Since this is #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek I wanted to talk a little about a lady who has really helped me a lot with #mentalhealth over the years - Sarah, Duchess of York!

I read her autobiography "My Story" as a teenager & was struck by the honesty with which she talked about issues of body-image and self-esteem.
Some people may not remember how viciously Sarah was body-shamed by the tabloids, including disgusting headlines like "Duchess of Pork"

She was brutally honest about how this made her feel. Also about how she'd suffered as a teen with her parents split, which also struck a chord with me. Plus the sense of feeling inadequate to her position as a Royal, feeling she'd let others down with the mistakes she had made.

In her later books and interviews she never hid that for all her successes as an author, businesswoman, charity campaigner and mother, she still had to work on the same issues, as an ongoing process. "I am a work in progress", she said.

Sarah also gave us tools and techniques - about the power of the mind, how we can learn to control our negative feelings, to "choose to be happy". About the power of meditation & mindfulness for #mentalhealth . Particularly in the book, Finding Sarah, these are powerful messages.

I love that other royals such as the Cambridges and Prince Harry are also being open about #mentalhealth . It's a hard thing to talk about for anyone, especially for a public figure. But by doing so, they inspire all of us to open up, & they remove the stigma around this issue.

Through most of my life, Sarah has been a role model to me, and this honesty, this way of facing what you feel and looking for ways to cope with it, this openness, has been so important to me and has helped me so much.
Thank you, Sarah!