Former Royal Butler Reveals Some of the Family's "Guilty Pleasures" Including King Charles's Surprising Favorite Movie
The staffer called some of his former boss's tastes "quite unusual."


All of us have that one treat that we can’t help enjoying, and the Royal Family are certainly not immune to junk food or popular reality shows. Princess Diana used to take Prince Harry and Prince William for McDonald's and pizza, and Princess Kate is known to love Indian takeout. But former royal butler Grant Harrold, who worked for the King and his sons at Highgrove House from 2004 to 2011, has revealed a few more of the Royal Family's guilty pleasures—including one movie you wouldn't expect King Charles to call a favorite.
It’s previously been reported Camilla never misses Strictly Come Dancing (the U.K. equivalent of Dancing with the Stars) and multiple family members have taken in The Crown. But even though King Charles isn't a fan of Britain's Got Talent, he's got some other programs queued up and ready to go.
"The King likes to watch old TV series, he is a huge fan of watching Dame Edna shows, which people find probably quite unusual," Harrold, speaking on behalf of Prime Casino, says. "He would also watch The Goonies."
King Charles is a fan of The Goonies, according to his former butler.
Prince Harry and Prince William are pictured at Highgrove House in 1999.
When it comes to Prince William and Prince Harry, the former butler said they couldn't resist fast food—and they'd actually go out and get it themselves.
"For the boys, their main guilty pleasure is a fast food takeaway from the local village," he shares. "They would always go and pick it up because there was so much security to go through for something to come to the house, so it wasn’t unusual to see Harry running into the shops in town."
"Harry even offered me a takeaway when I first started working there," Harrold adds. As for William, the Prince of Wales told the co-founder of Nando's that he's one of the chicken restaurant's "biggest fans" and should "buy a stake" in the company, per Hello!
However, in a 2017 BBC Radio One interview, the Prince and Princess of Wales admitted that they don't get their own food these days. While Kate loves a curry and William enjoys pizza or Chinese food, the future King explained that "it doesn't usually get ordered to the palace, we tend to go and pick it up," with William adding, "not ourselves!"
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Kristin Contino is Marie Claire's Senior Royal and Celebrity editor. She's been covering royalty since 2018—including major moments such as the Platinum Jubilee, Queen Elizabeth II’s death and King Charles III's coronation—and places a particular focus on the British Royal Family's style and what it means.
Prior to working at Marie Claire, she wrote about celebrity and royal fashion at Page Six Style and covered royalty from around the world as chief reporter at Royal Central. Kristin has provided expert commentary for outlets including the BBC, Sky News, US Weekly, the Today Show and many others.
Kristin is also the published author of two novels, “The Legacy of Us” and “A House Full of Windsor.” She's passionate about travel, history, horses, and learning everything she can about her favorite city in the world, London.