Prince William says celebrities refused to help with mental health charity

Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister of New Zealand, listens as Britain's Prince William speaks while taking part in the "Mental Health Matters" panel discussion at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019. (AP)

Prince William told a Davos World Economic Forum Wednesday that he approached a lot of celebrities to join him in his Heads Together mental health initiative three years ago but all refused.

"For some reason, people are embarrassed about their emotions - British people particularly," he told the audience at Davos, the BBC reported. He said they didn't want to be associated with mental illness.

He said the wartime generation might have had a hand in creating the stigma surrounding mental health, according to the report. He said past world wars may have set the trend.

GISELE BUNDCHEN SAYS SHE SUFFERED 'CRUSHING SENSE OF ANXIETY'

“A whole generation decided that this was the best way of dealing with it. They then, completely by accident, passed that on to the next generation," he said, according to the Guardian. "So a whole generation inherited [the idea] that this was the way you deal with your problems: you don’t talk about it."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The Duke of Cambridge was at the forum with New Zealand's prime minister Jacinda Ardern, who has also made tackling mental health a priority, the outlets reported.