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Royal staff are expected to maintain a discreet and modest appearance at all times, so when one of King Charles’s butlers arrived for work with a bright orange tan, Grant Harrold was immediately pulled up by His Majesty.
The fake tan caused such a stir that Mr Harrold was asked to step away from serving Charles and Camilla until it faded, he has revealed in his book The Royal Butler.
Recalling the disastrous incident in 2005, Mr Harrold said that he decided to brighten up his complexion after feeling dissatisfied with his ‘pasty white’ skin tone.
He had hoped for a natural glow but described feeling horrified as he stared at his reflection in a mirror after the tanning appointment.
‘Rather than the bronzed Adonis look I had been going for, I had to admit I looked more like an Oompa-Loompa,’ he quipped.
The following day, Charles, then Prince of Wales, and his wife Camilla, then the Duchess of Cornwall, returned to the Aberdeenshire estate of Birkhall only to be met by their unusually orange-toned butler.
When Mr Harrold served the royal couple their dinner that evening, he said he noted that they ‘kept looking at me’.
Mr Harrold was in between serving the starter and the main course when the head butler summoned him and relayed a stern message from Charles and Camilla.
When one of King Charles’s former butlers arrived for work with a bright orange tan, Grant Harrold (pictured) was immediately pulled up by His Majesty
‘I’ve been requested to ask you not to go back in tonight, because they’ve said the smell’s too strong for them,’ Mr Harrold’s supervisor told him.
The ‘stench’ saw Mr Harrold being banned from serving Charles and Camilla for two days before it dissipated.
But this wasn’t the only awkward encounter Mr Harrold was forced to endure because of the tan.
The same weekend, he bumped into Prince William in the kitchen when he did a ‘double take’ and asked Mr Harrold: ‘What have you done?’
‘I had a spray tan,’ he replied, sheepishly, prompting William to say: ‘Yes. Why?’
‘Because I wanted to have it done,’ the mortified butler explained, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy William’s curiosity.
Grinning, he asked again: ‘Is it everywhere?’
‘Trying to remain calm’, Mr Butler confirmed it was a full-body tan before William asked if it was ‘on your toes’ without missing a beat.
Mr Harrold was the royal couple dinner at Birkhall in 2005 when the head butler summoned him and relayed a stern message from Charles and Camilla
The same weekend, he bumped into Prince William (pictured) in the kitchen when he did a ‘double take’ and asked Mr Harrold: ‘What have you done?’
Then William asked if he could inspect Mr Harrold’s toenails in what could only have been an utterly embarrassing ordeal for the royal butler, who served Charles until 2011.
‘I felt I had to oblige and, as I took my socks off, I thought of the Queen, who had only recently blessed people’s feet at the annual Royal Maundy service, on the day before Good Friday,’ wrote Mr Harrold.
‘I wondered what she would have thought, had she been exposed to my strangely coloured feet. I probably had my answer.’
William took one look at Mr Harrold’s toes and ‘burst out laughing’.
‘He thought it was brilliant – when he was finally able to compose himself.’
While the esteemed butler’s orange complexion meant he was temporarily forced to halt his duties, luckily, it soon faded, and Mr Harrold remained a key staff member of the royal household for the next six years.
Mr Harrold was 25 and living in Airdrie, an industrial town near Glasgow, when he landed the job as a royal butler.
After joining the housekeeping staff at a Scottish county estate, Mr Harrold soon bagged the job of a lifetime: working for Charles, who would go on to become the King of England.
While the esteemed butler’s orange complexion meant he was temporarily forced to halt his duties, luckily, it soon faded, and Mr Harrold (pictured) remained a key staff member of the royal household for the next six years
Mr Harrold also shared how Charles and Camilla went out of their way to ensure he could attend their ‘extraordinary’ wedding and reception after initally being left out of the guest list
During his tenure, Mr Harrold was well-liked by the Royal Family as he revealed how William fondly called him ‘mate’ while he was preparing a romantic meal for him and his then-girlfriend Kate Middleton.
He also shared how the ‘friendly’ and ‘polite’ prince requested he be addressed without his title, as Mr Harrold wrote: ‘It felt like a big deal because not many people addressed him purely by his first name.’
Meanwhile, Charles and Camilla were also said to have struck up a close relationship with the former butler.
Just two weeks after he began working at Birkhall, the royal couple gifted Mr Harrold a card, a present and even a unique ‘large, round chocolate coin which was the size of a side plate and bore the head of Queen Victoria,’ for his 26th birthday.
‘It was very sweet, because they didn’t have to get me anything, and I was extremely grateful,’ he said.
Mr Harrold also shared how Charles and Camilla went out of their way to ensure he could attend their ‘extraordinary’ wedding and reception after initally being left out of the guest list.
While all members of staff who had served the royal couple were invited to the ceremony, Mr Harrold did not receive an invitation because he had only joined eight months prior.
In a sign of Charles’s fondness for Mr Harrold, the then-Prince, however, asked a senior aide to reach out to his butler and extend the coveted invite.
Since leaving his life in the royal fold behind, Mr Harrold (pictured in August) has often spoke fondly about his time waiting on Charles, telling the Daily Mail earlier this year that the job ‘was a dream come true’
Recalling the conversation to Prime Casino, Mr Harrold revealed Charles had put his name under his ‘friends and family quota’ in a heartfelt gesture.
‘I honestly didn’t think I was going to get to go, so I was very emotional,’ he said.
‘It’s extraordinary to suddenly get invited to something like that. You pinch yourself, thinking: “I can’t believe – I can’t believe this.”‘
Since leaving the royal fold behind, Mr Harrold has set up an etiquette and household consultancy company.
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