1 Royal Refuses to Follow King Charles’ Plan and ‘Step Up’ Because ‘It Isn’t Their Thing,’ Former Palace Employee Says
We’ve seen the number of working royals decrease over the last few years. Following Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s decision to step down, Prince Andrew resigned from his duties due to criticism about his association with Jeffrey Epstein. And the late Queen Elizabeth‘s cousins are now in their late 70s and 80s and can’t complete too many outings on behalf of the royal family anymore.
But there is still plenty of work and duties the monarchy needs to carry out, and King Charles’ former aide believes there is a plan in place for other members of the Firm to step up. However, there’s one royal who isn’t going to follow that plan because it’s “not her thing.”
The king’s former butler says we won’t see this royal doing any engagements
Grant Harrold was King Charles’ butler from 2004 to 2011. During his time working for the then-Prince of Wales and his wife (formerly Camilla Parker Bowles), Harrold got to know other members of the royal family as well. Harrold recently spoke on behalf of Slingo about a plan for more of those family members to start stepping up now that his former boss is the monarch and some of the other working royals like Queen Elizabeth’s cousins are much older.
Harrold explained that in addition to Prince William and Kate continuing to step up, he can also see their generation of royal cousins doing so with the exception of Princess Anne’s daughter, Zara.
“Not so much Zara Tindall because that’s not her thing,” Harrold said. “Beatrice and Eugenie have already shown that they are there to support and are called in to support the king when needed.”
He added: “The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh (formerly Sophie, Countess of Wessex) are still young and have shown they can step up. And Princess Anne will hopefully be able to continue carrying out her duties for several years to come.”
Zara Tindall is very close with King Charles
Despite Harrold’s claim that Zara will not step into the royal limelight and undertake duties, she has a very close relationship with the head of the family and has even become “protective” of the king.
Body language and behavioral expert Judi James previously spoke about the bond Charles and his niece appear to have.
“Zara is clearly very fond of her uncle and in terms of showing that affection in public she just goes for it, taking the lead in a way that makes her look rather protective of him,” James told Express. “Charles is much more reserved in terms of his reciprocal signals, but his wide grins and his close-quarters eye contact suggest he’s a very doting uncle to his sister’s consistently upbeat and fun-looking daughter.
“You might expect Zara to tone her playfully affectionate rituals down with her uncle. But instead, she seems intent on cutting through any formal stuff by instigating some very dominant-looking hugs that seem to both surprise and delight [Charles].”
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