Princes William and Harry Loved Their Cookies for Afternoon Tea

England's Prince Charles flanked by sons Prince William (L) & Prince Harry at National Service of Thanksgiving for Queen Mother's 100th birthday at St. Paul's Cathedral. — (Image credit: Photo by Ken Goff / Getty)

The royals pass down lots of things: titles, traditions, a sense of duty.

But one perhaps surprising trait many of them seem to share is an unrelenting sweet tooth.

This is well known, but has just been confirmed by former royal patisserie chef Fiona Burton, who worked at the Palace for 12 months around the year 2000.

Speaking of Princes William and Harry's visits to the kitchen, she explained, "They’re a similar age to me, I think they’re about the same age. I’m 42 so they’re a couple years younger.

"It’s a similar age, but even then we would call them the kids, even though I was round about their age. They were really pleasant and liked coming into the pastry kitchen, which many people do with it being sweets."

Speaking to Slingo, Burton recalled, "That’s where I developed one of my recipes, which is the chewy cookies, which was for them for their afternoon teas. I’ve developed it even further moving on from there. They were always pleasant."

She elaborated slightly on exactly which sweets the two younger princes had a special affinity for: "They liked all sorts of biscuits [that's British for "cookies," rather than the kind you'd have with gravy, FYI], cookies [this likely refers to chocolate chip cookies more specifically] and chocolate—nothing unusual or different.

"We knew they were in residence when we would make more of the cookie and biscuit styles. They liked their afternoon tea."

You know who else liked their afternoon tea? That's right, the late Queen. Speaking of which, Elizabeth was renowned for her "chocoholic" tendencies, as well as her love for a jam sandwich (or a marmalade one!!!), so it should come as no surprise that her grandsons are partial to some sweet snacks, too.

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Iris Goldsztajn is a London-based journalist, editor and author. She is the morning editor at Marie Claire, and her work has appeared in the likes of British Vogue, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Refinery29 and SELF. Iris writes about everything from celebrity news and relationship advice to the pitfalls of diet culture and the joys of exercise. She has many opinions on Harry Styles, and can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.