Soooo much to unpack here. Last nt…it was “just” abt Meghan’s reveal abt her suicidal ideations (I received 17 txt msgs from friends at the same time, along the lines of “are…you…watching…this?”).
So I shared something abt it in Stories, & the plan this morning (which I’ll still do) was to celebrate her vulnerability…but wow, what Piers Morgan said on GMB this morn is utterly disgusting.
After my own crash happened & I started to “come back to life,” it was the middle of 2017. In “my sports world” of celebs, not many had shared at that pt. Not Kevin Love, not DeMar DeRozan. So, one of the few ppl I could look to for inspiration abt how they shared, was Prince Harry.
And if you’ve been following, you know I’m particular, not IF someone shares, but HOW. And Harry shared in a genuine/vulnerable way. He talked abt his “stuff” & not just his label. The loss of his mom, the pressure of keeping appearances, the types of therapies he tried. THAT stuff’s relatable.
And yet, the UK remained at a 30 yr high in suicides well after his share. That wasn’t Harry’s fault. It underscored to me WHY one big celeb name, whether it’s him or Gaga, others, etc. – it’s not enough. We NEED consistency in story telling abt our stuff, to normalize the convo.
Enter Meghan last nt. She didn’t just throw out “suicide.” You could see it was her stuff (her trauma)…the pressure of keeping appearances, the way her race was being question/used as a weapon against her/Harry. Doesn’t matter the celeb- stress & trauma BUILD, & suicidal thoughts are often a result of that build; rich or poor.
So I was all ready to talk abt how the consistent/united front of Harry AND Meghan sharing vulnerably- the actual details, would move the convo forward in a BIG way, & then Piers opened his yap this morn.
He shed doubt by blindly defending The Royal Family in asking abt Meghan: “Who’d you go to? What’d they say to you? I’m sorry, I don’t believe a word she said. I wouldn’t believe it if she read me a weather report. I’m angry to the point of bawling over today. I’m sickened by what I just had to watch.”
The very station that Piers is on, runs a “Britain Get Talking,” campaign. Little bit of a contradiction? Sound at all familiar to the campaign Theo & I question all the time: Bells Let’s Talk? You can’t have campaigns just blankety asking ppl to TALK, if underlying it, the masses don’t know what we’re asking ppl to talk about. And Piers & his ignorance proved that. When you just tell ppl to “talk,” the belief is – it’s for the “real ppl who have ‘real’ mental illness” to talk on THAT day. This is SO wrong. That’s not what’s needed. What’s needed is an openness to talk about our STUFF, everyday. All of us, all of it. Stress/Trauma impacts us ALL, #5in5. Till we communicate that, this doesn’t get better.
