • big foundations in the world.

  • So, as I say, in my speech, there's a lot of foundations out there with an incredible

  • amount of money and a credible amount of ability to move things forwards.

  • But I think what we can bring as a Royal Foundation is that convening efforts.

  • And I think he put some of the big foundations in the world together, along with our convening

  • power of the Royal foundation.

  • And if we focus on certain big issues, hopefully global, I think we can make a really big difference.

  • So, I'm really excited about the future in that sense.

  • Interviewer: And, Duchess, what are you most excited about when it comes to the future

  • of your work with the foundation?

  • Catherine: There's lots that I think.

  • I'm hugely excited about with the foundation from the foundation's perspective.

  • Mentioning before about working together, you know, look at...

  • William is looking at some long-term perspectives.

  • You know, imagine if we were able to do sort of ads together campaign with another generation

  • of members of the royal family, I think that's so exciting to think that, with so many more

  • of us working on the same cause, or similar causes, we could make a real impact.

  • And I will say, for me, personally, it's I'm really interested in keeping going with the

  • sort of the mental health element and really focusing on some of the ideas, early intervention,

  • looking at how early can we go back ready to support the next generation to help break

  • the cycle.

  • And looking at how to support parents and families, bring up the next generation of

  • mentally sort of happy and well children, but also helping them have the tools as well

  • to cope with the challenges of modern-day family and parenthood.

  • Interviewer: And how does your own personal experience feed into that?

  • Because I know, those issues that you mentioned, early intervention, coping with parenthood,

  • supporting the next generation of mothers are issues that are very close to your heart.

  • Catherine: Absolutely.

  • And I've learned a huge amount from facility patches that I've worked with, but also some

  • of the amazing experts that I met along the way.

  • And, you know, it... you can't help but reflect on your... your own life, and it's definitely

  • had an impact on how I sort of how I look at how I mother, how we work as a family,

  • and, you know, how we hope to bring up our children.

  • And I've learned so much.

  • And I just, you know, if... if some of this knowledge and some of the facts and figures

  • that I've learned along the way could be passed on to the general public, I think in an awareness

  • campaign or something like that, I think it'd been hugely beneficial to all mothers and

  • parents out there.

  • Interviewer: Meghan, you touched on it before.

  • You have... it's well known you've championed the empowerment of women and young girls and

  • promoting their self-worth.

  • How do you hope to continue that work with The Royal Foundation?

  • Meghan: Yes, I mean, I think that knowing that I've just been here for 3 months, right?

  • And in that time... but with that said, for me, it's very important to once you hit the

  • ground running, even if you're doing it quietly behind the scenes, which is what I focus my

  • energy on this far, is meeting with the right people, meeting with the right organizations

  • behind the scenes quietly, learning as much as I can, so that I can maximize the opportunity

  • we have here to really make an impact.

  • I think what's interesting is I hear a lot of people saying when speaking about girls'

  • empowerment, finding and knowing their worth, or women's empowerment as well, you'll often

  • hear people say, “Well, you're helping women find their voices.”

  • And I fundamentally disagree with that, because women don't need to find a voice, they have

  • a voice, they need to feel empowered to use it.

  • And people need to be encouraged to listen.

  • And I think right now in the climate that we're seeing with so many campaigns, I mean,

  • Me Too, and Time's Up, there is no better time than to really continue to shine a light

  • on women feeling empowered, and people really helping to support them, men included in that.

  • I mean, it makes such a tremendous difference.

  • So, yeah, just, I guess we wait a couple months, and then we can hit the ground running.

  • But up until then I'm pretty excited.

  • Interviewer: But like you said, I mean, you've been here for...

  • Meghan: Yeah, wedding first.

  • Interviewer: Get that.

  • Having said that, you have been quietly, like you say, behind the scenes, let's just say

  • laying the foundations for your future work.

  • Can you tell us a bit more about that?

  • Meghan: Sadly, I can't.

  • But I will say, you know if... if we know how... and I certainly know how passionate

  • I am, and Harry and I see the world so similarly in our approach of being very hands on with

  • things.

  • What I can say is that I have been fortunate enough to meet with some incredible women

  • and organizations in general in the UK that are doing work here.

  • But then also, knowing that some of the work that I've done in the past has been in Commonwealth

  • countries like Rwanda, India.

  • So, this reach, I think, can have... can have some really nice legs to it once we can start.

  • But...

  • Interviewer: After wedding

  • Meghan: Yes, exactly to be continued.

  • Interviewer: Okay.

  • I look forward to picking up on that conversation later.

  • Meghan: yeah, me too.

  • Thank you.

  • Interviewer: And Prince Harry, what are the biggest challenges as you see them going forward?

  • What do you want to focus on?

  • Harry: I think... where do we start with that?

  • I think, as we've discussed, Heads Together, there's so much more to do.

  • We've... we've probably... we've... we've made it... we've made a difference.

  • We know that.

  • Everybody that's part of the campaign knows that.

  • Hopefully all the partners feel that.

  • Some of them are nodding, some are not.

  • But I think we understand, we realize that there's so much more to do.

  • It's very much on unfinished work that.

  • So, I'm looking forward to supporting that.

  • Again, Coach Core is a fantastic thing that we've got going on here.

  • You know, something like 75 or 80% of young people in this country, I mean, young people

  • like this... this high, 6, 7 years old, have a bad experience with their first... with

  • their first coach, with their first sort of sporting endeavors such.

  • And that has a massive impact for them, you know, moving forward.

  • So, Coach Core, and the expansion of Coach Core was very important.

  • A couple of things I'm really passionate about working on is sustainable tourism.

  • So, I'm looking into that at the moment.

  • There's a huge number of players and different issues that need to be discussed.

  • But I think in a typical raw foundation way, we might have the ability to be able to convene,

  • and bring people together.

  • Because at the end of the day, these ecosystems that are out there need to be protected, they

  • need to be seen as an asset.

  • And if they are treated as an asset, then they... then the local communities will benefit

  • from them and... and tourism companies will be incentivized to look often for the longer

  • term.

  • And that also, as I've touched on, briefly, youth violence in this country, again, you

  • know, this, it's a growing problem.

  • No matter where you are in the UK, obviously, a lot of stuff in the news with knife crime...

  • knife crime in London, but just to bang on again, that whole symptom and cause bit.

  • I think, you know, we really have an opportunity here to... to tackle the root causes of some

  • of these... some of these massive issues.

  • So, as I said, we're... we're pretty tied up with planning a wedding at the moment,

  • but we're really looking forward to working as a pair as a 4 going forward and hoping

  • to make as much of a difference where we can.

  • So, there's a hell of a lot of work to do.

  • Interviewer: Well, we're looking forward to both the wedding and the work you are planning

  • to do.

  • Just reflecting on last year, it sounds like you're planning Heads Together part 2, if

  • you like.

  • But reflecting on the success of last year, I mean, I know we keep saying it, but it really

  • did change the national conversation around mental health.

  • You have the world's first mental health marathon, a hugely impactful social media campaign.

  • Did you expect it to be that successful?

  • William: No.

  • Harry: It was organized on the back of a fag packet.

  • Interviewer: Good to know.

  • William: It was.

  • I think, as you alluded to earlier, Catherine...

  • Catherine was one who put this sort of join the dots together for all of us.

  • She was the one who came up with the idea and the concept as well, because her and I

  • had never, never thought about doing a campaign as such before.

  • And when you tackle mental health, it was very difficult to know where to start.

  • It's such a big issue and it's so entrenched in society in a negative way, sadly, that

  • we weren't quite sure how we do it and how long it would take.

  • So, after a number of conversations, doing a campaign was seen as the quickest and most

  • effective way to make a make a... difference make an impact, relatively early.

  • And we... we went through the whole sort of cycle of, how do... do you start with mental

  • health?

  • Do you still call it mental health? and all the leading charities again, the experts helped

  • us try and be more coherent in what our campaign was going to be.

  • And it was a unanimous voice really, that tackling the taboo, tackling the stigma, could

  • be the biggest thing that we could do that would help them with their work and allow

  • their... their particular individual charities to rise out of... out of the stigma.

  • And I think we were surprised by how quickly that went.

  • But... but also having that focus of the marathon, we can't thank the marathon enough for being...

  • accepting, you know, the mental health marathon last year.

  • It was fantastic.

  • It gave us a focus point.

  • It gave us something to drive the campaign towards.

  • And then to see all the runners and their headbands was quite something, even if we

  • had to wear them ourselves.

  • But it was... it was worth it to see that... that relief.

  • And actually there... you know, during the mental health campaign, and I know Rianne,

  • I know she's here somewhere, she's going to hate the fact that I pointed her out.

  • But people like Rianne who spoke on the mental health marathon, she ran the marathon for

  • mental health, along with many other amazing people who had had very, very sad times happen

  • to them, or very, very difficult testing times.

  • I was completely and utterly blown away.

  • And actually, it makes me incredibly proud when someone like Rianne comes along and shares

  • her story, shares what happened to her and really gave us the motivation and the impact

  • ourselves to see that this was really important work, and that we have to keep promoting that,

  • we have to keep pushing us.

  • But we couldn't have done it without people like Rianne and all those in the mental health

  • campaign and the marathon itself.

  • Interviewer: Meghan, what did you make of it watching from afar?

  • Meghan: Oh, my...

  • I mean, I think probably the same sentiment that most people had.

  • Obviously, happening here, the stigmatization surrounding mental health is different and

  • unique in every territory.

  • But I was in Canada at the time and I just remember how much news coverage was getting.

  • And just in that alone, it was getting such a conversation point happening amongst people.

  • And I think, again, to the point that they've all touched on earlier, it was because of

  • that togetherness, because you had so many different organizations under this umbrella,

  • and each of them is shining the spotlight on it.

  • So, I think in North America, at least from that standpoint, I remember being... it being

  • a very large point of conversation.

  • And I would imagine in other countries as well, it made such a huge impact.

  • It was very impressive to watch from afar.

  • Interviewer: And I have to ask you, all the work you do together is great, but working

  • together as family, do you ever have disagreements about things?

  • William: Oh, yes.

  • Harry: Healthy disagreements.

  • Interviewer: Okay.

  • The last thing you disagreed on, how did you resolve it?

  • Harry: I can't remember, they come so

  • Is it resolved?

  • William: We don't know.

  • Interviewer: You don't know.

  • Well, you're putting on a great show if it's not.

  • Harry: No, but it's really...

  • I think it's really good that we've got, you know, 4...

  • 4 different personalities.

  • And, you know, we've all got that same... the same passion to want to make a difference,

  • but, you know, different... different opinions.

  • And I think those opinions worked really, really well.

  • Working as family does have its challenges.

  • Of course, there's everybody here.

  • The fact that everyone's laughing means that everybody knows exactly what it's like.

  • But, you know, we're, we're still together for the rest of our lives.

  • Interviewer: Is this true?

  • Meghan: Togetherness it its finest.

  • Interviewer: Togetherness, yeah, yeah.

  • Catherine: Actually, going to your point as well, actually, initially, remember the sort

  • of big roundtables with the charity partners, you know, it is sometimes hard to find these

  • common... these common grounds where everyone really can get behind and... and things like

  • that.

  • And actually, that... that is the challenge, you know, everyone is... are individuals that

  • are all working towards our own ambitions.

  • But if you can, for us as... as patrons, but also the charity partners, I think you did

  • a fantastic speech recently about everyone collaborating and working together.

  • And in doing so, you can make such, you know, much bigger impact.

  • Interviewer: 4 heads are better than 1.

  • Meghan: Well, and thank goodness it's such differing personalities and that everyone's

  • very communicative, because that's how you can really see bigger change.

  • If everyone's thinking the same way, how are you going to push the envelope?

  • You know, how are you really going to break through in a different sort of mindset?

  • Changing mindsets and all of that is part of this communication that we have constantly.

  • So, I think it's... it's part of the reason we've had so much success with Heads Together

  • and whatever we end up working on moving forward.

  • Interviewer: Yeah.

  • And you encourage that diversity of thinking between themselves.

  • That's great.

  • And thank you very much.

  • We look forward to hearing much more throughout the morning.

  • Thank you.

Interviewer: So, a real insight into why you and Prince Harry set up the Royal foundation.

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