Kirsty Wigglesworth/WPA Pool/Getty ImagesPrince Harry gave a moving speech about mental health on Thursday, but one pup in attendance couldn't stop daydreaming about taking a nap.
The Labrador Retriever, Cooper, took the spotlight for a second when he was caught yawning while the royal spoke at the Veterans' Mental Health Conference at King's College London in co-ordinance with his Heads Together mental health campaign.
The pup is an assistant to royal marine Phil Eaglesham, who contracted Q Fever (Helmand Fever) during his third tour in Afghanistan. He said his canine pal is a great sidekick to help with his illness.
"[Cooper] takes away some of the stigma that people have about coming up and speaking to me because I am in a wheelchair," he explained.
But adorable, yawning pups aside, the very serious topic of discussion at the event was dedicated to changing that stigma surrounding veterans and mental health.
"It is incredibly difficult to talk about mental health in the armed forces. It is still a very difficult conversation," Prince Harry—who served as an army officer for 10 years and was deployed to Afghanistan twice—told the crowd. "As a military person, once you put that uniform on during your training, you are taught to be invincible and not to let anybody down."
However, he noted that after serving, a lot of veterans "prefer turning to alcohol rather than a friend," in order to avoid the "stigma" attached to mental health.
"We need to improve the conversation," Harry begged the crowd. "We all have mental health in the same way we all have physical health."
He added, "I am saying at this time to all the military people in this room and beyond—it is OK to have depression, it is OK to have anxiety and it is OK to have an adjustment disorder."