Buckingham Palace has a whopping 775 rooms, with 52 luxurious royal and guest bedrooms, 19 grand State rooms, a staggering 188 staff bedrooms, 92 offices and more bathrooms than you could ever need, with 78 in residence.
Royalists flock from around the world to get a glimpse inside the palace when it opens to the public in summer, so you may expect the Royal Family would love to explore the chambers that nobody else has access to. However, Prince Harry revealed that he had never been inside one of the rooms until he was aged 33.
Just before his wedding, the late Queen invited Prince Harry to come to her dressing room so that Meghan Markle could try on tiaras for the special day.
He penned: “Shortly before the wedding, however, Granny reached out. She offered us access to her collection of tiaras. She even invited us to Buckingham Palace to try them on. Do come over, I remember her saying.”
He described it as an “extraordinary morning”, adding: “We walked into Granny’s private dressing room, right next to her bedroom, a space I’d never been in.
“Along with Granny was a jewellery expert, an eminent historian who knew the lineage of each stone in the royal collection. Also present was Granny’s dresser and confidante, Angela.
“Five tiaras were arrayed on a table, and Granny directed Meg to try on each one before a full-length mirror. I stood behind, watching.”
Despite what we may expect, the Duke said he actually spent very little time in the palace when he was younger.
Speaking to a group of young professionals from the Caribbean who were staying at the Palace to train with the household staff in 2018 as rising stars in the industry, he joked they were far more accustomed to the palace than him.
“Well, you guys have spent way more time in Buckingham Palace than I ever have, and you’ve only been here for two weeks, I can assure you,” he said.
During his childhood, Prince Harry lived in Kensington Palace and he also lived in Clarence House for a time until 2012, but he was more likely to have spent time with his grandparents over the holidays at Balmoral, Sandringham and Windsor.