Prince William Once Gave a Royal Butler ‘a Fright’ With a Playful Prank While Incognito

According to a former royal butler, Prince William once pulled a hilarious prank on him while he was incognito. The joke gave the employee “a fright” initially, but his mood changed once he realized who was behind it.

Grant Harrold dished on what it was like working for the royal family, his playful relationship with William, and how he felt about the addition of Kate Middleton when she was still relatively new around the palaces. Plus, he revealed which royal once showed concern about if he’d had a chance to care for himself.

Former royal butler Grant Harrold reveals feelings about working for the royal family

Harrold worked for King Charles III and Queen Camilla for several years, beginning his six-month interview process in 2003. William and Prince Harry were young adults, but Harrold said in an interview with Onlinecasino.ca he was sometimes in charge of “looking after them.”

Sometimes they looked after him, too. “I’ve recently said I remember in my early days, I was off duty one day soon after I’d started, and Harry was all concerned if I’d had food,” Harrold recalled. “I felt so lucky with those relationships.”

Harrold, who once revealed what it was like when things went wrong in royal work, also said he knew the family “as well as [he] knew [his] parents, with respect,” adding, “But that’s quite normal as a butler, you do get to know people.”

Grant Harrold recalls a playful prank Prince William pulled on him while incognito

Harrold said his relationships with some royal family members were close enough to become playful sometimes. For instance, he recalled when he was going to get some fuel and was approached by someone tapping him on the shoulder. He looked around, but the person was unrecognizable because they “had a motorbike helmet on and leathers.”

“I turned around and looked away. I used to be in a reality series a year before, so people would come up and do that to me,” Harrold noted. “So he did it again, and I looked again and ignored, then I got a third tap.”

“So I turned around and actually came face to face with him,” Harrold said, adding the voice asked if he recognized him. He replied, “No, I don’t know why you keep tapping me.”

“Then he lifted the visor, and it was William,” he concluded. The prince was laughing and asked, “Did you get a fright?”

Harrold admitted to being confused before he realized who was under the helmet, but he understood William’s sense of humor and thought it was funny, too. “… That was the kind of relationship I had with him,” he noted. 

Young Kate Middleton was ‘just fun to be around,’ according to Grant Harrold

For much of the time that Harrold worked for the royal family, Kate, Princess of Wales, was William’s girlfriend. And according to him, she was thoughtful and “just fun to be around.”

“The thing I remember is, she was quite caring, asking how I was, how my family were,” he recalled. “In parts of conversations, we’d be giggling and laughing.” Perhaps that’s why he was horrified by the couple’s brief split in 2007.

Harrold shared that he now feels lucky that he was allowed to develop connections with the royals. He noted, “They were obviously comfortable with me being around.”