• After many years together, a young Prince William and Kate Middleton briefly broke up in 2007.
  • Royal butler Grant Harrold tells InStyle ahead of the September 23 release of his new book that the future king was “quiet,” “withdrawn,” and “not himself” during those months.
  • Harrold always hoped that William and Kate would get back together, saying that “Kate was always the one.”

By now, Prince William and Kate Middleton have been together for the better part of 25 years—save for a few months in 2007, when they briefly broke up after graduating from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland (where they originally met in 2001).

Royal butler Grant Harrold—who began his service for the royal household the day after Princess Diana’s death on August 31, 1997 and who left royal employ just 18 days after William and Kate’s wedding on April 29, 2011—was around for the breakup, working at Prince Charles’s country home, Highgrove, at the time of their split. In his new book The Royal Butler: My Remarkable Life in Royal Service, which is out in the U.S. on September 23, Harrold writes that, even through their breakup, “Kate was always the one.”

Prince William and Kate Middleton on June 15, 2024.

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Speaking exclusively to InStyle, Harrold says that during their breakup, William’s demeanor “became very quiet,” he says. “He went very quiet. He became a little bit withdrawn. I didn’t see a huge amount of him. I didn’t ask him—I didn’t say anything. I just knew he wasn’t himself 100 percent. I knew he wasn’t himself.”

Harrold speculates that maybe William and Kate “split up to get the media off Kate’s back, because it was so bad at the time,” he says of the rampant pressure on the couple in 2007 to get engaged. “Kate was struggling, and I wondered if it was to give a breathing space. That’s just my view. I had no information. So when they got back together, I remember thinking, ‘I wonder if they hadn’t really split up, they just had a bit of time apart [because of] the media.’”

Kate Middleton and Prince William on March 13, 2007.

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During that time apart—only a few months in length—“I kept hoping that was the case and they would get back together, and I secretly wanted them to get back together,” Harrold says. When they did reconcile, he was “thrilled,” he adds.

Harrold describes the Kate he knew in the 2000s as “lovely, very bubbly, very talkative.”

“What’s funny—people think she’s shy,” Harrold says. “She’s not shy at all.” Kate had no airs about her and talked to Harrold about how his week was and what was happening. Even if he’d read headlines about her, he never mentioned it—“I always made out that I had no knowledge,” he says. “So I would kind of say, ‘What have you been up to, and what have you done?’ She was always lovely.”

Kate Middleton on May 4, 2007, during her brief breakup from Prince William.

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Kate Middleton on March 16, 2007.

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One of the roles of a royal butler was to get a drink for anyone who needed one in the house, but Kate “would take care of herself,” Harrold says. “She wouldn’t let me do anything. ‘Can I get you a drink?’ She’d be in the fridge getting a drink. ‘I’ll get you a plate.’ She’s already got the plate. You know what I mean? She did everything herself.”

Harrold says he’s “really proud” of the book and the stories in it. “I was lucky,” he says of his time in royal service. “I was lucky. It was a really good time to be there.”