Former royal butler recounts ‘brilliant’ practical joke King Charles got involved in

The monarch is prone to getting ‘the giggles’

A former royal butler has reflected on King Charles III’s “amazing” sense of humour and recalled a practical joke played on him involving the monarch.

Grant Harrold worked for the King and Queen Consort Camilla from 2004 to 2011, when they held the titles of Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall.

Speaking during an etiquette event this week, Harrold recalled his first visit with the couple to the Castle of Mey in Caithness, on the north coast of Scotland.

The castle was one of the Queen Mother’s private residences, but was taken over by Charles as a steward after her death.

Harrold said he travelled to the castle with the royal couple shortly after he began working for them.

“The first night, we were in the staff room and they were all telling me ghost stories,” he recalled to The Independent. “I believe in ghosts and over the years have seen some weird things happen, so I totally go with it.”

As he retired to his bedroom, Harrold recalled thinking that the household staff may have put something in the room “to scare me” as it was his first time staying there.

Upon entering the room, he checked under the bed and behind the curtains, as well as up an old tower that was in the corner of the room, but found nothing.

“I thought, ‘Oh, my bad, they’re not up to practical jokes’,” he remembered. “Then I turned around and behind the door was a six-foot mannequin of a man in royal livery uniform from the time of the Queen Mother, and I screamed, I couldn’t physically stop screaming.”

After he did manage to stop screaming, Harrold said he heard “hysterical laugher echoing down the corridor”. He removed the mannequin from his room and went to bed, and went to work the next morning serving Charles his breakfast.

Charles, then-Prince of Wales laughs during a visit to the National Botanic Garden of Wales on July 06, 2022 (Getty Images)

“The now-King said to me, ‘Was everything OK last night? Did you sleep OK?’ and I said, ‘It was wonderful, thank you sir’. And he goes, ‘I thought I heard a noise’, and I said, ‘A noise? Oh, that was me’,” the former butler explained.

“He asked what happened so I told him and asked, ‘Did you not hear me, sir?’

“He said, ‘Yes, I knew all about it, I was involved – bloody brilliant, wasn’t it!’ and he was laughing, he thought it was hysterical.”

Harrold said the incident showed what an “amazing sense of humour” the King has and that “he’s got a practical joke in him as well”.

“[Charles] knew about it because the staff had to tell him, because I was going to be screaming, and also my room was just above where they were,” he said.

“That is exactly what he is like, he would be so much fun and do some really funny things, or knew about them and obviously supported them.”

Charles, the then-Prince of Wales, and his wife Camilla, the then-Duchess of Cornwall, in their role as the Duke and Duchess of Rothesay, drink whisky from a Quaich given to them as a wedding gift at the 2005 Mey Games at Queens Park (Getty Images)

Harrold also spoke about how Charles and Camilla would make each other laugh, which could prove “dangerous” when they were at events as everyone would end up in fits of laughter.

“As soon as [Camilla] got the giggles, [Charles] would get the giggles, and it was dangerous. We used to plan an exit, because you would just end up laughing,” he said.

“Thankfully humour is very much part of them, I think it has to be because of what they do, you have to have a laugh. He has a very good sense of humour. Hopefully it’s getting passed down to the younger ones.”