Prince William honors the Mother of Dragons, Emilia Clarke, at special ceremony

No, they weren't battling for the Iron Throne.

Daenerys Targaryen may not have secured the Iron Throne, but Emilia Clarke is getting some royal recognition of her own.

The Game of Thrones star and erstwhile Mother of Dragons was honored by Prince William and the royal family in a special investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle on Wednesday. The Prince of Wales, 41, presented Clarke, 37, and her mother with Most Excellent Order of the British Empire medals in recognition of their services to people with brain injuries.

"From Westeros to Windsor, a real pleasure presenting @emilia_clarke and her mum Jennifer with their honours today for their charity work with @sameyouorg supporting brain injury recovery care," the Prince and Princess of Wales said in an Instagram post. "Congratulations to all of today’s recipients!"

The post also featured interviews with Clarke and her mother, as well as footage of the two meeting Prince William.

"It was such an honor personally, but more importantly, we started the charity because the consequences of brain injury are just so unknown," Clarke's mother, Jennifer, said.

"To have an award like this… cherry on the cake," Clarke added. "I'm going to get my photo taken because of this award. And people are going to say, 'Why is this person, who we recognize, got this award?' And we're going to say, 'It's for brain injury recovery.'"

Clarke and her mother founded the charity SameYou to raise money and awareness for people recovering from brain injuries and strokes. Clarke herself suffered two aneurysms in 2011 and 2013, which she revealed in a 2019 essay for the New Yorker.

"We're doing it to try and help other people, who have been doing it for a lot longer than us, make the changes that are so desperately needed for people," Clarke's mother concluded.

Both of Clarke's aneurysms occurred during her time on Game of Thrones, with the first happening after shooting on season 1 wrapped. She returned to filming and promoting the show barely a month after her first surgery. In 2013, she endured a second, which involved opening her skull.

Back in 2022, Clarke revealed that a significant portion of her brain remains unusable after her ordeal. "The amount of my brain that is no longer usable — it's remarkable that I am able to speak, sometimes articulately, and live my life completely normally with absolutely no repercussions," she said.

Now she helps others face similar challenges through the advocacy and efforts of her charity.

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