Prince William Follows in the Footsteps of His Late Mother Princess Diana in Rio de Janeiro

By Phil Bouch­er, Clare Fish­er & Simon Per­ry | Updat­ed Novem­ber 5, 2025

Prince William has paid a touch­ing trib­ute to his late moth­er, Princess Diana, while vis­it­ing Brazil for the 2025 Earth­shot Prize — retrac­ing her steps more than three decades lat­er at Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer stat­ue.

Dur­ing the third day of his trip, the Prince of Wales posed for pho­tos at the same icon­ic land­mark where Diana once stood in 1991, dur­ing her tour with then-Prince Charles. The moment was a pow­er­ful echo of his­to­ry — and a reminder of how Diana’s human­i­tar­i­an spir­it con­tin­ues through her son’s work.

A Kens­ing­ton Palace spokesper­son con­firmed how mean­ing­ful the stop had been for William:

“The Prince has loved meet­ing so many peo­ple from across Rio over the last few days. He’s been incred­i­bly struck by the num­ber of peo­ple who fond­ly remem­ber his mother’s vis­it to this beau­ti­ful city.”

Honoring Diana’s Legacy

In 1991, Princess Diana’s trip to Brazil cap­ti­vat­ed the world — her grace and empa­thy leav­ing a last­ing mark. Now, 34 years lat­er, William’s pres­ence at the same spot high­lights the deep con­nec­tion between moth­er and son, bound by their shared mis­sion to make the world kinder, green­er, and more com­pas­sion­ate.

Celebrating Earthshot Innovation

William’s vis­it also marked a major mile­stone for his Earth­shot Prize, which awards $1.3 mil­lion annu­al­ly to ground­break­ing envi­ron­men­tal solu­tions.
He met with all 15 final­ists to hear about their projects before tonight’s cer­e­mo­ny, where win­ners will be named in five cat­e­gories:

• Pro­tect and Restore Nature
• Clean Our Air
• Revive Our Oceans
• Build a Waste-Free World
• Fix Our Cli­mate

The star-stud­ded event will fea­ture Kylie Minogue, Shawn Mendes, and Brazil­ian soc­cer leg­end Cafú among the guests.

A Prince on a Mission

William’s Brazil tour hasn’t been all busi­ness — he’s also played vol­ley­ball at Copaca­bana Beach, scored a goal at Mara­canã Sta­di­um, and plant­ed man­groves as part of his envi­ron­men­tal out­reach.

Ear­li­er in the trip, he joined Leonar­do DiCaprio via video mes­sage at the Unit­ed for Wildlife Sum­mit, where both urged glob­al lead­ers to take stronger action against envi­ron­men­tal crimes.

“Nature is our most pow­er­ful solu­tion,” DiCaprio said in his address. “The world depends on it.”

William added in his own speech:

“We must rec­og­nize and cel­e­brate these pro­tec­tors, not just in words but through our actions. And we must act togeth­er.”