The photos in this post are from April 3, 2019, the premiere of Netflix’s Our Planet, produced and narrated by David Attenborough. The premiere was held at the Natural History Museum, and as you can see, then-Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Harry all came out to support Attenborough. Since this premiere, Attenborough has cozied up even further with the left-behinds. In 2020, Attenborough even “gifted” a fossil to Prince George… a fossil which was looted from Malta in the 1960s, which Malta wanted back. But I digress! David Attenborough turns 100 years old today, and to mark the occasion, Prince Harry wrote a lovely tribute to him in Time Magazine. An excerpt:
For almost anyone who grew up in the United Kingdom, Sir David Attenborough is more than a broadcaster; he is a secular saint. He is an institutional pillar as essential to the national fabric as a cup of tea. His almost-whispers have been the soft soundtrack of the home—a shared experience that turned the weekend nature documentary into a national ritual.
For Americans, I imagine, Attenborough shows up not as a personality so much as a standard. He is the “Voice of Nature,” the invisible, elegant authority narrating the high-definition spectacles of Planet Earth or Blue Planet.
…As we reflect on Attenborough’s 100th birthday, on May 8, I find myself thinking less about the extraordinary scale of his work and more about the moments that revealed his humanity within it. The flashes of amusement when things went wrong. The unmistakable delight when an animal treated him not as a presenter, but as part of the environment itself—catching him off guard, interrupting the perfect narration, reminding us that nature cannot be scripted. Those moments always felt important, because they revealed something deeper than expertise: genuine reverence and curiosity. And I suspect they brought him the greatest joy of all—those rare moments of feeling completely at one with the natural world, where the creatures he was studying treated him as one of their own—perhaps the purest form of acceptance nature can offer.
…Attenborough’s authority was accumulated over decades of consistency and a quiet refusal to look away from the truth, even as it became harder to watch. He has provided the global audience with a map of the damage alongside a vision of what remains. For today’s decision-makers, emulating his lens—a rare blend of childlike wonder and clear-eyed realism—is essential to any progress.
I suspect that a lifetime spent so closely observing the natural world has deepened in him the very qualities that make us most human: humility, curiosity, patience, and reverence for life itself. By adopting these traits, the younger generation can feel empowered to channel their concerns around the climate into disciplined, purposeful advocacy.
At 100, Sir David Attenborough has spent a lifetime delivering us the facts with patience, honesty, and wonder. He has shown us the world in all its brilliance and fragility, and in doing so has left humanity with both a gift and a responsibility. The question now is whether those with the power to act will choose to lead before more of our world—our life support system—is lost.
A lovely tribute to an icon. Can I just say? I appreciate that Harry is writing more often these days. He has a voice and a lovely writing style, personal and funny and at times quite bleak/honest. I imagine you-know-who will be raging out when Jason Knauf reads Harry’s essay to him. “David Attenborough is MINE!” A full tantrum is coming. Meanwhile, Earthshot posted this:
Happy 100th Birthday to our very first Prize Council Member, Sir David Attenborough.
You’ve inspired generations to turn hope into action for our planet.
From all of us at The Earthshot Prize, thank you for igniting a movement of planet protectors. pic.twitter.com/fdURSLUh7q
— The Earthshot Prize (@EarthshotPrize) May 8, 2026
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.
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- North America Rights Only – London, UK -20190404- Celebrities pose of pictures as they arrive at the ‘Our Planet’ Global Premiere, taking place at the Natural History Museum. -PICTURED: Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Sir David Attenborough, Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex -PHOTO by: INSTARimages.com Disclaimer: This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact INSTAR Images for licensing fee and rights information at sales@instarimages.com or call +1 212 414 0207. This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. INSTAR Images reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded For images containing underage children: Be advised that some Countries may have restricted privacy laws against publishing images of underage children. Inform yourself! Underage children may need to be removed or have their face pixelated before publishing Featuring: Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Sir David Attenborough, Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Where: London, England, United Kingdom When: 04 Apr 2019 Credit: INSTARimages.com **North America Rights Only**
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- North America Rights Only – London, UK -20190404- Celebrities pose of pictures as they arrive at the ‘Our Planet’ Global Premiere, taking place at the Natural History Museum. -PICTURED: Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Sir David Attenborough, Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex -PHOTO by: INSTARimages.com Disclaimer: This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact INSTAR Images for licensing fee and rights information at sales@instarimages.com or call +1 212 414 0207. This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. INSTAR Images reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded For images containing underage children: Be advised that some Countries may have restricted privacy laws against publishing images of underage children. Inform yourself! Underage children may need to be removed or have their face pixelated before publishing Featuring: Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Sir David Attenborough, Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Where: London, England, United Kingdom When: 04 Apr 2019 Credit: INSTARimages.com **North America Rights Only**
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- USA Rights Only – London, UK -20190404- Celebrities attend the global premiere of Netflix’s Our Planet, held at the Natural History Museum. -PICTURED: Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Sir David Attenborough, Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex -PHOTO by: Anwar Hussein/PA Images/INSTARimages.com -42159456.jpg This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact Instar Images LLC for licensing fee and rights information at sales@instarimages.com or call +1 212 414 0207 This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. Instar Images LLC reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded Featuring: Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Sir David Attenborough, Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Where: London, England, United Kingdom When: 04 Apr 2019 Credit: Anwar Hussein/PA Images/INSTARimages.com **USA Rights Only**
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- USA Rights Only – London, UK -20190404- The males of the British Royal Family and various other celebrities attend the global premiere of Netflix’s Our Planet, held at the Natural History Museum. -PICTURED: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Sir David Attenborough -PHOTO by: Ian West/PA Images/INSTARimages.com -42151599.jpg This is an editorial, rights-managed image. Please contact Instar Images LLC for licensing fee and rights information at sales@instarimages.com or call +1 212 414 0207 This image may not be published in any way that is, or might be deemed to be, defamatory, libelous, pornographic, or obscene. Please consult our sales department for any clarification needed prior to publication and use. Instar Images LLC reserves the right to pursue unauthorized users of this material. If you are in violation of our intellectual property rights or copyright you may be liable for damages, loss of income, any profits you derive from the unauthorized use of this material and, where appropriate, the cost of collection and/or any statutory damages awarded Featuring: Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, Sir David Attenborough Where: London, England, United Kingdom When: 04 Apr 2019 Credit: Ian West/PA Images/INSTARimages.com **USA Rights Only**
I’m so proud of Harry, he’s been knocking it out of the park lately ❤️ Team Sussex all the way ❤️
Proud of Prince Harry as well
Harry’s piece reads really well. It’s genuine, articulate, balanced, and avoids vague generalities and filler words. Nothing like the AI slop you get from some other royals when they talk about nature, ahem.
The more this man writes the more I believe the “dim” narrative was complete projection because the current heir is truly the “dim” one so calling Willy the “illiterate Prince” is probably a hundred percent correct..
Willy may claim DA but he could never write ✍️ anything like Harry and that’s going to be very obvious the more Harry writes, so I imagine Willy will be rage briefing after his football hangover is over.
I remember that Baldemort had to switch his major from Art History to Geography because Art History was too hard for him.
omg I had no idea William’s original major was art history. I admire Kate’s restraint in not switching majors as well to follow him to those classes like she switched universities to follow him to St. Andrew’s. Now I wonder if she even cares about art at all or if she got stuck with art history because it was the major he had initially chosen and she was stalking him, and switching as well would have crossed the line of looking too crazy and desperate.
@ Hypocrisy:
Indeed.
You can tell by what Harry has done post royal family in comparison to arrested development William. It is a horrible system which will destroy an intelligent “spare,” if the heir is lacking.
Thank God for broken printers, hateful heirs and mean spirited courtiers. We would have never seen this Harry.
Exactly this! Harry used as a scapegoat once again.
Also we have clips of Harry reading to his children.
I don’t remember that from TOB
Yes, I think it was something put out years ago to make William look better. I do think, based on what he said in Spare, that Harry’s grief and trauma at losing his mother affected his performance in school, and that got spun into this whole big narrative about Harry being the fun loving but stupid brother compared to the dutiful and intelligent William (hell we see that now with Louis vs. George, they’re just not making it about intelligence….yet.)
But its clear that Harry is very intelligent in many ways, including emotionally intelligent, which I think helps him a great deal with writing things like this. His piece after Phillip died was my favorite, because I thought it focused a lot on Phillip the person, not Phillip the prince.
What you said about emotional intelligence is very true both Harry and Meghan have it and it is very noticeably lacking with the leftovers especially the heir.
It was a lovely thing to do and I’m sure SDA really appreciated Harry’s kind words.
William on the other hand makes me want to spit when he talks about SDA. He had the opportunity to use his power to highlight the “missing” episode on the “Saving our Wild Isles” documentary. The episode was only shown on iPlayer because it was feared it would upset the government of the day, who had put a wrecking ball to our environment. As a keen environmentalist KCIII should also have said something but, I’m more angry at William because he’s no qualms about contacting the BBC to get items removed from the “Princes’ and the Press” documentary and demanding they never again show the Diana interview (barsteward)
William was more than happy to use SDA’s kudos to highlight his vanity project but, when the BBC silenced part of SDA’s message on what’s happening to the wildlife in the UK William said absolutely nothing.
Earthshot was never William’s project.
William wanted his own Invictus, so a “royal/William award” was attached to the existing project, in which Attenborough is also involved. IT, courtesy of Attenborough.
They named him
it William’s project, assigned the award to the royal foundation, and from people who had been involved in this project for years, he received money for it, almost all of which he spent on organizing it in various countries (because that’s what Invictus does) and buying celebrities. Earthshot was taken away from him after Boston, meaning after the second event, and Earthshot no longer belongs to William’s royal foundation, but returned to the project managers. William was left with the illusion of probably some limited and controlled coverage of the event costs, but he no longer manages the money for the awards themselves.
So much for “his project” 🤣
What a lovely tribute.
Harry wrote a beautiful tribute. And I have to laugh at the Earthshot post. They couldn’t just say Happy Birthday, they had to center it – “OUR first prize council member” and then add Robert Irwin – “EARTHSHOT prize ambassador.” This is totally “David Attenborough is MINE! And for those asking, Robert Irwin is MINE, too!”
“Nay-cha is MINE, Harold”
It’s now really noticeable that when William does a tribute to anyone, he always centres himself in it.
This is a really beautiful tribute Harry wrote.
I wonder if Harry was discouraged from university because of William’s struggles with it. It’s actually insane that William was going into Art History in the first place given his future role. How was it not International Relations or Political Science or even Sociology?
Yep. Pegs made the first visual Robert Irwin, to get the clicks, but then Pegs is the second wellwisher, as well as the last. I mean, *everyone* knows that *everything* is about The Other Brother.
Harry’s is very well written. David Attenborough has his issues but he has introduced a lot of people around the world to the wonders of nature.
Also, in case anyone was wondering – while so many of Attenboroughs documentaries are excellent, the recent one (from maybe 5-10 years ago) called “Nature’s Great Events” is my absolute favorite, especially the Great Salmon Run (I also enjoy the Great Melt.)
“Attenborough’s authority was accumulated over decades of consistency and a quiet refusal to look away from the truth, even as it became harder to watch.”
The same can be said of Harry: He has quietly refused to look away from his birth family’s complicity with the tabloids and the damage those tabloids have caused.
Welll, well well. William is at the David Attenborough’s 100 years on Planet Earth! I’ve mixed feelings about it as I do believe William’s environmental creditals don’t stack up. However, SDA looks really pleased to have the FK sat next to him so who am I to judge. What has surprised me is that William looks genuinely happy to be there.