Prince William received a lot of press this week for his four-day trip to South Africa in honor of the annual Earthshot Prize Awards. His A-list picnic with Heidi Klum, Winnie Harlow, Billy Porter, and rapper Tobe Nwigwe generated plenty of attention, but one of celebrities might have spilled the tea about the Prince of Wales’ behind-the-scenes PR strategy.
It seems that Klum revealed that her participation in the event was more of a celebrity stunt than anything else. A royal accountant on X noticed the publicity stumble in a Nov. 6 interview from the green carpet at the awards show. “I have to be honest; I had never heard of this before, and it was really when Prince William’s team came to me and asked me if I would want to join [up] and come to South Africa,” Klum said in the clip.
The X account added their own thoughts to the awkward moment, describing it as “embarrassing,” especially since Klum unintentionally made it sound like she came for the free trip to South Africa. Based on the publicity photos released to the public, it looks the trip was an opportunity for the Prince of Wales to get the message out about his charity. With Kate Middleton still healing from her cancer treatment, he needed star power. Still, Klum’s less-than-smooth response is making a few fans question how genuine the celebrities’ participation in the event was.
Of course, social media users had plenty of thoughts to share. One X account wrote, “She’s like ‘Can you tell me why I’m here?'” Another user added, “Sounds like Willy is having his staff go round begging celebs to turn up at his Earthshot. How much are they being paid to turn up?” Another critic said, ” It’s willy’s vanity project and he just front loads it with celebrities to make it seem like it has support from influential people. Meanwhile, the “influential people” don’t know anything about this circus.”
But Klum seemed to redeem herself with a People interview at the same event, offering insight on what she learned from the trip. “I learned so many new things. Who knew there was sustainable fishing?”
“I’m so honored to go with him to this place to learn about sustainable fishing. I knew our waters are overfished and they’re polluted and all of these horrible things. But I didn’t know about sustainable fishing,” she added. “I love that I get to learn more things and hopefully be better in the future. Also, I love doing my part. We should all do our part.”
Klum’s new knowledge is probably a win for Prince William and his Earthshot initiative in the end.
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