The Prince and Princess of Wales were "like any boyfriend and girlfriend" in the early days of their relationship, according to the King's former butler. William and Kate met in 2001 while studying at St Andrews University and were married 10 years later.
Grant Harrold was the then Prince Charles' butler for the majority of that period, beginning his association with the royal family in 2003. Asked what the pair were like in the early days, he told Slingo: "Oh, like any boyfriend and girlfriend. Not any different to anyone else, it’s mad saying that when you think about who they are, but there wasn’t anything different."
Mr Harrold was struck by how at ease Kate was with the family and staff. He said: "What I liked was that Kate, being a girlfriend and obviously not a member of the family, would be with me and the other staff and she was so polite, friendly, and fun and making jokes.
"I remember there were days I had off where I’d be running an errand or I’d left something up at Highgrove [House] and they were around, so you’d just catch up with them. It was always fun and it was always nice that I got on so well with them because they’d then ask me to travel the country with them.
"When my phone used to go off and it was William, all my friends would be like that’s so cool, but to me it was normal. That was the relationship I had with them."
Mr Harrold said it was "fun" to get to know the pair, along with Prince Harry, outside of their royal personas. He said: "We went to the same pubs, we ended up having a lot of the same friends - I always knew who they were and respected who they were, but I got on really well with them."
He added: "There’s very few people that the royals actually get to know, so you do feel lucky that you were trusted with that."
Mr Harrold was a fan of the royal family when he was younger and always dreamed of meeting the Queen. At the age of 26, his dream came true, but it was not an easy ride to get to that point.
He endured a six-month interview process before finally getting the job working for Charles. And it turned out to be everything he had hoped for.
"There were lots of things over the years that I was lucky to be a part of and I even got to dance with the Queen at one of those balls I had watched on television 12 years before," he said. "Thinking about it, 12 years isn’t that long of a time to actually make those dreams a reality."
