Celebrity chef José Andrés, a friend of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, has said he is "thrilled" to be joining Prince William's Earthshot Prize council to help select the winners of this year's awards.
Andrés, the founder of World Central Kitchen (an organization that provides global food relief), first partnered with William's eco-initiative in 2023 where he hosted a panel discussion at the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit in New York.
Now, he has taken on a more formal role with the charity, which will see him play an active role in selecting the finalists in line to receive five grants of over a million dollars each to scale up projects and products that repair, protect and conserve the environment.
"I am thrilled to join the Earthshot Prize Council to help showcase the changemakers pushing the boundaries of innovation and ingenuity around the world," he said in a statement.
"In good times and hard times, I've seen first hand the power of food to heal and unite communities. Food is the best way to address some of the planet's most pressing challenges, and I firmly believe that we must transform our food systems to be more sustainable and equitable.
"There is so much we can do to inspire the world to see food as a powerful tool for creativity and change, and Earthshot solutions are at the forefront of this movement."
The news that Andrés has formalized his relationship with William's Earthshot Prize has predictably raised discussion of the ongoing strain in the relationships between the princes.
Since 2020, the long-speculated feud between the brothers was confirmed by Harry in interviews and media projects, most explicitly in his memoir, Spare. At the time of its publication in January 2023, Harry confirmed that he and William were not currently speaking.
In August 2024, both brothers are reported to have attended the memorial service for their late uncle, Lord Robert Fellowes, who was married to Princess Diana's older sister, Lady Jane Spencer.
News reports in Britain covering the memorial stated that while attendees spotted William and Harry at the Norfolk church in which it was held, they were not seen to interact with one another.
A theme of the brothers' relationship covered by Harry in his memoir was an alleged jealousy between them, mostly he claimed on William's side.
Andrés is not the first global figure with an association with Harry and Meghan to join the Earthshot Prize community. In 2023, it was announced that the former prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, had joined the prize as a trustee.
Ardern met with Harry and Meghan during the couple's 2018 tour of the South Pacific and is reported to have formed a friendship with them. In 2019, Meghan named the then-prime ministers one of the "forces of change" in her British Vogue guest editorship.
José Andrés' World Community Kitchen is one of the organizations that Harry and Meghan have partnered with through their Archewell Foundation since their split from the monarchy.
In 2020 they donated to help the organization build and operate community relief centres around the world. In 2023, Meghan also gave Andrés a recipe to include in the project's first cookbook titled: The World Central Kitchen Cookbook: Feeding Humanity, Feeding Hope.
In the couple's 2020-2022 Archewell Impact Report, Andrés was quoted giving the couple a glowing endorsement.
"Harry and Meghan, my dear friends, you bring hope to each and every community you touch, always with a smile, always with empathy and through your partnership with World Central Kitchen, sometimes a hot plate of food that shows people in need how much we care," he said.
A later section also quoted him as saying: "Meghan and Harry turn compassion into boots through their Archewell Foundation. In a world where everyone has an opinion about people they don't know, the Duke and Duchess have compassion for the people they don't know. They don't just opine. They run toward the struggle."
Newsweek approached representatives of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle via email for comment.
James Crawford-Smith is Newsweek's royal reporter, based in London. You can find him on X (formerly Twitter) at @jrcrawfordsmith and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.
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