King Charles’s gardener says he was told ‘odd’ thing by monarch every Monday

Jack Stooks worked as the King’s gardener at Highgrove for 21 years and has opened up on what it’s really like working for the Royal Family – including what the monarch says every Monday

Jack Stooks, who tended to the gardens at Highgrove Castle for 21 years, was initially taken aback by King Charles III’s hands-on approach.

Since 1980, the monarch has poured considerable effort into cultivating the gardens of his Gloucestershire residence. Upon landing the gig at Highgrove, Jack found it “quite odd” to take orders from royalty but soon grew to admire King Charles’ meticulous nature. “He was very much on the ball all the time. If he came home at the weekend, he would be out in the garden checking what’s been done, what hasn’t been done,” Jack recounted, speaking on behalf of Prime Casino.

Jack noted that the King often had a keen observation every Monday morning, highlighting his active role in the garden’s maintenance.

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“He would be like, ‘This needs doing, that needs doing’,” he remembered, valuing the King’s direct involvement.

The gardening crew took great pride in their work, knowing it was appreciated and enjoyed by their esteemed employer.

Throughout his tenure, Jack didn’t just work alongside Charles; he also met Queen Camilla, Prince William, Kate Middleton, and Prince Harry.

Meghan Markle, in the Netflix documentary about her and Prince Harry, shared her surprise at the “formality” within the Royal family.

Reflecting on her initial encounters with the Royal family, she shared, “I guess I started to understand very quickly that the formality on the outside carried through on the inside,” and noted her surprise at the continuous formality, saying, “[I thought there would be] a forward-facing way of being, and then you close the door and go, ‘You can relax now’, but that formality carries over on both sides. And that was surprising to me.”

Jack, however, holds a contrasting view of the royals, expressing his astonishment at their normalcy, “I think for me it’s just the normality of how they are as people, and you know I think when people are looking in from outside they go, ‘Oh why do we have to give them our little bit of money every year? We shouldn’t have to do that, how dare they, he’s not our King, he is not this, he’s not that’, but the amount of work they do for the country is just immense.”

He also commended the King’s resilience in the face of illness, stating, “You see the amount of work he’s still doing and he’s just not giving up,” and continued to admire the King’s sense of duty, adding, “He could just say, you know, ‘I’m ill, I can’t do this’ and the country will go. Okay, fine But he’s like no, I’ve got a sense of duty.”

Jack lauded the King as a “trooper” and highlighted the support from Camilla, the Queen, saying, “He just forces himself to carry on and carry on, and it’s amazing to see that and see how they are as people for that.

Camilla as well, the Queen, she could step back and not do that much. But again, you know, there she is supporting him all the time.”

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