Prince William is a father of three and seems pretty capable and confident as a dad these days, but it wasn’t always that way. When Prince George was born the royal dad was terrified, he admitted this week.

In the new BBC documentary Football, Prince William, and Our Mental Health, the Duke of Cambridge opened up about his experience with fatherhood and how childhood trauma can resurface when you have a child yourself.

“It’s one of the most amazing moments of life, but it’s also one of the scariest,” William says of becoming a father.

He explained: “Having children is the biggest life-changing moment, it really is…I think when you’ve been through something traumatic in life, and that is like you say, your Dad not being around, my mother dying when I was younger, the emotions come back, in leaps and bounds.”

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Prince William wants fellow fathers to understand that those fears and feelings are normal and to normalize getting professional mental health help as well as being open about your mental health with your partner.

“Me and Catherine, particularly, we support each other,” he says. “We go through those moments together and we kind of evolve and learn together.”

The interview was part of the Duke’s Heads Up campaign, a partnership between the Football Association and Public Health England’s Every Mind Matters campaign.

“In life, as in football, we all go through highs and lows,” Prince William says in the PSA for Heads Up . “We can all sometimes feel anxious or stressed. At moments even the little things can seem a struggle. But we can all start to change things.”

He’s changing things for his own kids, and for fellow fathers, too.