Recently, King Charles secretly met with Australian actor Cate Blanchett for an important cause.
The two-time Oscar-winner met with the king to discuss the Millennium Seed Bank and its crucial role in preserving nature. Established 25 years ago, the bank works to prevent endangered plant species from extinction.
This is not Cate’s first time working with a member of the royal family on environmental issues. Since 2020, she’s also partnered with Prince William on his Earthshot Prize program.
King Charles and Cate Blanchett recorded a podcast for a special cause

A lifelong environmentalist, Charles is the patron of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Besides Cate, Dr. Elinor Breman also joined the king in the Windsor garden to record the Unearthed podcast. Elinor is Kew’s senior research leader in seed conservation.
“The future of life on Earth may very well depend on the seeds stored within this bank,” Cate warned. “There is an urgency to the work that the seed bank does … 97% of the wildflower meadows have been decimated … We look around us and … we see so much natural beauty. But we don’t think how fragile it is.”
The heart of the seed bank’s mission is to protect nature’s biodiversity for future generations and for the long-term health of the planet.
During the 22-minute chat, Charles mentioned a project he undertook in commemoration of his mother Queen Elizabeth’s coronation. Charles established Coronation Meadows to counter “the real damage that has been done to all our flower-rich meadows since [World War II].”
“What you can destroy in one day by just ploughing it up takes practically a hundred years to replace,” he continued. “It requires constant management … to create this remarkable diversity.”
The king’s goal is to rescue meadows “before they get destroyed, because they’re unique.” In addition, he asked listeners to just imagine what British meadows and fields were like during “medieval times.”
“There’s so many extraordinary initiatives right there ready to be scaled up,” Cate agreed. “There’s a willingness there, but there’s just … not the direction of the funds.”
With all that’s been going on within his troubled family, Charles is probably just glad to distract himself with nature and flowers for a bit.
TELL US – DID YOU REALIZE WILDFLOWERS WERE ENDANGERED?