{"id":82493,"date":"2025-08-20T13:13:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T13:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/82493\/"},"modified":"2025-08-20T13:13:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-20T13:13:11","slug":"chelsy-and-kate-got-on-really-well-ex-butler-grant-harrolds-brutal-swipe-at-meghan-markle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/82493\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Chelsy and Kate got on really well\u2019: Ex-butler Grant Harrold\u2019s brutal swipe at Meghan Markle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Princess Catherine and Prince Harry once shared a sibling-like bond prior to the Duke of Sussex\u2019s marriage to Meghan Markle, a former palace butler has claimed.<\/p>\n<p>Former palace staffer Grant Harrold served as a butler to King Charles from 2004 until 2011, and knew both Princes William and Harry as well as Catherine.<\/p>\n<p>In a new interview with The Telegraph, the ex-staffer revealed how the brothers and Kate were \u201ca little gang\u201d with Harry often spending time with Middleton when William was away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey involved him. He used to go out with Kate,\u201d he said on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWilliam would be away and Kate and Harry would be off doing stuff together.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019d go shopping together, they\u2019d go to pubs together. (\u2026) I think when people say \u2018oh he was left out\u2019, he really wasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It was during this period that Harry dated Zimbabwe-born society beauty Chelsy Davy, who Mr Harrold claimed had the seal of approval from Kate as a possible sister-in-law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChelsy was always around. And Chelsy and Kate got on really well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(William and Harry) used to go around being silly with each other and winding each other up, jumping out at their dad from corners and making him laugh.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was just like a family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ms Davy and Prince Harry dated on and off for a period of about seven years between 2004 and 2011 and was at one point tipped to become the Duchess of Sussex.<\/p>\n<p>The romance was Prince Harry&#8217;s most significant relationship before he met his now-wife Meghan Markle in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Harry also dated socialite Cressida Bonas, a friend of his cousin Princess Eugenie, but the romance fizzled out the year he cross paths with the newly divorced Markle.<\/p>\n<p>According to aristocrat and biographer Lady Colin Campbell, Harry\u2019s previous relationships before Markle broke down because Bonas and Davy were uninterested in royal life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHarry had one or two really nice girlfriends,\u201d <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.skynews.com.au\/lifestyle\/celebrity-life\/no-appeal-lady-colin-campbell-claims-prince-harry-married-meghan-markle-after-previous-girlfriends-lost-interest-in-royal-life\/news-story\/c070f002255205a84931c7c77d8d4ad5\" data-tgev=\"event119\" data-tgev-container=\"bodylink\" data-tgev-order=\"c070f002255205a84931c7c77d8d4ad5\" data-tgev-label=\"lifestyle\" data-tgev-metric=\"ev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">she told Best magazine\u2019s Suddenly Single podcast in April<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe had wonderful taste in girls, the problem is after a point when the excitement of being with a prince and the possibility of being a royal duchess has worn thin it had no appeal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In the end, Harry wed Markle at St George\u2019s Chapel in 2018 with both his ex-girlfriends in attendance.<\/p>\n<p>The Sussexes would ultimately stay in the royal family less than 18 months before abandoning royal duties and starting new lives in California.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Princess Catherine and Prince Harry once shared a sibling-like bond prior to the Duke of Sussex\u2019s marriage to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134,33664,5513,13935],"class_list":{"0":"post-82493","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-meghan-markle","13":"tag-prince-harry","14":"tag-royals"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}