Ayo Edebiri's Reaction to Prince William Goes Viral

Prince William meeting The Bear star Ayo Edebiri went viral on X, formerly Twitter, as fans read meaning into the expression on her face.

The Prince of Wales met the actress at the BAFTA Awards, at the Royal Festival Hall, London, on Sunday, after she was nominated for the Rising Star Award.

And at one point, William, who was at the awards solo while Kate Middleton recovers from abdominal surgery, was pictured laughing uproariously while some felt Edebiri looked a little more skeptical.

One post on X was viewed more than 4 million times and liked more than 23,000 times after it read: "I am simply begging you all to look at this photo of Ayo Edebiri meeting Prince William at the #BAFTAs."

Lisette Titre-Montgomery, a BAFTA nominated computer game art director, wrote: "The face everyone else makes when he randomly admits he 'dated a Black girl once.'"

Another post, liked 54,000 times, suggested it looked as though: "Everybody weirded tf out omg."

Other video footage of their meeting appeared warmed and showed William being introduced to Edebiri, saying: "Hi, very nice to see you."

She was part of a line up alongside fellow nominees Phoebe Dynevor and Sophie Wilde as well as winner Mia McKenna-Bruce, who starred in How to Have Sex.

"Very nice to see you guys," the prince said. "Honestly, the category was so strong, all of you, its like, who is going to pull this off, it's incredible."

Edebiri nodded vigorously before the prince turned to McKenna-Bruce to offer his congratulations on her win.

She said: "Ooh, thank you so much," while William replied: "I haven't yet watched your film. It looks like you had a lot of fun all the way through it."

"We did," McKenna-Bruce said. "We had a really, really, really good time. I recommend watching it."

William said: "I've got a lot of films to catch up on. Normally I get quite ahead of the award ceremony and I get to see quite a few of them. I haven't managed to get that many through, so now I've got a good old, I've got a list today."

Edebiri also smiled and clapped as Prince William walked away to his next line up.

The interaction in the video clip appeared warmer than in the still image that went viral on X.

However, as is often the case in fleeting moments of interaction between celebrities, only Edebiri knows what she actually thought of the prince.

Jack Royston is Newsweek's chief royal correspondent based in London. You can find him on X, formerly Twitter, at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

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