'It took me over the edge': Prince William opens up about having kids and his mental health struggle

Prince William has made the remarkable step of opening up about his own mental health issues after he had his three children.

Speaking at a conference in London called This Can Happen, Prince William joined fellow campaigners to talk about mental well-being in the work place, in particular how it affects men. 

Speaking to an audience, William said that when he and Princess Kate welcomed children of their own - Prince George, 5, Princess Charlotte, 3, and Prince Louis, 7-months, he felt overwhelmed by his job within the Air Ambulance Service and his own family life. He rescued many families at work whose stories stuck with him.

“The relation between the job and the personal life was what really took me over the edge. And I started feeling things that I’ve never felt before," he explained.  "And I got very sad and very down about this particular family,” he said. “You start to take away bits of the job and keep them in your body. And of course, you don’t want to share with your loved ones because you just don’t want to bring that sort of stuff home.”

He added, “So the only place you can talk about it is at work and if you don’t necessarily have the right tools or the right environment at work, you can see why things can snowball and get quite bad.”

Afterwards, his friend and fellow mental health advocate Neil Laybourn said that the prince's speech had been an extraordinary step forward.

“What the Duke said today took everyone by surprise. Being a guy and being socially conditioned, whether you’re in the royal family or not, to keep in your feelings and then beat that to speak about them is great," he said.

He added, “It’s quite something for him, in his position, to say, ‘You’re not infallible.’ People need that inspiration from leaders and they need to hear it from someone like Prince William.”

Prince William and Prince Harry have been very open recently about the issue of mental health with both of them admitting that they struggled following the death of their mother, Princess Diana. 

William has also been vocal about how hard parenthood can be for him - with such a young family.