King Charles and Idris Elba are reuniting at a key palace meeting for an impactful charity.
The King, 75, and the Knuckles star, 51, met at St. James’s Palace in London on July 12 to discuss the ongoing work of The King’s Trust and its ongoing work to support young people.
Elba has a particularly special connection to the organization as a former recipient of a grant from the charity. As a teenager, the actor, businessman and future PEOPLE Sexiest Man Alive received a £1,500 grant to study at the prestigious National Youth Music Theatre.
“When I was about 18 years old, I had the wonderful experience of auditioning for The Prince’s Trust,” Elba previously said on Instagram, mentioning that the grant “gave me my start and my career.”
King Charles founded The King’s Trust as The Prince’s Trust in 1976 when he was the Prince of Wales in the faith that all young people should have an equal chance to succeed. The charity works to help those from vulnerable backgrounds build skills to prosper through various courses and opportunities and has helped over one million young people across the U.K. to date.
The British monarch and The Wire alum met at St. James’s to discuss the trust’s ongoing work with young people and paving new ways to address youth violence in the U.K. They also touched on the collaboration in Sierra Leone between Prince’s Trust International and the Elba Hope Foundation. The charity was established by the actor and his wife, Sabrina, to forge a better future for Africans and the African Diaspora through empowerment, education, and sustainable development.
The King and Elba then moved to join the end of a roundtable between young people and youth groups, hearing about their takeaways from conversations, especially around the importance of positive opportunities for young people impacted by youth violence. It was announced that The Prince’s Trust in the U.K. and Elba Hope Foundation are collaborating on a new “Creative Futures” opportunity to inspire youth through the arts and support them in jobs in the creative sector.
The meeting concluded with a youth-approved move: a group photo.
King Charles and Elba have met several times in years past for events related to the organization and also crossed paths socially.
The Luther star and his wife were guests at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s royal wedding in May 2018, where Elba played DJ for some of the evening reception at Frogmore House.
The star later revealed that guests “went off” when Whitney Houston’s “I Want to Dance with Somebody” played, then added that “Still D.R.E.” by Dr. Dre featuring Snoop Dogg was another big hit.
“It was Meghan’s choice,” Elba explained about his setlist while co-hosting the BBC’s 1Xtra Rap Show in April 2022.
Source people.com
