Prince William has been secretly working for a crisis text line, Us Weekly reported on Saturday. The Duke of Cambridge, 37, has been volunteering for the organization Shout85258 amid the global pandemic. The information came as William and wife Kate Middleton took to Instagram to thank the country’s helpers during a Volunteer Week tribute.
The video started with William stating that he had some news.
“I’m going to share a little secret with you guys.”
The future king then announced that he had been secretly volunteering with Shout85258. Princes William and Harry, along with their wives, Duchess Kate and Megan Markle, created the non-profit last November. Shout85258 addresses the country’s mental health needs through a support line that is available 24/7.
The organization’s over 2,000 volunteers, including the Duke of Cambridge, are trained to support callers with a “variety of urgent issues including self-harm, bullying, relationship challenges, abuse, and suicidal thoughts.” The future king mentioned in November that he planned to volunteer for the organization at some point, and, based on this announcement, it seems as though he kept his word.
The video from the official Kensington Royal Instagram account pieced together various clips from a virtual meeting the duke and duchess had with some volunteers. The couple highlighted the benefits of volunteering and the work that many helpers had done. They expressed hope in the video that volunteering would still be as valued and widespread when the current quarantine is over.
“One of the things that would be amazing is if everyone in their communities was to carry on and still celebrate volunteering in a way that they have been during the pandemic. Everyone’s got something to give back,” the duchess said in the video.
The time in quarantine hasn’t been easy for anyone, and the duchess is no different. Us Weekly reported that William and Kate were having a hard time explaining the pandemic to their children — Prince George, 6, Princess Charlotte, 5, and Prince Louis, 2 — and that they had to readjust their lives.
“It’s really hard. We hadn’t done a huge amount of FaceTime and face calls and things like that, but obviously, we’re doing that a lot more now,” the duchess told ITV’s This Morning on May 7.
Kate went on to state that they were communicating virtually much more often now and checking to see how everyone is doing.
“We try and check in daily with family members and speak to them about news and things like that,” Kate said in the interview.