Duchess of Cambridge opens her home to guest edit Huffington Post

The Duchess of Cambridge photographed at her home Kensington Palace. / Getty

Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge has opened her home at Kensington Palace and used a guest editorship at a U.K. news website to launch a new campaign to help children struggling with mental health problems. She has dubbed the room, the "newsroom".


The Duchess of Cambridge in the Kensington Palace "newsroom" with Huffington Post's James Martin and Steven Hull. / Getty


Prince William's wife took on guest editing duties at the Huffington Post U.K. on Wednesday, and is using her role in the editor's chair to launch the Young Minds Matter initiative, aimed at examining the causes of and solutions to mental health problems in children.


The Duchess of Cambridge arrives in the "newsroom" with HP editor-in-chief Steven Hull. / Getty

The British royal is joining journalists from the website in a temporary newsroom set up at her Kensington Palace home, from where they are publishing a series of articles about organisations and individuals affected by the issue.


The Princess with Solei Neil-Brown, Kiera Mullins, Haydan Pearce and Joshua Hogan outside her home. The children are from the 'Real Truth' video blog. / Getty

Writing in a blogpost, the Duchess described how she has worked extensively with mental health charities since marrying into Britain's royal family and how it has affected her.


The Duchess inside her Kensington Palace newsroom and HP senior managers James Martin and Steven Hull. / Getty

"Shortly after I got married, I started working with charities helping those affected by issues such as addiction, family breakdown and vulnerable children," she writes.

"As was to be expected, I often heard some heart-breaking stories about lives that had been torn apart, with devastating impacts for all involved, particularly children.

The Duchess of Cambridge inside her home with Huffington Post staff and the new initiative. / Getty

 

"What I did not expect was to see that time and time again, the issues that led people to addiction and destructive decision making seemed to almost always stem from unresolved childhood challenges.

"It became clear to me that many children - even those younger than five - have to deal with complex problems without the emotional resilience, language or confidence to ask for help. And it was also clear that with mental health problems still being such a taboo, many adults are often too afraid to ask for help for the children in their care.”

The Princess talks with Solei Neil-Brown and Keira Mullins. / Getty

 

In the post, she also calls for mental health to be seen to be as important as physical health and issues a call for attitudes to be transformed, writing, "It is time for this to change."