The Princess of Wales recently shared a very moving moment with a mother whose teenage daughter took her own life as the royal made her an emotional promise.
Kate visited Maidenhead Rugby Club yesterday where she extended her campaign to raise awareness surrounding the importance of the early years of children's lives by focusing on the role of their fathers.
During her visit, she met with Maidenhead under 14s coach Sarah Renton, whose talented sportswoman daughter Issy sadly took her own life when she was just 17.
Upon meeting the Princess, the mum-of-three handed Kate a pair of star-shaped earrings that had been made in memory of Issy by her cousin.
Kate was visibly moved by the gesture and fiercely hugged Mrs Renton as she vowed to wear them, the Mirror reports.
Mrs Renton later explained: "The proceeds from the earrings are going to a charity called Brave Minds, a mental health charity that supports children using the platforms of rugby clubs. Mental health is such an important issue.
"She was wonderful, Issy, a real breath of fresh air. She had wonderful, wonderful friends, surrounded herself with the best people.
"She was owning life, doing so well in her A levels, she was going to do an elite rugby programme, she played touch rugby for England and got a gold medal in the summer.
"But she was also struggling with depression. Everything was harder than it was supposed to be.
"We thought she was obviously doing better than she was. But I think one of the things we are looking at is GPs, medication and lack of support.
"She got herself in a bit of a vacuum. It’s affected a lot of the parents and children here at the club but we are getting through it together.
"The princess said she would wear the earrings. She is very passionate about what she does. It was so great that she came down here today."
Kate's warm behaviour seems to contradict everything that Meghan Markle said about her in the Netflix documentary Harry & Meghan.
Markle claimed that William and Kate were very formal people, even behind closed doors, as the Duchess of Sussex recalled the first time she met the Princess of Wales for a homemade dinner she was "in ripped jeans and barefoot".
Meghan said: "Like I was a hugger, always been a hugger. I didn't realise that that is really jarring for a lot of Brits."
"I guess I'd start to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside, carried through on the inside," she added. "There is a forward-facing way of being and then you close the door and you relax now. But that formality carries over on both sides. And that was surprising to me."
Prince Harry also echoed these claims by insinuating in his book and several interviews that his sister-in-law was quite cold towards him.
However, the Princess seemed quite the opposite in a rugby top, tracksuit bottom and trainers as she greeted the chief executive of the RFU, Nigel Gillingham and Maidenhead's chairman, Steven Bough at the club.
She was also joined by ex player Ugo Monye who is now a champion for her 'Shaping Us' campaign to bring attention to the importance of childhood experiences for under 5s.
Kate was reminded on the pitch that it was "walking only" as she got stuck into a drill and quickly apologised.
The athletic mum-of-three later admitted that it was harder than it looked forcing herself not to run on the blues team.
However, she was still able to leap and twirl as she caught the ball and passed it to her teammate Courtney Lawes who later said she was a "very good" player.
After the game, there was a slight confusion as to who won as both teams tried to declare victory.
Kate then went on to have a sit down chat with a group of players including Lawes and Danny Care to speak to them about their experiences as fathers, along with Si Trower, the founder of mental health charity Brave Mind and other club players.
The Princess questioned: "Do you feel, particularly as a first-time dad, there was information out there to help guide you?"
Mr Trower replied: "Not at the time. But neither did I go out looking for it. It’s a big life change and could be really hard at the time."
Lawes made Kate and the other players laugh as he said: "As a dad for the first six to nine months my misuses was breastfeeding and you feel a bit of a spare part a lot of the time.
"If you knew the first five years of their life was such an important period you would be more likely to dive right into it.
"Instead of thinking, well they’ll get to six or seven and start playing football and then we’ll be sweet!"
Kate explained: "What started my journey looking into the first five years was going into schools, talking to them about mental health.
"The staff were telling me that so much more needs to be done before they even step past their door."
She continued: "So many of those years are non-verbal. Teenagers can articulate how they feel.
"With mental health, so many more people are talking about it, which is great. But we have to be careful not to over-medicalise it.
"That’s why we wanted to focus predominantly on the social and emotional development of young children particularly in this critical period because it’s the foundations of their healthy minds and healthy relationships later down the line."
The royal then asked the players: "Do you feel as parents…because it didn’t come across my radar as a first-time parent…the things we can do to support our children’s social and emotional development?
"There's a lot around breastfeeding, weaning, sleep time, baby’s weight…but I was less aware of the things we could all be doing. It's harder to access that information as a first-time parent."
All the men agreed with Kate as she continued: "There are parents up and down the country who haven’t had positive childhoods of their own and who are struggling with their own kids.
"As well as highlighting the importance of the issue, making sure that families have as much support as possible to do the best possible job they want to do is important.
"Every parent wants to do the best job they possibly can. But they don't have the lifelines of their own family or community places such as this."
Before she left, the sporty royal posed for pictures with the professionals and club players and showed off her fun side as she was jokingly invited to kick a ball over the head of the journalists and photographers.
Kate welcomed the challenge and sent the ball soaring to the sounds of cheers.
Her visit to the club comes as new research from the Princess' Centre for Early Childhood today reveals that 24 per cent identify pregnancy to five years old as the most important period for children which is up 4 per cent from last year but only 14 per cent of men share the same opinion.
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