At husband Prince William’s glamorous Earthshot Award in Boston on Friday night, the Princess of Wales welcomed her old friend David Beckham.
Kate, 40, appeared ecstatic to meet the English footballer, who made an unexpected visit at the environmental awareness event.
William, who has known Beckham for a long time due to his job as president of England’s Football Association, seems pleased to see him.
Beckham, like the other celebrities invited to the event, was escorted by police to the site, where he rode in a hybrid car.
He met up with the couple when the Princess of Wales arrived on the ‘green carpet’ in a rented neon green off-the-shoulder gown, bringing the concept of her husband’s eco-friendly Earthshot Prize to life in breathtakingly fashionable form.
Kate definitely went all out for the evening, dubbed as William’s “Super Bowl moment,” deviating from her typically conservative sense of style to steal the show in the eye-catching ensemble.
In keeping with the evening’s theme, the Princess wore a leased Solace London gown, which she obtained through the online designer rental site HURR, which charges between $91 (£74) and $238 (£194) to rent the garment.
While Kate’s borrowed gown was far from the high-fashion outfits she usually wears, she added plenty of glitter to her ensemble with a magnificent diamond-and-emerald necklace originally owned by her late mother-in-law Princess Diana.
Diana received the brilliant art deco necklace, which is estimated to be valued more than $15 million, from the Queen, who inherited it from her grandmother Queen Mary.
Diana wore the necklace on several occasions, including when she attended a dazzling gala in London in 1993, wearing it with a green off-the-shoulder gown, exactly like Kate.
The choker necklace, however, is arguably most known for being worn on Diana’s head during her and then-Prince Charles’ visit to Australia in 1985.
Images emerged at the time showing the then-Prince and Princess of Wales dancing at a banquet in Melbourne, with Diana wearing the extravagant piece of jewelry around her forehead like a headband.
The Princess got the necklace caught on her head while putting it on, and she liked the look so much that she decided to wear it that way for the remainder of the evening.
Kate topped off the appearance with a matching set of $11,375 Asprey diamond-emerald earrings, which she is said to have recycled from her own collection in keeping with the event’s ecological ethos.
Her long brunette hair was fashioned in her trademark loose curls, but she pushed it back behind her ears to highlight the off-the-shoulder design and her brilliant gems.
Kate has decided to wear Diana’s jewelry for the second time; upon her and William’s arrival in the United States on Wednesday, the Princess wore diamond-and-sapphire earrings originally worn by her late mother-in-law.
Meanwhile, William looked dashing in a black tuxedo, pairing it with a dark blue velvet jacket, a black bow tie, and an Omega watch.
The Prince and Princess of Wales were greeted in Hollywood-style when they arrived at the event, with applauding crowds showing their support as they disembarked their hybrid Range Rover – a vehicle particularly selected to meet the eco-friendly purpose of their trip.
Kate and Wills walked down the ‘green carpet,’ stopped a few times to meet with other guests before entering the hall, where they were met with a standing ovation from the other guests.
Earthshot council members John Kerry, Ms Naomi Yamazaki, Hindou Ibrahim, Indra Nooyi, and the program’s CEO Hannah Jones joined them inside.
Similarly, the Princess chose her shoes from her own closet, a pair of stunning Gianvito Rossi heels.
Kate set a great example by wearing the designer shoes she has worn on several occasions in the past, notably at a reception in the Bahamas during the Waleses’ Caribbean tour in March of this year.
The ceremony began with a reference to the “colonists” who arrived in Boston 400 years ago and established on indigenous territories, a similar issue expressed at the Earthshot launch on Wednesday, when Reverend Mariama White-Hammond asked guests to “examine the history of colonialism and racism.”
During her introductory statement at the Earthshot Prize dinner tonight, Elizabeth Solomon, a member of the Ponkapoag tribe in Massachusetts, highlighted indigenous issues.
‘Today, we are assembled in Native space and on the native territories of the Massachusetts Tribe,’ she said. ‘Please treat our lands and rivers with the respect they deserve.
‘Boston Harbor was dry land 10,000 years ago, and we were here.’ We came here 1,000 years ago when much of what is today known as Boston was not land but water. We were here 400 years ago when colonists arrived to take our country.’
A performance followed the concert by singing sister combo Chloe x Halle, the latter of whom is due to feature in the forthcoming live-action Disney adaptation of The Little Mermaid.
The twins sang Nina Simone’s Feeling Good in front of a star-studded audience, including Annie Lennox, David Beckham, Shailene Woodley, and Rami Malek.
William then approached the stage to deliver his own address, in which he praised the people of Boston for their enthusiastic reception of the Earthshot Prize, before paying respect to John F. Kennedy, whose daughter Caroline and grandson Jack Schlossberg were in attendance.
‘We at the Earthshot Prize are all very appreciative for the reception we’ve had this evening here in Boston throughout the last several days,’ the Prince said.
‘When I established this reward in 2020, I hoped to capture the same spirit of innovation that drove President John F. Kennedy to challenge the American people to put a man on the moon within a decade.’
‘As a result, it’s been a pleasure to share the tales of our Earthshot winners and finalists from the heart of his community,’ he says.
The prince then urged participants to draw inspiration from the event’s winners and finalists in order to discover their own approaches to fight climate change.
‘I believe the Earthshot solutions you’ve seen this evening demonstrate that we can conquer our planet’s most difficult issues,’ he concluded. ‘We can influence our future by supporting and growing them.’
‘Along with tonight’s winners and finalists, and those still to be identified in the coming years, it is my desire that the Earthshot legacy will continue to flourish, assisting our communities and our planet in thriving.’
‘In the same manner that the space endeavor six decades ago produced employment, strengthened economies, and brought hope, so may the solutions birthed of tonight’s Earthshot Prize winners,’ the Prince added.
‘The decisions we make now will effect future generations, therefore we must pick the road of hope, optimism, and haste to heal our world.’
At the evening’s ceremony, five winners were named, one for each of the event’s categories: Clean our Air, Protect and Restore Nature, Revive our Oceans, Build a Waste-Free World, and Fix our Climate. Each of the five prize winners received $1.2 million (£1 million).
In the waste-free category, a finalist from the United Kingdom was picked as the winner: Notpla Hard Material, a London-based start-up led by Pierre Paslier and Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez.
As an alternative to single-use plastic, it creates packaging from seaweed and plants, and it has already manufactured over one million biodegradable takeout food boxes for the company Just Eat.
Mukuru Clean Stoves, a Kenya-based start-up that distributes cleaner-burning stoves to women in the nation to minimize dangerous indoor pollution, won the Air category, while Indigenous Women of the Great Barrier Reef, an Australian project, won the Ocean category.
Khetyi from India won the Nature category for its work with local smallholder farmers to cut costs, enhance yields, and safeguard livelihoods, while 44.01 from Oman won the Climate category for its innovative technology that converts CO2 into rock.
Several A-list guests, including Shailene, Ellie Goulding, Halle and Chloe Bailey, Rami, and Schitt’s Creek star Catherine O’Hara, were seen arriving at the venue ahead of the Prince and Princess.
Former Presidential contender and Utah Senator Mitt Romney, who arrived at the gala event with his wife – whose appearance at the MGM Music Hall came barely an hour after Prince William met with President Joe Biden – added some political credibility to the evening.