Prince William and Claudia Schiffer: A Teenage Crush Comes Full Circle at Windsor Castle

When news broke that Prince William had reunited with his teenage crush Claudia Schiffer at a glittering state banquet in Windsor Castle, royal watchers immediately reached for their memories of the 1990s. This was not just a glamorous royal dinner; it was the continuation of a story that began three decades ago with a shy schoolboy, three supermodels and one very mischievous princess.

Today, William is a confident Prince of Wales, husband to Catherine and father of three. Claudia Schiffer is a global fashion icon and Lady Drummond, thanks to the knighthood recently bestowed on her husband, film director Matthew Vaughn.

Yet their latest encounter instantly transported royal fans back to one of William’s favourite stories about his mother, Princess Diana – the day she decided to bring his bedroom wall posters to life.

Diana’s playful surprise for a teenage prince

In the early 1990s, the world was obsessed with the “supers” – Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford and Claudia Schiffer. Their faces dominated magazine covers and fashion campaigns, and their posters were pinned up in bedrooms around the globe. As William later admitted, those same posters were proudly displayed on the walls of his room at Kensington Palace.

Princess Diana knew this all too well. Always keen to make her sons’ childhoods as magical as possible, she decided to turn fantasy into reality. For one of William’s early teenage birthdays, she secretly invited some of the world’s most famous supermodels to the palace to surprise him when he came back from school.

Naomi Campbell has since described the moment on her YouTube series, remembering how she arrived at Kensington Palace with Claudia Schiffer and Christy Turlington. They reached the house before William did, and Diana directed them to wait for him at the top of the stairs. Naomi later called the moment “so sweet” and recalled how delighted she was to help Diana pull off the cheeky surprise.

For William, the experience was unforgettable – and almost unbearably embarrassing. In later interviews, he has spoken about walking into his home to find his real-life crushes standing there, after years of seeing them only in magazines. Completely overwhelmed, he said he went “bright red” and had no idea what to say.

That reaction was exactly what Diana had hoped for. It was classic “Diana humour”: loving, slightly teasing and designed to give her son a memory that would last a lifetime. William has spoken of the episode as one of the moments that perfectly captures his mother’s fun-loving side and her determination to make their royal life feel a little more normal – and a lot more joyful.

From posters to polo fields: the early 2000s meetings

The birthday surprise could easily have remained a one-off encounter, the sort of charming anecdote told in documentaries and magazine profiles. But life inside the royal world has a way of bringing people back together.

By the early 2000s, William had grown from bashful teenager to young man taking his first steps into public royal life. He appeared more frequently at charity events, especially on the polo field – a traditional arena for royal fundraising. Claudia Schiffer, meanwhile, had firmly secured her status as one of fashion’s most enduring icons, while also expanding into acting, design and philanthropy.

In June 2002, their paths crossed again at Ashe Park in Hampshire during a charity polo competition for the Porcelanosa Cup. William played as part of the winning team, and it was Claudia who stepped forward to present him with the trophy.

Contemporary reports describe the scene vividly: the young prince, a few days past his 20th birthday, accepting the Cup, blushing again as he and Claudia exchanged a brief congratulatory kiss to the delight of onlookers.

Those images of a sun-flushed William and the statuesque supermodel laughing together became instant favourites among royal fans. They showed a future king who still had traces of the shy schoolboy but was gradually becoming more relaxed in front of the cameras, as well as a supermodel who seemed to be enjoying the light-hearted moment as much as he was.

That same year, away from the cameras, William’s life changed in a quieter but far more significant way. In 2002, he met fellow student Catherine Middleton at the University of St Andrews. What began as a friendship and flat-share soon developed into the deep relationship that would eventually lead to their 2011 wedding and their family life with Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

So while the story of William and Claudia is one of teenage adoration and glamorous encounters, it also sits alongside the beginning of his real modern royal love story with Kate.

A historic banquet at Windsor Castle

Fast-forward more than two decades, and the stage of this story shifts to one of the most spectacular settings in the United Kingdom: Windsor Castle.

On 3 December 2025, King Charles III and Queen Camilla hosted a state banquet in honour of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his wife, Elke Büdenbender. It was the first German state visit to Britain in 27 years and marked a major diplomatic moment, celebrating a new treaty and renewed partnership between the two countries.

The guest list was as glittering as the chandeliers in St George’s Hall. Senior members of the royal family were joined by political leaders, cultural figures and distinguished guests from both nations. Among them, quietly but unmistakably, was Claudia Schiffer, now attending not just as a supermodel but as a German cultural icon and the newly styled Lady Drummond, following the knighthood of her husband Matthew Vaughn earlier in the year.

Reports from the evening note that Claudia, in a sleek black velvet gown embellished with jewelled details, was seated close to King Charles and next to Prime Minister Keir Starmer – a reminder of her role as a high-profile German guest at an event designed to showcase the links between the two countries.

Also in the hall, of course, were Prince William and the Princess of Wales. Kate drew headlines of her own, dazzling in a dramatic cape gown and a rarely seen royal tiara once worn by Queen Victoria and later Queen Elizabeth II. The banquet brought together centuries of royal history, modern political realities and a significant dose of high fashion.

Somewhere amid the toasts, speeches and diplomatic formality, William and Claudia reunited once again – this time as two established public figures, both with long careers and families of their own, meeting on equal footing at the heart of the British monarchy.

Why this reunion captures the imagination

On the surface, this is a simple story: a prince once had a crush on a famous model, met her thanks to his cheeky mother, saw her again at a polo event, and then reunited with her decades later at a state dinner. But the reason it fascinates people goes much deeper.

1. The human side of royalty

The tale reminds us that even future kings have deeply ordinary teenage experiences. The image of William with posters on his wall, struggling to speak when his idols suddenly appear in front of him, is instantly relatable. Many people can see themselves in that awkward young man turning “bright red” in his own hallway.

Royal life can sometimes seem distant, wrapped in formality, protocol and polished photo calls. Stories like this cut through that formality and show the royals as real people, with crushes, embarrassing moments and funny family memories – just on a much grander stage.

2. Diana’s presence, decades later

For fans of the late Princess of Wales, the reunion between William and Claudia also carries a powerful emotional charge. It is impossible to think about their history without picturing Diana quietly arranging the surprise, laughing with Naomi, Claudia and Christy as they waited for William to come home.

Every time William references that story, or crosses paths with the women involved, it becomes another way in which his mother’s influence continues to echo through his adult life. The Windsor banquet, with Claudia seated just a few places away from his father and with William present as heir to the throne, felt like another thread connecting past and present.

3. A full-circle moment for a new royal era

The reunion also symbolises how much has changed since that original birthday surprise. Back then, William was a boy whose life was still largely sheltered from the public. Today, he is a central figure in a reshaped monarchy, preparing for a future reign that will look very different from his grandmother’s.

Claudia, too, is no longer simply a catwalk star. She is an established figure in the creative industries, representing Germany on the global stage and attending Windsor not as a novelty guest, but as part of a serious diplomatic occasion.

The fact that these two paths intersect again at a moment of high politics and cultural diplomacy is what makes the story feel so satisfying. The teenage crush has grown into a warm, respectful acquaintance between two people who have watched each other’s lives unfold from opposite sides of the public eye.

A story royal fans will keep telling

For royal bloggers, Instagram accounts and long-time followers of the monarchy, the images and memories linked to William and Claudia form a kind of mini-timeline:

• A young prince walking into Kensington Palace to find three supermodels waiting on the stairs.
• An early 2000s charity polo match, where a blushing 20-year-old accepts a trophy – and a quick congratulatory kiss – from the woman who once hung on his bedroom wall.
• A grand state banquet at Windsor Castle in 2025, where that same woman now sits among prime ministers, presidents and senior royals as a titled guest.

It is a story about growing up, about how teenage fantasies fade but never quite disappear, and about the way certain memories stay with us no matter how much our lives change.

For Prince William, the reunion with Claudia Schiffer at Windsor Castle was probably just one moment in a busy diplomatic schedule. Yet for those who remember Diana’s playful surprise and the early polo photos, it felt like a tender full-circle chapter – proof that the shy boy on the stairs and the confident future king are, in the end, the same person.

And somewhere in that long, candlelit hall, with speeches ringing off the stone walls and music playing softly in the background, it is easy to imagine the spirit of Princess Diana smiling at the scene she helped set in motion all those years ago.