Inside Eddie Redmayne's Connection To Prince William
Academy Award-winner Eddie Redmayne has many cool and impressive accomplishments under his belt. Aside from his plush lips and razor-sharp cheekbones, the English actor is also distinguished for winning an Oscar for portraying physicist Stephen Hawking in 2014's The Theory of Everything and being nominated again the following year for depicting real-life transgender artist Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl. ("Mr. Redmayne is a master of technique," The New York Times opined of his performance.)
Prior to his big Hollywood break in 2012's epic musical adaptation of Broadway staple Les Misérables, Redmayne had already won a Tony award for playing iconic American abstract painter Mark Rothko in the play Red, which ran from 2009 to 2010, according to StageAgent. Even royalty took notice in 2015, when Queen Elizabeth II appointed him OBE (that's "Officer of the Order of the British Empire") for distinction in his field, BBC reported.
In fact, he Fantastic Beasts star and the House of Windsor go back further than this Queen's honor. For all his amazing career feats, one of the coolest factoids about Redmayne comes from childhood — and it has to do with Prince William. Read on to find out their connection.
Eddie Redmayne and Prince William were classmates at boarding school
Eddie Redmayne, alongside Prince William, attended the fancy boarding school Eton College right near Windsor Castle, according to W. In 2018, Redmayne took a trip down memory lane and divulged a personal memory he shared with Prince William at Eton on Bravo's Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, W reported. Apparently, the two played on the same rugby team, where Prince William's royal heritage did not do him any service in the famously physical sport.
"I did play rugby with Prince William," Redmayne told Cohen. "I always felt a bit sorry for him because basically any school you played, all they wanted to do was tackle Prince William in order to say, 'I tackled Prince William.' So if you were standing next to Prince William, like I was, it was actually quite easy and quite fun," he noted. According to W, a caller to Cohen's show also asked Redmayne if he had spoken to Prince William since and if he had been invited to Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's wedding. "Quick answer to the second one: No, I wasn't. It's fine," Redmayne laughed.
In addition to roughing it out on the rugby field, Redmayne and Prince William — both the same age — were also members of the esteemed Eton Society, an exclusive group of senior students in charge of enforcing the school's discipline policies, according to People.