In 2007, Kate Middleton and Prince William ended their relationship. The breakup was announced in the tabloids, with no protest from the palace, nearly five years after their romance began. But before too long, the future King and Queen of England reunited. Former royal butler Grant Harrold, who worked for Prince Charles at the time, tells the story of how they came together again in a new book called The Royal Butler: My Remarkable Life in Royal Service.
In 2008, a year after the breakup, Harrold says found himself in charge of a very special meal. His mission? Organize a private dinner for two at the royal residence of Highgrove House. The guests? Kate and William, who were celebrating the revival of their relationship.
“It was just the two of them,” the former butler recalled to People. “It was really nice, really special.” Despite the intimacy of a meal designed for them, he added, they took care to “interact a lot” with him. He saw how the dinner’s atmosphere reflected their newfound camaraderie.
“Before, they weren’t [really] holding hands—it was very much William’s friend. After that, when they got back together, it absolutely changed, and it was very much them as a couple. Something changed, and you knew they were a couple, and from then on, it was very much a waiting game,” he said. “After they got back together, I was convinced they would get married. We didn’t know how long it would take.”
Harrold compares the Wales couple’s love to that shared by the late Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip: “When you saw them together and see them get on as friends, although they were in love, they are also absolutely best friends,” he said. “They were best friends who worked together as a team.”
But the 2007 breakup could have been final. Kate spent much of that year waiting for her prince, who was on one mission after another as he trained for the military and to be a helicopter pilot. Each time he returned to London, he partied hard with his friends. At the time, The Guardian— quoting The Sun—reported that “the couple have seen each other no more than once a week” and “their relationship has been on a downward spiral.” The tabloid quoted a close friend of both: “As far as Kate is concerned, William simply hasn’t been paying her enough attention. She is stuck in London while he is living in an officer’s mess in Dorset. Kate feels hugely frustrated that their relationship just seems to be going backwards at a rate of knots.” Paparazzi footage showing Prince Harry’s brother flirting with other young women didn’t help the situation.
According to Robert Jobson, author of a biography devoted to the Princess of Wales, the breakup took place over the phone, and William was the catalyst. “William telephoned to initiate a split, telling her that he felt they needed ‘a bit of space’ to ‘find our own way,” Jobson said. “William admitted his inability to commit to marriage.” The phone call reportedly lasted half an hour, enough time for them to both acknowledge being on “different pages.” The eldest son of Prince Charles and Princess Diana was said to have drowned his sorrows in parties. He even shouted “I’m free!” to his friends in a Mayfair nightclub before buying a round.
Kate, for her part, returned to live with her parents for a while, before a family holiday in Dublin and a vacation in Ibiza. Rather than run away from the paparazzi, she used the cameras to project the image of a radiant young woman enjoying her freedom, too. A few months later, the exes reunited at a party organized by a mutual friend. Rumor has it they made up on the dance floor. Eighteen years on, Kate and William are the parents of three children—Prince George, Princess Charlotte, Prince Louis—and continue to represent the Crown as they await becoming sovereigns in their own rights.
Originally appeared in Vanity Fair France.
