Remember Prince William’s trip to New York last fall? It was basically Huevo’s attempt at a “revenge tour,” only it could have been an email. He ordered his wife to stay home so he could get all of the attention. He did a photo-op at a New York fire station. He lied about going for a run in Central Park. He tried to get a photo-op with Mayor Eric Adams, who canceled at the last minute. He got a very quick photo-op with the UN Secretary General, part of a cattle call of statesman wannabes who want a photo to show that they “took meetings at the UN.” Even more bizarre, William’s staff arranged a “meeting” with Ecuador’s President Lasso at the British Consul General’s apartment (located in a building across from the UN) and then announced that William “held an audience with President of Ecuador, Lasso Mendoza at the UN General Assembly.” President Biden was in town, speaking at the General Assembly. William wasn’t there. He was in some conference room at the Plaza, looking awkward and hateful.
Why this walk down memory lane? Well, it might happen again. The whole reason for William’s pathetic “I wanna be a global statesman like HARRY” visit to NYC last year was that he staged this sad little “Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit.” Which, again, could have been an email instead of a costly and wasteful PR-related flight to New York. Well, William hasn’t confirmed his appearance at this year’s summit, but I imagine he will move heaven and earth to try this “statesman” thing yet again.
Prince William’s Earthshot Prize is returning stateside! On July 30, the Earthshot Prize and Bloomberg Philanthropies announced that they will co-host the third annual Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit on Sept. 24 in New York City. The Prince of Wales, 42, launched the contest in 2020 to promote impactful approaches to the world’s most pressing environmental challenges, with plans to award $1 million Earthshot Prizes in five flagship categories annually until 2030.
It remains uncertain whether Prince William will attend the event this year as he did in 2023. The late September date falls after his children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis return to school following the summer holidays. Additionally, no expectations have been set for Kate Middleton’s return to public work as she continues cancer treatment.
Continuing tradition, the cohort of 15 finalists for the next Earthshot Prize will be revealed at the meeting. It was previously confirmed that the awards ceremony for the fourth cycle of Prince William’s prestigious environmental prize will be held in Cape Town, South Africa, in November, setting the stage for the news to be a highlight of the summit.
The “no expectations have been set for Kate Middleton’s return to public work” thing reminded me that it was actually a big deal in the British media last year that Kate skipped the New York trip AND the Earthshot Prize ceremony in Singapore. Now that we’ve seen how everything has panned out this year, I feel certain that A) Kate was already having health issues last year and they were withholding that information and B) Kensington Palace already had a plan in place and that’s why they were already telegraphing that William would be doing a lot of stuff solo from now on. All of which to say, of course William will come to New York again in September. I cannot wait to see what kind of silly stunts he tries to pull this year.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, Backgrid.