Prince William met President Biden Friday after being welcomed to Boston by true American royalty: the Kennedys.
The two men spent 30 minutes together at the JFK Library where — despite some protesters in the background — William, 40, thanked Biden, 80, for traveling to London for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth in September. The pair reportedly shared warm memories of the monarch.
A Kensington Palace spokesperson called the meeting with Biden a “warm, friendly and substantive discussion,” and said the president had been “keen to learn” about the prince’s environmentally focused Earthshot Prize — being presented Friday night — and some of the stories from the finalists, including the Great Bubble Barrier, a 2022 finalist in the “Revive Our Oceans” category.
The spokesperson added that William also shared his global, long-term ambition for the Prize.
It was the fourth time the pair had met in the past 18 months, including at Cornwall in the UK for COP26, where Queen Consort Camilla recalled Biden loudly farting.
A cheery Biden, wearing an overcoat fit for Boston’s chilly temperatures, called over to William — who was wearing just a suit — “Where’s your topcoat?” as he the two met up along Boston Harbor.
But they were greeted by protesters, who shouted in the background “f–k the Royal family” and “Joe Biden is a scab.” The demonstrators waved placards and held banners pertaining to a Thursday Senate vote which rejected proposals to give railway workers seven days of sick leave.
Biden signed the legislation into law on Thursday, and Nick Wurst, an organizer from Railroad Workers United, told the Daily Mail: “In relation to the Royal Family the joke answer would be we kicked you guys out in 1776.
“I would say to Joe Biden and Prince William watch yourselves. Workers everywhere are getting the short stick and are looking to fight back in the US and in the UK as well. The fight is not over.”
Claire Bayler, from the independent socialist Group, told the Mail that Prince William and the Royal family are “complicit in the exploitation of workers in the UK and the US”.
William was by himself while his wife Kate embarked on her first solo engagement of the couple’s US tour: a visit to Harvard University, told the crowd that he had been inspired to create his environmental prize by JFK’s Moonshot – which challenged America to put a man on the moon.
The Prince of Wales was greeted at the library first by Ambassador Caroline Kennedy, daughter of JFK, and her children, Tatiana and Jack Schlossberg.
Ambassador Kennedy, who currently serves as the US Ambassador to Australia, is the honorary president of The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, which is a host partner for the glitzy Earthshot Prize ceremony, to be held later on Friday — and she attended the Celtics game with William and Kate on Wednesday night.
She gave him a tour of exhibits from the pivotal years of the Kennedy Administration in the 1960s, ahead of the moon landing in 1969 – including a signed photo of Queen Elizabeth from 1961, saying “there’s the one from your grandmother” as William smiled.
Intriguingly, Kennedy’s cousin, Kerry Kennedy, will hand out the Kennedy ‘Ripple of Hope’ prize to William’s brother, Prince Harry, and his wife Meghan Markle next week for fighting racism within the royal family – accusing the monarchy of “structural racism”.
