Prince William appears to reference Princess Diana and Prince Harry on mental health chat

Prince William and Kate, Princess of Wales, arrive for a visit in Wales. Photo / AP

Prince William appeared to make reference to the death of his mother Princess Diana and his falling out with his brother Prince Harry on a radio show about mental health.

The Prince and Princess of Wales were recording a discussion for BBC Radio 1 when he spoke of how unprepared people can be for a sudden change in their lives.

"A lot of the work we've done on mental health and listening to lots of people talk about it, is everyone likes a toolbox - particularly for men. A toolbox is quite a useful analogy to kind of use," he said.

"Big family networks and support networks around people are really important, but a lot of people don't realise what they need until it actually comes along.

"You can be living one life one minute and something massively changes and you realise you don't necessarily have the tools or the experience to be able to tackle that."

William's life was changed forever in 1997 when Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris. He was just 15 years old at the time.

More recently, the deterioration of his relationship with Harry has seen the brothers go from being best mates to barely being on speaking terms.

William and Kate continued the discussion by asking campaigners about how best to deal with mental health issues.

The Princess of Wales said: "One of the messages we are trying to encourage is the fact that everyone has mental health, and in the same way as their physical health we have to look after, in the same way we go to the gym, we need to look after and nurture our minds as well.

"You were saying it's really important to reach out and connect with people. Some people actually, expression through music or through art or through other forms of expression, it's a really great way isn't it of experiencing mental health."

William later said: "Well as we've said at the start of this special Newsbeat [news programme], this is all about having a meaningful conversation on mental health, but it shouldn't stop here."

Kate replied: "Yep, absolutely, because talking about mental health is so important and it's definitely the first step for us all, is to keep talking, having those conversations and reaching out for help."