Prince William was determined to win Kate Middleton back for good.
In 2007, the couple got back together after their headline-making split earlier that year. And on Valentine’s Day 2008, the now heir to the British throne was eager to show his former flatmate that he was in it for the long haul.
Grant Harrold, King Charles III’s former butler who served a romantic dinner for the pair, has written a memoir, “The Royal Butler: My Remarkable Life in Royal Service.” The etiquette expert told Fox News Digital that William wanted to prove to Kate that he was “serious” about their relationship’s future.
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“When they got back together, it was fresh, it was like a double boost,” said Harrold. “They both were making more of an effort. … [They had] this romantic dinner for Valentine’s Day, which they asked me to do, which they had never done before. They hadn’t done anything like that before. Suddenly, they wanted to do that. I felt that [William] was saying, ‘Look, I’m serious. This is going to up a level.’ That’s what I felt.”
“And, of course, a few years after that, they carried on,” Harrold shared. “It was almost like a reset button, but this was serious. The first time around, it was boyfriend-girlfriend, ‘Oh, let’s eat here, let’s chill here, let’s do that.’ Suddenly, it was a bit more, ‘I’m serious, and I’m going to show you I’m serious.’ That’s how it came across, which was amazing.”
William and Kate first went public with their relationship in 2004. Over the years, Harrold suggested to William and Kate that they have a formal dinner where he could serve them. The couple “laughed it off,” telling Harrold that they didn’t want too much fuss. But leading up to Valentine’s Day 2008, William suddenly approached Harrold one day and said, “OK, let’s do a dinner, if you’re happy to.”
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Harrold told Fox News Digital he was delighted to help the lovebirds enjoy a cozy dinner at Highgrove House, the royal family’s country retreat. William and Kate had been back together for nearly six months at the time and were “closer than ever.”
Harrold admitted he was “really gutted” after William and Kate initially called it quits.
“I got to know her from the early days as much as I knew William and got on with both of them,” he explained.
“From a selfish point of view, I always thought, ‘It’s going to be so cool when they get married and eventually become the Prince and Princess of Wales because I was there in the early days.’ … I wanted them to be the perfect royal couple. So, when they split up, I think the first I knew of it was, well, she disappeared. We didn’t see her. And then I started hearing the news reports.”
“I didn’t say anything to William because … the whole thing was just awkward,” Harrold admitted. “But she had disappeared, and I hated it. And a few of the household members, we spoke about it. We all thought it was quite sad.”
In his book, Harrold wrote that he was “absolutely gutted” when William and Kate broke up. He had befriended Kate and felt she was a perfect match for the prince. Still, Harrold noted that the press scrutiny Kate experienced in the early days of her courtship with William was “awful.”
Few people knew they quietly got back together before it hit the news.
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When it came to Valentine’s Day, Harrold wanted to help William make it extra special for Kate.
“I felt truly honored and delighted that William had taken me up on my offer,” he wrote. “Even though it was a typically chilly February evening, we planned for it to be outside the main house, at the top of the Thyme Walk, the stunning avenue of clipped golden yew and herb bushes bound on two sides by a pleached hornbeam hedge that leads down to the lily pond at the bottom.”
“What a far cry it was from the previous summer when, at a big party held in the Orchard Room (the large venue across from Highgrove, which was perfect for hosting private and public events), I’d seen Kate standing on her own with no one talking to her,” Harrold continued.
“It was a time when she and William had just gotten back together, but at the party, no one was taking any notice of her. Not everybody was aware they were back together, so some people didn’t know whether to speak to her or not.”
“When you think of the stunning, elegant princess she blossomed into, it was possibly the last time she could have been at an event and remained anonymous,” he added.
Harrold worked in the king’s household from 2004 to 2011. He was there for William and Kate’s wedding in 2011.
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“I left after they got married, so at least I got to actually see that part of their lives,” he said. “And it was a good time also to have left because they left Highgrove. My role would [not have] been looking after them anymore, and I loved looking after them.”
It was easy to see that Kate was “the one” for William, said Harrold.
“I [knew it] before the breakup,” he said. “They were so sweet together. I remember thinking I couldn’t see William with anyone else. I couldn’t see them with anyone else. It wouldn’t feel right, it was with anyone else.
“I could see qualities that she’d be very good at royal duties. You could see she was very focused. She was very good at keeping him right. … When he used to go off and do stuff, she would give him the once-over and give him encouragement. I’m thinking that’s amazing because that’s exactly what I imagine you want your future wife to be like.”
Kate also had qualities that reminded Harrold and other members of the royal household of a beloved royal, Princess Diana.
“Now, they always say that you marry your mother, don’t they?” said Harrold. “That’s what they say. They always say you marry the mother from the man’s point of view. … I didn’t know Diana, but what I’ve been told and what I’d seen of her … you’d see that shyness, that softly spoken voice, and a very elegant, gentle way of doing things. And the public had taken to her the same way they did with Diana. … Thankfully, history is very different this time around.”
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“Obviously, it’s sad what she’s gone through, which is awful for her,” he said, referring to Kate’s recent cancer battle. “But it’s also given her even more support openly from the British public, the Commonwealth, and other countries. Even though it’s horrendous for her to go through this … it’s shown her the love there is for her. … I think Diana’s support came from the divorce. That’s where she got a lot of support. But for Kate, she’s getting support through her health battles.”
Kate and William’s enduring bond also reminds Harrold of the late Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip. The Duke of Edinburgh, described by the monarch as her “strength and stay,” spent more than seven decades supporting his wife.
“The love, the companionship, the support, the working relationship, the friendship — it reminds me of the Queen and Prince Philip,” he said. “[And Kate’s] very much the fairytale that we thought we had back in 1981 when Prince Charles and his then Princess of Wales [got married]. Once again, we have a Prince and Princess of Wales that everybody loves.”
“I think this is … a long-term partnership between the two of them,” he said. “They’re in it for the whole way, literally till death do them part completely.”
