Hannah Waddingham made a cheeky quip to Prince William during an Earthshot Prize panel session in London today, which left the future King in a fit of laughter.
The Ted Lasso star, 49, was leading the discussion with CEO Hannah Jones, trustee Tokunboh Ishmael and Prince William today, as they discussed the prestigious environmental award.
As the father-of-three was giving an answer to her question, Waddingham then saw an opportunity to lighten the mood with her quickfire answer.
The Prince of Wales said: ‘I always say to the [team] what’s the next thing? What are we doing? And Hannah [Jones], over the past four years she’s been not only flying the plane, she’s been building it, serving drinks and also providing all the emergency exits and landing it.’
However before William could finish his sentence, Waddingham interjected and said: ‘It’s because she’s a woman [sir],’ which was met with a round of applause from the room.
The Ted Lasso star, 49, was leading the discussion with CEO Hannah Jones (dressed in pink), trustee Tokunboh Ishmael (dressed in red) and Prince William today
Prince William was in a fit of laughter today as Hannah Waddingham responded with a quickfire answer
This seemed to tickle the Prince of Wales who then responded: ‘She is,’ before chuckling with the actress.
Panellist Tokunboh Ishmael then chimed in and said: ‘She can multitask!’
The event, called the Stories of Impact, heard updates from Earthshot Prize finalists ahead of the awards ceremony which will be held in Cape Town for the first time this November.
When Prince William and Hannah Waddingham first met each other at the talk, William could be heard saying: ‘Congratulations on The Fall Guy.’
‘Oh did you see it,’ she asked, before the pair started talking about the stunts in the film. Waddingham then told William: ‘Don’t spoil it!’
The 42-year-old then put his hand over his mouth before apologising but the actress found it hilarious and continued laughing at his blunder.
He then asked her if she enjoyed filming it, to which she said: ‘I loved it.’
The feisty actress also hit back at Mike Bloomberg who pronounced her name wrong during the talk and instead introduced her as Hannah ‘Wanningham’.
Hannah Waddingham also told Prince William not to spoil Fall Guy as the pair chatted about it
Hannah Waddingham, who was dressed in a stripy frock, is pictured chatting to Prince William today
The event, called the Stories of Impact, heard updates from Earthshot Prize finalists ahead of the awards ceremony which will be held in Cape Town for the first time this November
As she took to the stage, the mother-of-one said whilst chuckling: ‘Hello, hello, thank you very much, Hannah WADD-ingham. Let’s just get that right for a start.’
As the event kicked off, Waddingham, who hosted the Earthshot awards ceremony in Singapore last year asked Prince William about when he first had the idea of creating a prize.
‘It was a lonely place to start with. I sat wondering for quite a while whether this was going to work and whether a prize was the right way of doing it.
‘But the more I thought about it, the more I chatted with my team at the time, we sort of picked it apart and thought about it, the more I thought hope, optimism, urgency, action, those are the kind of key buzzwords we needed to kind of put together. And so a prize format came out of that.’
‘I felt for a long time that the climate debate and the environmental debate was getting very negative, very doom and gloom, and I wanted to inspire that hope and optimism that we could do stuff.
‘And I knew all these people existed, I’d met them through the work I do.’
When William founded the Earthshot Prize environmental award in 2020, he did so with the 10-year mission to find ways to protect and repair the environment with innovative solutions.
William founded the Earthshot Prize environmental award in 2020, pictured with CEO Hannah Jones
Prince William is pictured with Mike Bloomberg (left), Stella McCartney (centre) Hannah Waddingham (fourth from left and Hannah Jones (far right)
The feisty actress also hit back at Mike Bloomberg who pronounced her name wrong and instead introduced her as Hannah ‘Wanningham’ (pictured greeting each other)
Since 2021, the award scheme has handed out £15million of prize money and sourced £50million of further support for 45 winners and finalists.
In March, William warned that it is the ‘critical decade’ to try and set the planet on a ‘healthier’ path to deal with the climate crisis.
He told those gathered, including former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern who is an Earthshot Prize trustee: ‘From businesses, cities and governments; to activists, scientists and innovators, the ideas and ambition to set our planet on a healthier path do already exist. But this is urgent.
‘We are in the critical decade now. And that is why, to have real impact, we must focus on supporting and developing as many solutions as possible and scale them at speed. It is not an easy task.
‘We must overcome the challenge of getting capital to the right sectors, solutions, and geographies.’
