Is this the monarchy’s most eligible bachelor?
Princess Margaret’s grandson, Arthur Chatto, reveals his bid to row around Britain (and more) to Eleanor Steafel
‘Yes, I have watched ‘The Crown’ – but I remember what they’re actually like’
In his latest Instagram video, the Queen’s great-nephew balances a squat bar across his shoulders, drops to the floor and heaves. With bulging triceps and solid thighs, Arthur Chatto appears more Marvel hero than junior member of the Royal family. After Prince Harry was taken off the market in 2018, the 20-year-old – who is currently 26th in line to the throne (albeit without an official royal title) – was dubbed the most eligible bachelor in the British monarchy, despite having a girlfriend. Along with his brother Sam and several young cousins, he is one of a new generation of junior royals making waves on social media – and he isn’t about to hide his rippling muscles from his 130,000 followers. Especially when it’s for a good cause. This latest video is all part of an intense “strength and conditioning” training routine to which Chatto is adhering in preparation for a great expedition, all in the name of climate change.
With three chums – Charles Bromhead, Oli Dawe-lane and Frasier Cutt – Chatto is gearing up to race around the entire British coastline non-stop, in a rowing boat.
Part of the GB Row Challenge 2020, theirs will be one of two boats attempting to set a new world record for circumnavigating Great Britain, and raise £150,000 for environmental charity Just One Ocean. They’ll set off from Tower Bridge on June 1 and row 24 hours a day for as long as it takes to travel clockwise around the country and make it back to the Thames. Only four boats have ever been successful, and the last one took nearly 27 days to complete the journey.
The sun is setting over a sleepy marina somewhere near Portsmouth, as I meet Chatto and his team-mates, balancing in the boat that will soon become their home for a month.
Posing for photographs, they push “Mr Instagram” to the front of the shot; he is, it should be said, the most smartly dressed of the crew, wearing a nice pale chino and immaculate leather boots while his team-mates are togged up in outdoor wear.
None of them had ever, they admit, rowed before taking on this challenge, but they have been training hard on nearby rivers in Edinburgh (where Chatto is in his third year at university) and Exeter (where the other three are doing their finals). “We’ve all been trying our best to get up to standard,” says Dawe-lane. “Arthur drove four hours just to find a rowing machine to put in his room.”
“We have no intention of losing, put it that way,” says Bromhead. “A few days in, it might become a case of either survival or winning. But we’re physically training to be competitive with the other team.”
They might never have rowed before, but they have that unshakeable confidence that befall all blue-blooded Englishmen faced with a great expedition. What are the dangers, I ask, as four pairs of hands shoot out to help me on to the boat to inspect their living quarters.
“Where do you start? The shipping lanes, especially in the Channel, are going to be quite bad,” says Bromhead. “The first one will be Camber, then Lulworth, then a few a bit further down, there’s a missile firing range just on the edge of the Lake District. There’ll be a lot of dynamic risk-assessing.”
They all nod solemnly in agreement, though Chatto admits to being slightly nervous about going overboard. “I’d probably say I was worried about capsizing,” he grins. “But we should be harnessed in, and it is a self-righting boat, so in theory if we do capsize, we should flip back around.”
In an emergency, you’d imagine the coastguard might get there a little faster, given the Queen’s greatnephew is on board. “I mean, there’s not much more they could really do…” says Chatto, before his teammates chime in: “Yeah, and if Arthur goes overboard, we’ll just keep going.”
They will never be more than 20 miles from the coast, but nevertheless have all been economical with the truth when it comes to telling their parents about the race. “With my mum, I think it’s always best not to tell her the full details and then she can’t get too worried,” says Chatto. “Then, when you’re back – touch wood – she won’t worry as much.”
Chatto’s parents – Lady Sarah Chatto, Princess Margaret’s daughter, and artist Daniel Chatto – should be used to his gallivanting by now.
His Instagram account reveals Alpine ascents, Arctic diving and topless trekking in the Scottish highlands – that one was a particular hit with his following, prompting
Vanity Fair to declare him “the new royal bachelor”.
Not that this long-term girlfriend, Lizzie, minds his billing as the monarchy’s most-wanted (“Oh God, that’s just not true, is it?” he sighs). Apparently, she is “very interested” in the expedition, “because she does geography like me and Charles, so she’s into the environmental side of it”.
Given his appearance in the line of succession, I ask, isn’t he subject to the same social media rules as more senior royals? After our interview, several members of his extended family are revealed to have taken part in lucrative advertising campaigns that depended on their links to royalty – Peter Phillips, the Queen’s eldest grandson, and Princess Diana’s niece, Kitty Spencer, both appeared in Chinese milk adverts, while Princess Michael of Kent promoted a stem cell clinic in the Bahamas, although she says she wasn’t paid for it.
Chatto answers carefully: “Um, I am learning as I get older that there are more rules than I thought,” he says. “When I first started, obviously Instagram was a less big thing, so I had a bit less sort of, um… I mean, I don’t think I really have that many guidelines to be honest, but obviously I like to check in with the family and make sure everything’s all right.”
While Chatto understandably finds mention of his family ties awkward, he will admit to being a fan of The
Crown – the first member of the Royal family to do so publicly. “Yes, I have watched it,” he says, “I guess it’s only an interpretation. So I just kind of remember what they’re actually like and don’t let the TV persona marr my judgment of any of them.”
For now, Chatto and his teammates’ focus is on securing sponsorship so that they can actually do the race. They are offering sponsors the chance to have their name on the back of the boat. Couldn’t they offer a sponsored post on Arthur’s Instagram, I suggest? “We didn’t even think about that. We could farm Arthur out…”
As we head back to our cars – the lads are heading to the Chatto family house in Sussex where I’m told they will train, eat an “enormous” dinner and get some rest before training on the boat again tomorrow – I turn to Arthur once more.
“I have to ask,” I say, having spotting a flash of something red on his ankle. “Are those corgis on your socks?”
“Corgis?” he says, raising his trouser leg as his friends fall about laughing. Who gave you those, I press.
“They were a Christmas present,” he replies. I wonder who from?