Why do famous people like Prince Andrew blame all their problems on mental health? It’s an insult to real sufferers
OF all the questions asked about the sordid Jeffrey Epstein affair, until now no one had asked the most important: Is Prince Andrew OK? And no, he has told us, he is not.
Finding himself amid a horrifying story of under-aged girls trafficked for sex, Prince Andrew seized the opportunity to bravely address his own psychological wellbeing.
Fearlessly revealing that having dinner parties, shooting weekends and townhouse visits with his paedophile friend had become “almost a mental health issue” for him.
How very moving. Can a royal ever have suffered more acute psychological distress? Poor Andrew’s trauma makes King George III’s malady look like mere attention-seeking.
It’s hard to know what Andrew hoped the impact of highlighting his mental health would be. As he grasped at the buzz words, even he looked unconvinced.
Perhaps he really did intend to nobly de-stigmatise mental health issues. More likely, he believed muttering the words “mental health issue” would magically absolve him of any responsibility.
Prince Andrew turned to “mental health issues” less as a diagnosis and more as a protective forcefield to shield himself from recrimination.
Like so many other celebrities now, he saw “mental health issues” as an “abracadabra” — say the words and blame vanishes.
SO WELL-REHEARSED
Are you a politician who’s been caught sexting? You must be suffering a manic episode. A Hollywood mogul accused of sex attacks? How terrible — you’re a struggling male nymphomaniac.
A presenter up on a drink- driving charge? Why clearly, you’re bravely battling addiction. Take a few weeks out in The Priory and soon you’ll be back for the ITV Christmas bash.
Mental health has become the new go-to for celebrities, a clever method of flipping the narrative so instead of taking responsibility for their actions they demand public sensitivity instead.
It’s a formula so well-rehearsed (and often so successful) that now celebrities clamour to claim a mental health problem to make their bad behaviour vanish.
It’s almost astounding, the number of famous people suddenly self-diagnosed with a mental health issue at exactly the moment they’re caught red-handed.
Remember Keith Vaz, heart-breakingly hospitalised with a “serious mental health condition”, which entirely coincidentally emerged after he was caught procuring rent boys whom he offered to buy cocaine for while pretending to be a washing machine salesman named Jim.
Vaz must be relieved his penchant for East European sex workers was revealed, or he’d never have had the chance to seek help.
SELF-DIAGNOSED
Then there was MP Andrew Griffiths, who justified the thousands of obscene messages he sent two women by presenting a moving testimony about his struggle with mental health. Nobly confessing the grossly explicit, demeaning messages he’d sent were the result of his “battle with my own mental health”.
When ex-Emmerdale actress Roxanne Pallett was caught pretending she’d been punched by Corrie actor Ryan Thomas on Celebrity Big Brother last year, it was explained that she wasn’t a pathological liar but instead simply coping with a panic disorder and PTSD, perhaps triggered by having lost the British Soap Awards’ “Sexiest Female” prize.
Then just last week, when blogger Clemmie Hooper — aka Mother of Daughters — was discovered anonymously gossiping about her friends online, it turned out she wasn’t just slagging off her mates but in fact bravely struggling with paranoia.
The startling frequency with which mental issues befall celebs just in the moment they are disgraced makes you wonder who might suddenly discover they have a mental health issue next.
Maybe Boris isn’t a serial philanderer after all but a brave sufferer of O.S.D. (Obsessive Shagging Disorder)? Deserving not of condemnation but support?
Similarly will it emerge that, far from being guilty of institutional anti-semitism, in fact Jeremy Corbyn is struggling instead with Jewish Post traumatic stress disorder?
(A syndrome in which symptoms include terrible taste in art and a compulsion to befriend terrorists).
Too often celebrities’ myopic focus on their “mental health issues” also reveal a worrying lack of perspective.
UNIMAGINABLE PRIVILEGE
Which is why when Meghan Markle and Prince Harry — who should know a thing or two about how to promote mental health awareness with his links to the Heads Together campaign — used a documentary about Africa to dwell on their psychological “struggle”, many felt uncomfortable.
It also seemed worryingly like a way for the couple, who live lives of unimaginable privilege, to avoid addressing legitimate criticism. Of course, people dealing with serious mental issues deserve real sympathy, understanding and professional help.
That’s exactly why the trend of celebrities using “mental health issues” as an excuse appalls me so much. Because it undermines the real sufferers, minimising their problems and mocking their desperation.
One in four people will experience a genuine mental health problem this year, according to the charity Mind. And one in six people experiences anxiety and depression in any given week.
As for Prince Andrew, exactly which mental health issue he’s suffering from he didn’t say. We can only guess. Could it be CHD? Compulsive Honourability Disorder.
MOST READ IN OPINION
Po-po-phobia? An irrational fear of the police. Or perhaps eagle-eyed sofa-psychiatrists might note the Duke’s symptoms — photo- graphic amnesia, total-wardrobe recall and an inability to sweat — seem to fit the criteria for hyper-bulls**temia.
Personally, I reckon the only mental health disorder Prince Andrew has is PTSD from having once been forced to dine in Woking’s Pizza Express.
That, and a narcissism so profound that not once has the Duke seen past his own “suffering” to express any concern for the impact of Epstein’s actions on the billionaire’s real victims.
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