Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's friend Amal Clooney was a star guest at Prince Charles' Prince's Trust Awards in London on Tuesday night.
The widely respected human rights lawyer and wife of actor George Clooney attended the awards show at London's Drury Lane theater, and was photographed with Charles on the red carpet.
Clooney's appearance alongside Charles comes after she attended Harry and Meghan's wedding at Windsor Castle in 2018 and follows her husband George's 2019 interview with Australian magazine WHO in which he defended Meghan from being attacked by the press, comparing her treatment to that of Princess Diana.
Amal Clooney has worked with the Prince's Trust since 2019 when she accepted the invitation to support an award celebrating the achievements of young women. The Amal Clooney Award was then named in her honor.
Speaking at the time of the award's announcement, Clooney said: "I am honored to have been invited by Prince's Trust International to participate in this global initiative celebrating young women who are change-makers in their communities.
"It is a privilege to be able to play a part in a project that will draw attention to incredible young women who are the future leaders of our world."
At the ceremony on Tuesday night, Clooney wore a statement red and white floral print dress with white accessories which helped her to stand out on the red carpet.
Another guest at the awards, which were recorded for television for the first time this year, was British Vogue editor Edward Enninful, another friend of Meghan's.
Enninful and Meghan worked closely together on the royal's Vogue guest editorship in 2019 and the editor came to her defense when critics wrote negatively of her efforts.
Clooney is also a friend of Enninful's and the pair have been photographed together at public events.
When Clooney and Harry and Meghan's paths first crossed has not been revealed though it was reported subsequently that the Hollywood power couple didn't know the royals before their wedding invitation arrived.
The Clooney's wedding invitation
The star-studded guest list at the wedding of Harry and Meghan featured more representatives from Hollywood than any other royal marriage celebration, which was expected given that the bride was herself an actress.
Following the wedding, reports began to circulate as to whether the stars who were given prominent positions at the chapel service were truly connected to the couple such as Oprah Winfrey and the Clooneys.
Writing for Graydon Carter's online publication Airmail, British prime minister Boris Johnson's journalist sister Rachel wrote: "There's a story doing the rounds that while Carolyn Bartholomew, Diana's former flatmate, was waiting for the wedding service to start, she turned to the couple alongside her and asked how they knew Harry or Meghan,
"'We don't,' the Clooneys answered brightly," she said.
George Clooney's Defense of Meghan and Diana
If the Clooneys hadn't met Harry and Meghan before the big day, the couple has become close in the time since with George calling the royals a "really wonderful, loving couple" and praising Meghan as a "really kind and smart and intelligent young woman" in an interview with Good Morning Britain.
The prince may have been aware of Clooney since the star made an impassioned speech following the death of Princess Diana in a Paris car crash in 1997.
Clooney delivered an excoriating message to the press and paparazzi over their involvement in the events leading up to the princess' death and compared it to his own experience.
"Princess Di is dead, and who should we see about that? The driver of the car? The paparazzi? Or the magazines and papers who purchased these pictures and make bounty hunters out of photographers?" he said. "If you weren't hiding behind the profession of journalism, you would be an accomplice to a crime, and you would go to jail."
History repeating itself
In February 2019, Clooney gave an interview to Who magazine in which he discussed his and wife Amal's relationship with Harry and Meghan and commented on the treatment of the latter by the press since her marriage.
"I do want to say, they're just chasing Meghan Markle everywhere, she's been pursued and vilified," he told the magazine per People.
The star then went on to draw parallels between the treatment Meghan was facing and that which Diana endured leading to tragic consequences.
"She's a woman who is seven months pregnant and she has been pursued and vilified and chased in the same way that Diana was and its history repeating itself," he said.
"We've seen how that ends," Clooney said.
Harry and Meghan stepped away from royal duties in 2020 before moving to California with their young family. In 2021, the couple gave an interview to Oprah Winfrey in which they discussed the treatment Meghan faced as raised by Clooney a year earlier.
The royal couple is due to travel to Britain next month for their first public visit since concluding their royal duties in 2020. A spokesperson for Harry and Meghan confirmed to Newsweek that the couple would visit Britain to take part in the celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II's jubilee.
"Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex are excited and honored to attend The Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations this June with their children," the spokesperson said.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
James Crawford-Smith is a Newsweek Royal Reporter, based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on the British royal family ... Read more
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