Royal Fab Four’s new video sends mental health website into a crash
A new video narrated by the Royal Family’s ‘Fab Four’ has sent a UK government website into a crash as more than ten million people rushed to view it online.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have joined forces to voice a short film for the Public Health England’s new platform, Every Mind Matters.
Written by Love Actually screenwriter Richard Curtis and directed by British photographer Rankin, the clip also featured celebrities such as Gillian Anderson, Glenn Close, Sir Bradley Wiggins and more.
The three-minute ad, which was broadcast across multiple British TV channels, is aimed at encouraging people to take simple steps to look after their mental health and boost their wellbeing.
“Everyone knows that feeling, when life gets on top of us,” Prince William could be heard saying in the ad.
Prince Harry added: “We feel stressed, low, anxious or have trouble sleeping. Me, you, your brother, your mother, your friend, colleague, or your neighbour…
“We think there’s nothing to be done, nothing we can do about it.”
“There’s a new way to help turn things around,” Duchess Meghan said. “Every Mind Matters will show you simple ways to look after your mental health.”
Duchess Kate concluded, “It will get you started with a free online plan designed to help you deal with stress, boost your mood, improve your sleep and make you feel more in control.”
According to HELLO!, the launch of the initiative follows 18 months of planning and piloting with the help of clinical and academic experts, national mental health charities and input from people with experience of poor mental health.
The Every Mind Matters website crashed following the broadcast, with users being shown an error page that read: “Something went wrong. Please refresh the page or try again later.”
A Public Health England spokeswoman said: “We’re back up and running now. We think it was due to high [traffic]. We had technicians working on it immediately and we’re back up and running now.”
A Public Health England survey of more than 3,000 adults found that 83 per cent of people had experienced early signs of poor mental health in the last 12 months, including feeling anxious, stressed, having low mood or trouble sleeping.
More than a quarter of these waited longer than six months before addressing the issue, with more than half reporting coping mechanisms such as smoking, drinking, unhealthy eating and avoiding social situations.