Prince William was ‘very quiet’ and ‘not himself’ after Kate Middleton breakup, royal butler reveals
Prince William was “quiet,” “withdrawn” and “not himself” during his brief split with Kate Middleton in 2007, a former royal butler has revealed as he sheds light on his time with the Royals in a new book.
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William and Kate had been a couple for years at this point, getting together in 2003 after meeting as undergraduate students at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
While it may seem like their relationship has always been strong, the royal couple briefly split after graduating from university.
The break-up - which only lasted a few months, marking a blip in their almost 25 years together - affected William deeply, according to a former royal butler.
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Grant Harrold, who began working for the royals the day after Princess Diana died on August 31, 1997, and left just 18 days after William and Kate’s wedding in 2011, said William “went very quiet” during the breakup.
“He went very quiet. He became a little bit withdrawn. I didn’t see a huge amount of him.
“I didn’t ask him—I didn’t say anything. I just knew he wasn’t himself 100 percent. I knew he wasn’t himself.” he told InStyle.
But despite the breakup, Harrold wrote that “Kate was always the one,” in his book The Royal Butler: My Remarkable Life in Royal Service, out later this month.
Though the reason for the split was never confirmed, Harrold thinks they might have “split up to get the media off Kate’s back, because it was so bad at the time,” referencing the enormous pressure on the couple to get engaged in 2007.
“Kate was struggling, and I wondered if it was to give a breathing space. That’s just my view. I had no information.
“So when they got back together, I remember thinking, ‘I wonder if they hadn’t really split up, they just had a bit of time apart [because of] the media.’”
During their separation, which only lasted a few months, “I kept hoping that was the case and they would get back together, and I secretly wanted them to get back together,” Harrold said.
He was “thrilled,” when they eventually got back together, he added.
The former royal butler also shed light on the Princess of Wales, saying she’s not as shy as people often think, but rather “lovely, very bubbly, very talkative.”
“What’s funny—people think she’s shy,” Harrold said. “She’s not shy at all.”
He said Kate was always friendly and asked about his week, and Harrold never mentioned any headlines he’d read about her.
“I always made out that I had no knowledge,” he said. “So I would kind of say, ‘What have you been up to, and what have you done?’ She was always lovely.”
He added that Kate wouldn’t even let him fetch her drinks, one of his tasks as butler, adding that she “would take care of herself.”
“She wouldn’t let me do anything. ‘Can I get you a drink?’ She’d be in the fridge getting a drink. ‘I’ll get you a plate.’ She’s already got the plate. You know what I mean? She did everything herself.”
Harrold said he’s “really proud” of the book and the stories he tells in it.
“I was lucky,” he said of his time working for the royals. “I was lucky. It was a really good time to be there.”