Former butler recalls close bond and challenges Harry’s version of family tensions
A former royal butler has revealed surprising details about the bond between Prince Harry and Kate Middleton, painting a very different picture of their relationship than many might expect.
Grant Harrold, who worked in the royal household from 2004 to 2011, recalled that Harry and Kate often spent time together without Prince William. Far from being an outsider, Harry was regularly included in the couple’s social life.
“He used to go out with Kate,” Harrold shared. “William would be away, and Kate and Harry would be off doing stuff together. They’d go shopping together, they’d go to pubs together.”
His recollections counter the widespread view that Harry was left out, instead suggesting he was deeply woven into the lives of his brother and sister-in-law.
Harrold also offered insight into Harry’s relationship with William and their stepmother, Queen Camilla. Contrary to Harry’s claims in his memoir Spare, Harrold described the four as getting along well.
“The four of them, I promise you, got on so well,” he said. “I saw them having dinners, drinks, and parties together. That’s why I don’t understand what Harry’s said. Because I saw it with my own eyes.”
The butler even disputed Harry’s account of King Charles’s wedding to Camilla. While Harry wrote that he and William begged their father not to marry her, Harrold recalled a much lighter moment — the brothers decorating their father’s car with “Just Married” signs and chasing it as Charles and Camilla drove away.
Harrold’s memories stand in sharp contrast to the fractured family dynamics Harry has described, suggesting that the story may be more complicated than it appears.
