Watch: Prince William Giggles With Jacinda Ardern During Ceremony

Ardern has been working with William as a trustee of his Earthshot Prize, which awards $1 million grants to scale up projects acting to repair, maintain and preserve the environment. And she was made a Dame Grand Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to the state at Windsor Castle on Wednesday.

Ardern was on a lengthy list of people whose investitures William conducted and the pair shared some warm words with each other as he adorned her a red sash suspended from her right shoulder to her waist, where he fastened the badge of the order. The prince posted on his official account on X, formerly Twitter: “A friend, an extraordinary advocate for the environment and now a Dame Grand Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the State.

“@jacindaardern, it was a privilege to present you with this deserved award at Windsor today!” Ardern spoke highly of William in a social media video posted alongside the prince’s message: “It’s a huge honor. I feel really humbled by the chance to be here with my family and really I see it as an acknowledgement of them and of every person I worked with and of everyone who supported me and that includes a very large number of New Zealanders.

“I remember some years ago now Prince William telling me about the idea of the Earthshot Prize and then to see what he’s created. “It’s not just a prize for me, it’s the movement that I think is so important about telling every single person out there that we don’t have to wait for this catastrophe to happen to us.

That there are things we can do and that are being done.” She was announced as an Earthshot trustee in April 2023 when William said: “Four years ago, before The Earthshot Prize even had a name, Jacinda was one of the first people I spoke to, and her encouragement and advice was crucial to the Prize’s early success.”