King Charles’ Nickname Revealed Thanks to His Strict Christmas Speech Rule
Each year, King Charles delivers an address to the U.K. The speech is prerecorded and broadcast on Christmas Day.
As part of their holiday tradition, the royal family gathers around to watch the broadcast together.
Now, someone who used to work for the monarch is revealing what goes into the king’s speeches that earned him a specific nickname in the household among his staffers.
The nickname given to King Charles because of how he prepares his speeches
Grant Harrold was King Charles’ butler for seven years. During his time working for the now-monarch and his wife, Harrold’s duties included those of valet, housekeeper, house manager, and driver.
Speaking on behalf of OLBG, Harrold told Showbiz Cheat Sheet, “The king is a master when it comes to speeches. He will handwrite them himself and then they are passed to his secretary who types them up and checks them. The king is very strict when it comes to grammar, spelling and punctuation.”
Harrold continued, “I am amazed that he’s never told me off when I write to him because my grammar is awful … But when it comes to his speeches, he is strict. Once it’s typed up, he would go through and make notes on anything he felt wasn’t right and the process would be repeated. Eventually, when he is happy with it he will sign it off. This is likely done around October or early November. But changes can and will be made to it up until the last hour.”
The former royal employee believes King Charles being a perfectionist has advantages for everyone as he doesn’t waste anyone’s time doing things over and over again.
“I think he enjoys giving speeches,” Harrold said. “He is very confident. We knew him as ‘One Take Charles’ because whenever he would do any film, he would be able to do it within one take, and he was famous for that among the royal households.”
The other nickname staffers had for the king because of his strict rules
King Charles is known to have plenty of other strict rules that go beyond his speeches. Some of his other demands over the years have been so outrageous that his staffers dubbed him “the pampered prince.”
Former royal butler, Paul Burrell, who worked for Queen Elizabeth II, before being moved to the household of then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana in 1987, claimed that the future king was so meticulous about things and everything had to be done for him and carried out in a specific manner.
“He has grown up in such a privileged lifestyle that he doesn’t have the mechanics to choose for himself anymore,” Burrell said in the Amazon documentary Serving the Royals: Inside the Firm. “Absolutely everything is done for him … pajamas are pressed every morning so that they don’t have creases in them for the next day. His shoelaces are pressed flat with an iron,” and “he has one of his servants squeeze one inch of toothpaste onto his toothbrush every morning.”
The former employee added that baths are also drawn for the king and if one thing isn’t done perfectly, he will “scold” his entire staff.
“His underwear is folded in a certain way and his bath towel has to be placed in a certain fashion,” Burrell shared. “When it comes to bathing, the bathplug has to be in a certain position, the water temperature has to be just tepid, and only half full. And if anyone gets anything wrong everybody is scolded.”
