Claudia Schiffer, Now Lady Drummond, Reunites With Prince William at Windsor Castle

At last night’s state banquet at Windsor Castle, supermodel Claudia Schiffer attended as a guest of the German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Though it was Britain’s Prince William whom she might have known best out of anyone at the table.

For the occasion, Schiffer dressed up in a black Balmain dress with gold and multi-color embellishments. The model, a native of Germany, also recently gained an aristocratic title, Lady Drummond, through her husband, director Matthew Vuaghn. He was knighted by King Charles as Lord Drummond for his contributions to the creative industries.

Schiffer was placed next to United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer and one seat down from King Charles and Princess Catherine. Opposite them were William, Queen Camilla, and Germany’s First Lady, Elke Budenbender. (Spouses are often seated apart at state banquets to encourage conversation with a wider range of guests). And while Schiffer and William were on opposite sides of the dinner table, this wasn’t her first run-in with the future King.

Back in the 1990s, the late Princess Diana surprised William for his birthday by inviting Schiffer, Naomi Campbell, and Christy Turlington to Kensington Palace. “He was coming home from school,” Campbell recalled in 2020. “And we had gotten there before he had gotten home from school. We were just like, ‘What do we do?’ I mean, it was so sweet.”

William and Schiffer later reunited in 2002, when the model presented the prince with the Porcelanosa Cup at a charity polo competition. It was the same year that the William met his now-wife.

During the 2017 documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy, William fondly recalled the moment—however embarrassing at the time. “I was probably a 12 or 13-year-old boy who had posters of them on his wall,” he said. “I went bright red and didn’t quite know what to say and sort of fumbled. I think I pretty much fell down the stairs on the way up. I was completely and utterly sort of awestruck.”

He added, “That’s lived with me forever, about her loving and embarrassing and sort of, you know being— being the sort of the joker.”