Former Butler Reveals Some of Royals' ‘Guilty Pleasures’— Including Charles’ Unusual Movie Pick

Former royal butler Grant Harrold pulled back the curtain on some of the royal family's unusual guilty pleasures behind closed doors.

All of us have certain guilty pleasures we love coming home to, and the royal family is no different. What sets them apart is their firm stance on privacy, choosing to keep their relatable, human side hidden behind closed Palace doors. Former royal butler Grant Harrold, who served King Charles, Prince William, and Prince Harry at Highgrove House, spilled the royal tea on some of the family's unusual guilty pleasures. He revealed that the King is a big fan of Dame Edna shows and loved watching The Goonies, while the Princes enjoyed sneaking out for junk food now and then.

As reported by Marie Claire, Harrold spoke on behalf of Prime Casino and said, "The King likes to watch old TV series, he is a huge fan of watching Dame Edna shows, which people find probably quite unusual. He would also watch The Goonies." While one might not associate royal Princes with indulging in cheap fast food, especially with Palace chefs at their service, Harrold revealed that this assumption is far from true. He spilled, "For the boys, their main guilty pleasure is a fast food takeaway from the local village. They would always go and pick it up because there was so much security to go through for something to come to the house, so it wasn’t unusual to see Harry running into the shops in town."

Harrold's claims about William and Harry enjoying junk food do not come as a surprise, considering their late mother, Princess Diana, regularly took them to McDonald's. As per InStyle, the late Princess had a heartwarming reason for taking her boys there. Her former chef, Darren McGrady said, "One lunchtime, I was getting lunch ready and the Princess came in and said, ‘Cancel lunch today. I’m taking them out.’ I asked, ‘Where are you going?’ and she said, ‘McDonald’s." He added, "I said, 'I can do burgers better than McDonald’s,' and she said, ‘I know that, Darren, but they want the toys in the Happy Meal.' They would get fast food sometimes, just like normal families with children." 

As for the King, while he may be a big fan of The Goonies, he reportedly dislikes watching Britain's Got Talent. In a separate interview with Marie Claire, Harrold revealed that despite Charles's disdain for the show, he wanted to be informed on the contestants' hot gossip. He spilled, "He probably has seen one or two, or maybe Queen Camilla fills him in, but I can guarantee, from the official point of view, he will be filled in." As for Camilla, the butler said that she never misses Strictly Come Dancing and loves watching game shows. 

William's better half, Kate Middleton, is not far away when it comes to her love for spicy Indian food. According to Sky News, when the couple visited an Indian restaurant in Birmingham in 2023, the Prince and Princess of Wales said they "love curries" and "secretly try lots of curry houses around the country." Middleton also proclaimed her love for spice, while William quipped, "I'm a masala man." Asked if their children loved Indian food, she replied, "Absolutely, they love it."