10 out of 10 for royal romantics
Couple’s enduring love compared to bond between Queen and Philip
YOUNG LOVE Graduation day at St Andrews
Jenny Morrison
It was a romance that started when they were both young students at St Andrews University.
Now, as Prince William and Kate look forward to celebrating their 10th wedding anniversary on Thursday, their love for each other has been compared to the enduring bond between the Queen and Prince Philip.
Former royal butler Grant Harrold, the first butler to work for the couple, said anyone who knows the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge can’t fail to be moved by the strength of their relationship.
Grant, who worked for the Royal Family for seven years, said: “The love between Wi l l iam and Kate, the relationship they have together, is very similar to the relationship that was between Prince Philip and the Queen.
“The Queen and Prince Philip were such a strong team but, more than that, they were best friends.
“William and Kate are best friends. They have grown up together. Kate and William weren’t much older than the Queen and Prince Philip when they met – still teenagers.
“They know each other so well. You can see how well they read each other, just as William’s grandparents did.
“I think what we are seeing in the relationship between William and Kate is almost the exact same footprint as the relationship between the Queen and Prince Philip.”
Grant, who grew up in Airdrie, started working for the Royal Family three years after William and Kate first met in 2001.
The couple, now parents to Prince George, seven, Princess Charlotte, five, and Prince Louis, three, were both studying history of art at St Andrews and staying in St Salvator’s halls of residence.
The couple are believed to have been friends for some time when Kate modelled a see- through dress at a charity fashion show for students.
They started dating shortly after the show.
After a lengthy courtship, which included a brief split in 2007, William proposed to Kate while on holiday in Kenya in October 2010. They publicly announced their engagement the following month.
A global TV audience of 300million people are believed to have watched them marry at Westminster Abbey in London on April 29, 2011.
Grant, who was employed by Prince Charles and worked mainly from his Highgrove House estate, said: “William and Kate love Scotland. They loved St Andrews and they loved their time there.
“The public might only see when they come up on official visits but, when I worked for the Royal Family, they certainly used to come up on a lot of private visits.
“I used to travel quite a lot with them up to Scotland. It’s somewhere they relaxed and were very much at home.” Wi l l iam and Kate are among members of the Royal Family who join the Queen on her summer holiday to Balmoral every year. A recent photo of the Queen and Prince Philip surrounded
FAMILY
Queen and Philip with seven
by seven of their great-grandchildren, which was taken by Kate on a family trip to Balmoral, was released by the Royal Family in the days following the Duke of Edinburgh’s death.
Official engagements William and Kate have carried out in Scotland together include attending the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014 and the off icial opening of Dundee’s V& A Museum in January 2019.
Grant, who runs his own etiquette and butler training business, said: “These last few weeks have been deeply great-grandkids
sad for the Royal Family but marking William and Kate’s 10th anniversary will give people something to smile about again.
“I didn’t attend their wedding but they sent me a piece of their cake, which I still have.
“Kate didn’t grow up in a royal family or know what was expected of her as a royal. She has learned all this and looks and carries herself very much like a future queen. In many ways, she reminds me of the Queen Mother, who was in the same position.”