Princess of Wales to Join Prince William at Earthshot Prize in Mumbai
Kensington Palace has confirmed that the Princess of Wales will travel with Prince William to Mumbai, India, for the 2026 Earthshot Prize. The couple are due to arrive on Monday for a three-day visit that ends on Wednesday, according to Hello! magazine.
The Earthshot Prize is an annual environmental awards scheme. Prince William, the Prince of Wales, founded it and serves as its president. Each year it names five winners, and each winner receives £1 million to help grow the impact of their work. This year's categories are Revive our Oceans, Fix our Climate, Build a Waste-Free World, Protect and Restore Nature, and Clean our Air, as the Earthshot Prize's official website sets out.
The awards night itself takes place on Tuesday 17 November, the sixth such evening in the prize's history. The prize's events run across 16 and 17 November in Mumbai. Before the awards, a multi-day Earthshot Prize Summit will bring together environmental and business leaders, investors and philanthropists to discuss projects and funding.
The Princess of Wales will also attend the inaugural Children's Earthshot Awards Ceremony at the Museum of Solutions in Mumbai, according to Hello! magazine. The announced presenters for the main ceremony include the actors Rami Malek, Alia Bhatt and Sonam Kapoor, and the cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.
The trip marks the first joint overseas visit by the couple since 2023. That year they attended the wedding of Crown Prince Hussein of Jordan to Princess Rajwa. It is also the second official visit the couple have made to India. Their earlier tour of India and Bhutan took place in April 2016.
The Princess of Wales has attended the prize before. She was at the inaugural awards in London in 2021 and at the event in Boston in 2022.
The Earthshot Prize was launched in 2020 and is named after a phrase Prince William has used for a set of environmental goals. Its winners are chosen by a panel, and the prize money is intended to help projects scale up rather than to fund research alone. Organisers describe the Mumbai events as a way to showcase work from across the world, with a strong focus on India.
For anyone following the event, the main dates are simple. Arrivals and early events begin on Monday 16 November, the awards night falls on Tuesday 17 November, and the visit ends on Wednesday 18 November. Further details of the programme are expected from the palace and the prize's organisers in the days ahead.
