An ex-butler says he never saw any issues with Queen Camilla within the Royal Family, despite alternative claims made by Prince Harry in his bombshell memoir Spare, published in January 2023. Grant Harrold’s upcoming release, titled ‘The Royal Butler: My Remarkable Life of Royal Service, ‘ shares insight from his seven years working for King Charles.
Mr Harrold said that Harry, William, Charles, and Camilla “got on so well,” which made Harry’s version of the family rift confusing to him. Harry previously wrote in Spare that he and William had “complex feelings” about Camilla joining the Royal Family.
Prince Harry wrote: “‘We support you,’ we said. ‘’We endorse Camilla,’ we said. ‘Just please don’t marry her. Just be together, Pa.’ He didn’t answer. But she answered. Straight away.”
Prince Harry further wrote: “Shortly after our private summits with her, she began to play the long game, a campaign aimed at marriage and eventually the Crown (with Pa’s blessing, we presumed).”
King Charles and Camilla married nearly a decade after the King’s 1996 divorce from Princess Diana. Mr Harrold described Charles as the “happiest” he had ever seen him on their wedding day in April 2005. The wedding between the pair took place in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall.
The ex-royal butler has written his version of events in an excerpt published in The Telegraph: “At the end of the festivities, Charles and Camilla were catching a flight to head straight to Birkhall [on the Balmoral estate].
“We all went outside to wave them off and laughed as we saw William and Harry had decorated their car with ‘Just Married.’ As they drove off through the arches to cheers, the boys raced after the car.”
In Spare, the Duke of Sussex also referred to his stepmother as the “Other Woman”, revealing that her relationship with his dad, King Charles, “confused” and “tormented” both him and Prince William throughout their childhood.
He wrote: “We recognised that he was finally going to be with the woman he loved, the woman he’d always loved.”
Commenting about King Charles’ behaviour, specifically, Mr Harrold said the now-King was “very calm” and “didn’t once raise his voice” while they worked together.
Mr Harrold wrote: “He works hard and he doesn’t suffer fools. He gets on with everyone. He does get perceived as out of touch and he’s not.”
The new book, ‘The Royal Butler: My Remarkable Life of Royal Service’ will be released on August 28.