• After meeting at the University of St. Andrews in 2001, Prince William and Kate Middleton began dating around 2002 or 2003 and, in 2007, briefly split.
  • For their first Valentine’s Day after their breakup—in 2008—royal butler Grant Harrold was on hand for the “romantic” three-course meal at Highgrove, Prince Charles’s country home.
  • “They seemed closer than ever,” Harrold details in his new book, out in the U.S. on September 23.

When Grant Harrold served as a royal butler at Prince Charles’s country home, Highgrove, he regularly suggested to Prince William and his then-girlfriend Kate Middleton that he arrange a formal dinner for them.

“They never had dinner in the dining room and preferred to take it on trays, and as their first butler I wanted them to have dinner where I served them properly in the dining room,” Harrold writes in his book, The Royal Butler: My Remarkable Life in Royal Service, which is out in the U.S. on September 23. “I’d been suggesting this for years and they always laughed it off, saying they didn’t want any fuss. But then, one day, out of the blue, he suddenly said, ‘Okay, let’s do a dinner, if you’re happy to.’”

Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2008.

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This wasn’t going to be a normal weeknight dinner—the formal dinner was to take place on Valentine’s Day 2008, William and Kate’s first February 14 together after their brief breakup the year prior. “As far as I knew,” Harrold writes, this was “the first time the young couple had been able to enjoy such a romantic meal.”

After their breakup, “they seemed closer than ever,” Harrold writes.

Speaking to InStyle exclusively, Harrold says that he “was desperate to do this for them” because he thought at the time “I don’t ever want to leave and not have had the opportunity of doing a proper dinner, because they didn’t like formality.”

Prince William and Kate Middleton on February 10, 2007, just before their breakup.

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“I used to offer all the bloody time,” Harrold says. While he would sometimes do dinner for William, Kate, and their friends, it was never just for the two of them. “And I think it was also, in fairness to them, it’s a trust thing as well,” he adds. While Harrold doesn’t reveal exactly what was said in that romantic Valentine’s Day meal, he did say that “it was a great honor to be there to do it. And it was amazing.”

Seeing as this was 17 years ago, Harrold can’t remember the exact menu, though he says it had three courses and, “If I was to take a guess, I would say something like chicken” was served, he says.

Kate Middleton and Prince William on February 9, 2023.

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“And it was lovely because it was just them, and what was really nice—because they were having a very open conversation with each other, lovey dovey, as you can imagine [with] Valentine’s and all this kind of thing—William actually did some finishing touches,” Harrold says of the meal. “I can’t remember exactly what, but I know he’d done finishing touches. Now whether it was little love hearts or whatever, he did do finishing touches to the table. So he’s a romantic.”

Even though Harrold says he tried to stay out of the way, typical to their down to earth nature, “they still engaged with me, and it was really cool,” he says. The “very intimate” dinner was followed by the couple, who would have then been in their mid-20s, went to thank the chef personally for the meal.

Kate Middleton and Prince William on April 20, 2023.

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Kate Middleton and Prince William at the Royal Charity Polo Cup in 2023.

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Kate—who was called as such back in those days, not Catherine, as she is today—was “very polite, sweet, and personable,” Harrold writes in the book. Harrold tells InStyle that, when it comes to William, “there’s no acting. There’s no pretense.” To illustrate this, Harrold writes in the book about asking the future king what to call him upon meeting him for the first time. “William—my name’s William,” the royal told him.

In the 2000s, Harrold often got mistaken for William “years and years ago, when I was a lot younger and better looking, back in those days when I was fresh-faced,” he quips. “He was very handsome. So it was a huge compliment.”