Prince Harry told Nigerian students that it was “OK not to be OK” during a mental health summit on Friday.
The British royal and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex arrived in Abuja on Friday for the start of their three-day visit to Nigeria.
They began their packed schedule with a tour of Lightway Academy, where they met with students and gave speeches to kick off the school’s two-day mental health summit.
During his speech, the Duke of Sussex told the children there was “no shame” in acknowledging you’ve had a bad day or feel stressed.
“The more you talk about it, the more you can kick it in the long grass,” he said, reports BBC News.
The 39-year-old made the students promise to speak up about their mental health and check in on others.
“If you see your friend in your class not smiling, what are you going to do? Are you going to check in on them? Are you going to ask if they’re OK? Because it’s OK not to be OK,” he concluded his speech.
After he gave the microphone to Meghan, she joked, “Do you see why I married him? He’s so smart. So smart and so inspiring because he speaks the truth.”
Lightway Academy’s School Director, Joyce Agbese, praised Harry for helping break the stigma surrounding mental health, a topic she said was not often discussed in Nigeria.
“We want to encourage them to speak out, speak up, express their emotions in the right way,” she told the publication. “When somebody this popular or this famous speaks about mental health it makes people realise that it’s normal and so they don’t have to be afraid to talk about it.”
During their visit of the school, Meghan also told students that their two-year-old daughter Lilibet loved dance class and their five-year-old son Archie liked construction.
The couple’s trip to Nigeria is connected to the Invictus Games, Harry’s sporting event for injured veterans.
He celebrated the 10th anniversary of the games at St Paul’s Cathedral in London earlier this week.
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