NEED TO KNOW
- When Kate Middleton and Prince William reconciled after their public 2007 split, palace staff were certain they were destined to marry
- The Prince and Princess of Wales, who wed in 2011, embody the “modern royal couple,” says former royal butler Grant Harrold, who witnessed it firsthand
- Harrold’s new memoir, The Royal Butler, is set to be released in September
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Former royal butler Grant Harrold has had a rare window on Kate Middleton and Prince William’s love story.
“Harrold, who worked as a butler to King Charles from 2004 to 2011, when he was Prince of Wales, witnessed firsthand how Kate was welcomed into the royal family as William’s girlfriend.
After their headline-making split in April 2007 — and their reunion a few months later — the couple left Harrold and other palace staff in no doubt: they were destined to marry. Harrold came to that conclusion after serving them at a quiet, intimate meal in William’s country home.
At the time, Harrold was serving William’s father, the then-Prince Charles, and had been hoping for a chance to serve at a private dinner at the royals’ retreat, Highgrove House. In Feb. 2008, that opportunity came — but it turned out to be a private Valentine’s meal for just two: William and Kate, months after they had reconciled.
“It was just the two of them. It was really nice, quite special actually,” Harrold recalls, enjoying tea and exquisite cakes at the Rubens Hotel, just steps from his former workplace, Buckingham Palace.
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Even though it was “a romantic dinner for them, they very much interacted with me throughout,” he says.
Like many palace insiders, Harrold, chatting over tea and cakes at the Rubens Hotel as he promotes his new book The Royal Butler, out September 23 and chronicling his journey from working-class Scotland to serving the late Queen Elizabeth, saw at that point that there was no question the couple was destined for the altar.
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“Before, they weren’t [really] holding hands — it was very much William’s friend. After that, when they got back together, it absolutely changed, and it was very much them as a couple. Something changed, and you knew they were a couple, and from then on, it was very much a waiting game,” he says.
“After they got back together, I was convinced they would get married,” he continues. “We didn’t know how long it would take.” That day eventually arrived on April 29, 2011.
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“When you saw them together and see them get on as friends, although they were in love, they are also absolutely best friends,” he says, adding that the couple reminded him of another iconic royal pair: the late Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, who passed away in 2022 and 2021 , respectively.
“They remind me of the Queen and Prince Philip. Their relationship was similar. They were best friends who worked together as a team.”
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William and Kate, he adds, “are very much a modern royal couple, which you can see with all the changes they are going to make in the coming years.”
And if another biopic of William and Kate’s life is ever made (following Netflix’s The Crown), Harrold hopes this scene makes the cut.
“I always thought if they ever make a movie about them and they re-enact the scene [of the intimate dinner], I hope they choose Brad Pitt to play my part!”
