Royals Emma Thompson Tried to Sneak Kiss from Prince William at Her Damehood: 'I Can't Kiss You, Can I?' "He's looking wonderful and doing so well," the actress told reporters about Prince William By Emily Zauzmer Emily Zauzmer Emily Zauzmer is a former digital writer at PEOPLE. She left PEOPLE in 2018. People Editorial Guidelines Published on November 7, 2018 01:42PM EST Emma Thompson knows a royal opportunity when she sees it! The actress asked Prince William for a smooch as he made her a Dame — one of Britain’s highest honors. On Wednesday, the Love Actually star, 59, was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire at Buckingham Palace in London. She made good use of the investiture ceremony to slip in her bold request. “I love Prince William,” she told reporters about the royal father of three. “I’ve known him since he was little, and we just sniggered at each other. I said, ‘I can’t kiss you, can I?’ And he said, ‘No, don’t!'” Prince William Reveals Sailors Replaced His Flask with Jägerbomb at Ceremony: ‘Burnt My Throat!’ Even though she did not land a kiss, Thompson, who rocked sneakers and a suit at the ceremony, sang the prince’s praises. “He’s looking wonderful and doing so well,” she commented. “He said, ‘This day isn’t about me, it’s about you.'” “It’s really lovely because I’ve always loved the boys, and I’ve always been a long-term correspondent with their dad,” Thompson added. “It’s a very lovely feeling.” STEVE PARSONS/AFP/Getty Images Prince Charles As Prince Charles went through his bitter 1996 divorce with Princess Diana, Thompson used letters to cheer him up, according to the book Charles: The Heart of a King. Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding Pair Up for Romantic Comedy Written by Emma Thompson “I would get periodical messages from the boys that look after him at Highgrove saying: ‘[Could you] drop him a note because he’s a bit low in the water,’ so I’d pick up my pen and write as funny a letter as I could think of,” Thompson told author Catherine Mayer.