Former Royal Butler Describes What It Was Like to Work for Princess Kate

Earlier this year, it was reported that several of the Princess of Wales’ senior staffers hadn’t spoken to their boss for an extended period of time after her abdominal surgery and before the world found out that she had been diagnosed with cancer (which she revealed during a moving video message on March 22). It all makes sense now, but her reported radio silence must have seemed especially jarring to staffers at the time, because she’s typically a “caring” boss who has been known to have a laugh with staffers, former royal butler Grand Harrold said, per OK.

“With Kate, she was just fun to be around,” Harrold said. “The thing I remember is, she was quite caring, asking how I was, how my family were. In parts of conversations, we’d be giggling and laughing.”

He added “I was very much allowed to be a part of that and feel lucky I was allowed to be there and be part of that,” Harrold said. “They were obviously comfortable with me being around.”

Kate was seen publicly on December 25 attending the royal family’s traditional Christmas Day church service at Sandringham; she underwent abdominal surgery on January 16, which the public found out about the next day (along with news that King Charles would, too, undergo a planned procedure at The London Clinic that same month). We likely don’t have to remind you, but Kate’s absence during the month of February and into March led to Photogate (who can forget that?), and culminated in Kate’s announcement on March 22 that she had been diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing treatment for it. (Sadly, too, this news mirrored that of her father-in-law, who announced he had been diagnosed with cancer himself on February 5.) While the King continues to work—though in a more limited capacity—Kate is still out of the public eye (as is her right to do), and her return date is unknown.

During her absence, Kate’s team has no doubt still been hard at work—she hired a new private secretary, Lieutenant Colonel Tom White, at the end of February. White has been in the mix since at least last November, when he attended Kate’s inaugural Shaping Us National Symposium in London; prior to White’s appointment as private secretary, Hannah Cockburn-Logie held the role from 2020 to 2022 before departing for personal reasons, and Catherine Quinn held the role prior to Cockburn-Logie from 2017 to 2019. At the time of her departure, The Daily Mail reported that the two women left their working relationship on the “best of terms.”

As private secretary, White will manage Kate’s team of staffers; like his wife, Prince William also appointed a new person to run his office recently, hiring former diplomat Ian Patrick at the end of February. “On the heels of those appointments will be a CEO-type appointment to head up the couple’s joint teams,” People reports. “The hire has yet to be announced.” 

Of working for the royal family, “I’m really grateful for all those memories,” Harrold said. “I think now, and I might be wrong, it’s a much bigger organization and I would be one of a number, but there, it wasn’t quite like that.”