Hannah Waddingham is all smiles with Prince William a week after M&S Christmas advert backlash

Hannah Waddingham and Prince William linked up for the 2023 Earthshot Prize Awards ceremony in Singapore on Tuesday.

There are five winners in all, with significant contributions to environmentalism being rewarded in the form of a £1 million grant to continue their work. Ahead of the event, Ted Lasso favourite Hannah, 49, was snapped on the green carpet along with the Prince of Wales, 41, This Is Us actor Sterling K. Brown, and double Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett.

Following her incredible Eurovision Song Contest presentation run earlier this year, Hannah was reportedly at the top of William's wish list when picking celebrities to promote Earthshot. She is primed to introduce musical entertainment from the bands Bastille and OneRepublic on stage, too.



Back when her involvement was originally announced, Hannah excitedly shared in a statement: "The work of the 2023 Prize Finalists is a hopeful reminder of the power of optimism, innovation and human ingenuity. It is an enormous honour to be joining forces with the Prince of Wales for this exciting evening and to play a part in sharing the finalists' inspiring stories and solutions with the world."

Nightmare Alley and The Lord of the Rings star Cate, 54, went on to comment: "The Earthshot Prize is, again, highlighting and incentivising courageous, progressive and inventive solutions that can be rapidly upscaled. We don't have time for inaction and despair, and the incredible climate solutions from around the globe are cause for genuine hope.

"The climate solutions showcased by the prize are wildly exciting – exciting because they are so simple, so possible, and so inevitable. The solutions are game-changing, and like all truly game-changing ideas, they have a strange 'how could we not have thought and implemented this before?!' quality."

Son of the late, great wildlife documentarian Steve Irwin, Earthshot advocate Robert Irwin will also be on hand to congratulate the winners.

At the ceremony itself, the 19 year old had high praise for the British royal, saying: "I think Prince William is an incredibly inspiring leader in the field of conservation. He's making environmental issues mainstream, and he's showing us not only the issues that are facing the world but most importantly, the positive change that is being made and the hope that we have for the future."

Earthshot will provide a welcome distraction for Hannah, whose festive Marks & Spencer advert was publicly pulverised for some of its imagery, including the burning of green, white and red paper hats – colours associated with the Palestinian flag.

"This is absolutely vile you should be ashamed of yourselves" and "Absolutely disgusting. Even if it was recorded in August you should have reshot this image or used technology to make changes. Shame on you!!!" read a couple of social media responses.

In a statement released shortly after this outrage, a spokesperson for the retailer said: "Today we shared an outtake image from our Christmas Clothing and Home advert, which was recorded in August. It showed festive coloured red, green and silver party hats in a fire grate. While the intent was to playfully show that some people just don't enjoy wearing paper Christmas hats over the festive season, we have removed the post following feedback and we apologise for any unintentional hurt caused."

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