Meghan Markle reached out to Naomi Osaka amid tennis star’s mental health struggles

Tennis ace Naomi Osaka has revealed that Meghan Markle reached out to her after she stepped down from the French Open.

The Duchess of Sussex is one of many famous faces who expressed support for the young tennis star after she quit amid the controversy over her press briefings.

Osaka, 23, said that she had an outpouring of support from people in the public eye including Michelle Obama and fellow sports stars Michael Phelps, Steph Curry and Novak Djokovic.

Writing a piece for Time magazinefor an Olympic preview issue, the athlete spoke about her decision to boycott media conferences during the French Open, having tweeted that she found the briefings like “kicking a person while they’re down”.

“There can be moments for any of us where we are dealing with issues behind the scenes. Each of us as humans is going through something on some level,” Osaka said.

“It has become apparent to me that literally everyone either suffers from issues related to their mental health or knows someone who does.

“I do hope that people can relate and understand it’s OK to not be OK, and it’s OK to talk about it.”

And she revealed she had received a swell of support from big names, including Meghan.

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Meghan, 39, had revealed just over two months before Osaka’s game that she herself had struggled with mental health.

Speaking in an explosive interview with Oprah Winfrey, the Duchess of Sussex opened up about her own experience with depression, saying she had also faced suicidal thoughts.

Meghan broke down in tears as she revealed she told Prince Harry she “didn’t want to be alive any more” and had suicidal thoughts in the shocking tell-all interview.

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And the Duke of Sussex told Oprah in a new doc, The Me You Can’t See, that what stopped his wife from giving in to suicidal was how “unfair” it would be to him after the death of his mum Princess Diana in 1997.

The Duchess of Sussex said she begged for help from The Firm after struggling with her mental health – saying it was her husband who “saved” her.

And just months after Meghan‘s interview, Osaka found herself in the middle of a storm in May after she refused to attend a press conference at the French Open for mental health reasons.

She pulled out of the tournament and has also skipped Wimbledon, and has since revealed that she struggles with depression and anxiety.

And Osaka said she wanted to see more support offered to athletes after her own experience in May.

In the cover issue of Time, Osaka has called for sports stars to be allowed to use “sick days” in order to normalise skipping press conferences without having to explain themselves.

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She also pointed out that personal or mental health days are given to workers in most other industries, and that it would bring sport “in line” with the rest of society.

She will return to competition at the Tokyo Olympics, which open July 23, and where she will represent her native Japan.

The four-time Grand Slam champion said: “I have numerous suggestions to offer the tennis hierarchy.

“But my No. 1 suggestion would be to allow a small number of ‘sick days’ per year where you are excused from your press commitments without having to disclose your personal reasons.

“In any other line of work, you would be forgiven for taking a personal day here and there, so long as it’s not habitual.

“You wouldn’t have to divulge your most personal symptoms to your employer; there would likely be HR measures protecting at least some level of privacy.”

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission