Celebrity
Prince Harry Is “Like A Coach” To Serena Williams, Apparently
The sporting star and the Duke of Sussex opened up about their experience of burn out during a BetterUp event.
Burnout – a state of physical and emotional exhaustion – can happen to anyone, at any time. And it seems that the world’s top sports stars, and even British royalty, aren’t immune to the pressures of modern life. Prince Harry has opened up about his struggles with burnout in a new discussion with tennis ace Serena Williams and mental health startup founder Alexi Robichaux.
A long-time advocate for mental health, Prince Harry spoke about “getting to the very end of everything I had” in the candid conversation with Williams. The live stream was hosted by BetterUp, a mental health company the Duke joined as Chief Impact Officer in 2021.
Prince Harry revealed he had previously been “burning the candle at both ends,” and admitted that self-care can be “the first thing that drops away” when life becomes busy, but encouraged viewers about the importance of self-care.
Speaking about his life in Montecito, California, where he lives with Meghan and their two children, Harry revealed he now tries to carve out time for self-care meditation on a daily basis. “I now put in about half an hour, 45 minutes, in the morning when it’s like ‘OK, one of the kids has gone to school, the other one is taking a nap, there’s a break in our programme’,” he said. “It’s either for workout, take the dog for a walk, get out in nature, maybe meditate.”
“I’m the same as Serena, I know that I need to meditate every single day,” he added. “I don't have it sorted, Serena doesn't have it sorted, none of us have it sorted.”
During the conversation, Williams said the close friends would talk for “hours”, and that the prince was like a “coach” to her. “[He’s] always solving all my life’s problems,” the 23-time Grand Slam champion revealed.
BetterUp connects users with coaches to encourage “long-term professional development and drive personal growth”, offering regular sessions with mental health coaches to individuals for $279 a month. “I can’t wait for BetterUp to be in that position to be able to make it even more accessible to people — so every single person, anywhere around the world, has access to a BetterUp coach,” Prince Harry added. “The biggest challenge that we’re going to have is finding enough coaches, because the demand is there, the need is there.”
