Long after working for the royal family when Prince William and Kate Middleton first began dating, a one-time butler revealed why their “horrifying” split impacted him.
Grant Harrold explained what it took to get his job, why William and Kate’s brief breakup affected him, and what other personal moments he was “lucky to be a part of” while looking after the royal family.
A former royal butler revealed he went through 6 months of interviews to get his ‘dream’ job
Former royal butler Grant Harrold talked to Slingo about the process of getting a job at the palace, which had been in line with a childhood fantasy of his. He shared, “I’d had a dream from the age of 11 or 12 of meeting [Queen Elizabeth II] ….”
Harrold explained that he wrote the iconic queen several times to express interest before he earned a position working for the future King Charles III in 2003. “… They finally came back to me saying there was a position,” he shared. “I had six months of interviews, I got to meet Prince Charles at the end of it, and they offered me a job.”
“I stayed with Charles for seven years. Some people say seven years isn’t a long time, but in the world of being a butler, seven years of having somebody in your house living with you, it’s quite intense.”
Regarding what a royal butler’s day entails, Harrold said some people don’t realize that they do more than serve meals and look after the family and guests. “The easiest way to explain it is, it’s like what you see in Downton Abbey,” he offered.
“You’re also kind of a personal assistant and expected to make things run [smoothly] for them,” he explained. “If you can do something for somebody and it doesn’t impact their day for it to happen, then that’s being a good butler.”
A former royal butler revealed what Prince William and Kate Middleton were like around the time of their ‘horrifying’ split
While working for Charles, Harrold said he “had the opportunity to look after William and Kate and Prince Harry,” noting, “That was fun because not only did I get to know them on duty, but I got to know them off duty too.”
“We went to the same pubs, [and] we ended up having a lot of the same friends,” he shared. “I always knew who they were and respected who they were, but I got on really well with them.”
Harrold said it’s “strange” that William and Kate are a family and senior royals now because “they’d only just left university” when he was a butler. “I was there when Charles married the Duchess of Cornwall,” he explained. “I was there when the boys went to university, [and] when William first met Kate.”
“They were dating — and then they stopped dating for a little while, which was horrifying to me because I adored both of them.”
“Luckily they got back together,” he added.
Prince William and Kate Middleton were like ‘any boyfriend and girlfriend’ when they were dating, according to former butler
Harrold said William and Kate were “like any boyfriend and girlfriend” when they were dating. “Not any different to anyone else,” he shared, adding, “It’s mad saying that when you think about who they are, but there wasn’t anything different.”
He offered, “It was always fun, and it was always nice that I got on so well with them because they’d then ask me to travel the country with them.”
Though Harrold’s friends thought it was “so cool” when William would contact him, it became usual for him. “That was the relationship I had with them,” he shared.
In conclusion, Harrold said he was “very proud” of his work and enjoyed spending time with the royal family. He said, “I think it’s nice for people to hear that the royals are nice people, they are down to earth, and it’s a fun place to be.”
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