Kate Middleton and Prince William arrive in West Midlands for mental health visits

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The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge got stuck into a number of activities on a visit to a youth charity in Wolverhampton today. 

Sporty Kate, 39, was in her element as she took part in an archery session and went head-to-head with William in table tennis on a visit to The Way Youth Zone in Wolverhampton.

Meanwhile William, 38, gamely showed off his football skills with a series of keepy uppies – and jokingly blamed his formal footwear when he couldn’t take keep control of the ball.    

The couple also shared a joke as they tried their hand at re-potting pot plants at a gardening station.  

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are carrying out a number of engagements in the West Midlands today as part of their efforts to mark Mental Health Awareness Week.  

The outing comes as Prince Harry compared his life to ‘The Truman Show’ and said he feels like an animal in a zoo in an wide-ranging interview on mental health with Hollywood podcast host Dax Shepard. 

Kate, who has made children’s mental health and childhood development the cornerstone of her royal work, looked elegant in a silk Tory Burch polka dot blouse and black wide-leg trousers.  

Typically elegant, the Duchess of Cambridge accessorised with a simple clutch bag, delicate £95 Freya Rose drop earrings and a floral face mask. She finished the outfit with a navy blue Catherine Walker coat and suede wedges. 

Dressing to match, Prince William looked smart in chinos, a shirt, jumper and blazer. 

The Duke and Duchess joined a group of young people who use The Way’s services as they took part in a number of wellbeing sessions and met a group of HeadStart ambassadors.  

Tomorrow the couple will lead influential voices from around the world in the Mental Health Minute – a special message broadcast each year to over 20 million people across 500 radio stations.

The initiative, created by Radiocentre and Somethin’ Else, and delivered in partnership with The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, will support Shout 85258, the UK’s first free, confidential, 24/7 text messaging support service. 

Shout was researched and developed by The Royal Foundation as a legacy of the Heads Together campaign and launched in May 2019 by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and The Duke and Duchess of Sussex. 

The service provides round the clock support from clinical supervisors and trained volunteers to ensure that no one has to face their problems alone.  

Meanwhile Prince Harry poured his heart out to a US mental health podcast where he admitted to hating royal life so much he wanted to quit in his ‘early 20s’ because of his mother’s death and revealed that his Meghan had concluded: ‘You don’t need to be a princess’.  

The Duke of Sussex told Dax Shepard’s ‘Armchair Expert’ show that the couple tried to stay ‘incognito’ during his wife’s first trip to stay with him in London in 2016, where he lived at Kensington Palace, texting items for their shopping list from across food aisles.

Harry also compared his life as a mixture of The Truman Show – when Jim Carrey’s character discovers his life is a TV show – and being an animal at the zoo as he discussed his mental health and listeners insisted he is developing an american twang to his British accent.

When asked if he felt ‘in a cage’ while in royal duties, he said: ‘It’s the job right? Grin and bear it. Get on with it. I was in my early twenties and I was thinking I don’t want this job, I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to be doing this. Look what it did to my mum, how am I ever going to settle down and have a wife and family when I know it’s going to happen again’.

He added: ‘I’ve seen behind the curtain, I’ve seen the business model and seen how this whole thing works and I don’t want to be part of this’, before revealing he had therapy after meeting Meghan, which ‘burst’ a bubble and he decided to ‘stop complaining’.