Prince Harry, Ed Sheeran poke fun at their ginger hair as they share message for World Mental Health Day
Prince Harry and Ed Sheeran poke fun at their ginger hair and their look-alike appearances in a new video on mental health.
The video, released Thursday on World Mental Health Day, opens with Sheeran getting ready to go meet Harry.
When Harry opens the door, the prince quips, "It's like looking in the mirror."
When the two sit down at a table, Sheeran pulls out his laptop and believes he is talking with Harry about an issue they have in common -- being teased for having red hair.
“I’ve been trying to write a song about this to get it out to more people,” the music star tells the Duke of Sussex. “People just don’t understand what it’s like for people like us — with the jokes and the snide comments. I just feel like it’s time we stood up and said, ‘We are ginger, and we are going to fight.’"
Harry then steps in to correct him, saying, "This is slightly awkward," before letting Sheeran know he wanted to talk about World Mental Health Day.
"Yeah of course," Sheeran replies, as the camera moves to show him deleting the phrase "GINGERS UNITE" from his laptop.
Harry and Sheeran then appear side-by-side with a more serious message on mental health.
"Guys, this World Mental Health Day, reach out, make sure that your friends, strangers, look out for anybody that might be suffering in silence," Harry said directly to the camera. "We’re all in this together."
The video was shared on the @SussexRoyal Instagram account Harry shares with his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex.
The post includes links to more than one dozen accounts for mental health and support and the caption, "Both Prince Harry and Ed Sheeran want to ensure that not just today but every day, you look after yourself, your friends and those around you. There’s no need to suffer in silence - share how you’re feeling, ask how someone is doing and listen for the answer. Be willing to ask for help when you need it and know that we are all in this together."
Harry recently joined Meghan and his brother and sister-in-law, Prince William and Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, in narrating a short PSA for a new mental health initiative in the U.K. called Every Mind Matters.
The royals have been outspoken advocates of increasing mental health awareness and breaking the stigma of mental health since launching Heads Together in May 2016.
William and Harry have spoken very candidly since then about the loss of their mother, Princess Diana, in 1997 and how it has affected their mental health in the years since.
"I have probably been very close to a complete breakdown on numerous occasions when all sorts of grief and sort of lies and misconceptions and everything are coming to you from every angle," Harry said in a 2017 interview in which he credited William with encouraging him to seek help. "For me personally, my brother, you know, bless him, he was a huge support to me. He kept saying, 'This is not right, this is not normal, you need to talk to [someone] about stuff, it's OK.'"
Harry and Meghan have also made talking about mental health a focus of their first two official overseas tours as a couple, in Australia last year and in South Africa this month.
The couple joined surfers in Cape Town, South Africa, on Sept. 24 to talk about mental health, revealing they both practice meditation to help keep their mental health strong.
