Grant Harrold reflected on the first time he met Camilla while serving as a royal butler, as the Queen celebrated her birthday earlier this month. During his appearance on The Royals Uncensored he suggested Britons will look back on Charles and Camilla’s romance as one of the “greatest of all time” in an on-air admission.
The Queen Consort marked her 77th birthday on July 16, touring the Channel Isles with King Charles, where crowds gathered to cheer and offer well-wishes.
King Charles and Queen Camilla were crowned at Westminster Abbey on May 6, 2023. Addressing his first meeting with the royal before she married then Prince Charles, Grant recalled: “When I had my interview, she was in the room, which completely surprised me. I knew I was meeting him but didn’t know I was going to meet her.
“At the time I was really confused.”
He added: “But she was so nice. During the interview, I was so nervous. He was great and she kept offering me more tea. She was almost like a mother figure. But she made me feel really relaxed.”
Grant praised Charles but admitted Camilla had been “extraordinary” during his time working for the House of Windsor.
He said Camilla would often write him letters and buy him gifts on special occasions including Christmas and for his birthday.
“My mother was a Princess Diana fan,” Grant told viewers. “But what was interesting, over the course of a couple of years, my mum even changed her opinion.”
Camilla faced her most intense public dislike and hostility during the 1990s and early 2000s following Charles and Diana’s marriage split.
Princess Diana famously stated in her BBC interview that “there were three of us in this marriage,” cementing public animosity when Camilla’s affair with Charles was confirmed.
Following the death of Princess Diana, negative perceptions of Camilla continued but over the years, as she integrated into the Royal Family, the public began to warm to the Queen Consort.
Charles and Camilla finally wed in April 2005 – decades after their romance started in the 1970s.