Prince William appeared on The Graham Norton Show and revealed a hilarious moment when a member of the public mistook him for the singer Prince. The Prince of Wales shared the story during a surprise appearance on the chat show, joined by Cate Blanchett, Robert Irwin and Hannah Waddingham, all involved with the Earthshot Prize.
Mistaken Identity in Somerset
Graham Norton asked: "Recently you were at an event and someone didn't know who you were?" William responded: "Yes, that happens quite regularly actually. I went to a place in Somerset and was looking around some of the local communities there and one lovely gentleman looked up at me from his seat and said 'when are you going to sing?' and I looked at him, I've had many requests over many years for all ranging parts of society and I said 'I'm sorry what do you mean?' he goes 'when are you going to sing your performance?'"
A lady behind tapped his arm and said "no, no he's not that prince." William added: "It turned out he wanted me to sing purple rain - which I don't know the lyrics for."
Earthshot Prize Ahead
The prince's appearance came ahead of next month's Earthshot Prize in Mumbai, where he will meet Bollywood stars, play with cricketing royalty and preside over the ceremony awarding £5million in prize money to those with ideas to repair the planet.
William spoke about the origins of the Prize, saying: "For many years I was hearing stories about environment issues and one thing that struck me was the negativity and doom which got me down."
A Global Initiative
He added: "I thought we could do something more powerful and more optimistic and the idea of an awards' ceremony came about and we could talk about urgency and optimism together. It's all about getting excited."
Blanchett, an Earthshot Prize council member, described the Prize as a "tapestry of solutions", while Irwin, a global ambassador, spoke about its role in building a new generation of environmental advocates. The project is halfway through its decades-long cycle, having been staged in London, Singapore, Cape Town, Boston and Rio de Janeiro.
