24 Mar King will be ‘frustrated and upset’ at cancellation of visit to France, says his former butler
KING Charles will be “frustrated and upset” that his official visit to France has been cancelled due to civil unrest, according to his former butler.
Grant Harrold was commenting on the news that French president Emmanuel Macron had called off the visit due to widespread civil unrest over pension reforms.
He told GB News: “The date is planned so many months in advance, these things are planned six months, if not more in advance so this will obviously be a bit of a disaster.
“If I can say that because obviously you know, as you’ve mentioned, things got to be re-planned, re-organised, things got moved and even the dress code, depending on what he has attended.
“I think the fact that he’s still carrying on the first part to Berlin, it won’t have a huge impact, but there will be an impact and there’ll be a lot right now.
“There will be a lot of phone calls, a lot of re-organisation going on at this moment, to get things back on track.”
In a discussion with Mark Longhurst during GB News Live, he said: “He’s very aware that as a King he’s got to take a step back like his late mother did, but at the same time he is passionate.
“He does care about things going on in the world and I’ve always said I think he will continue to do that and to show that, but as I said he’s just got to be slightly careful because when it comes to his role as King, he’s got to be non-political.
“He’s got to keep away from that, to listen but to not really to get involved, which again is with these protests, he doesn’t really want to be out there when all that’s going on, because that’s getting him involved in it just by being there.”
Mr Harrold added: “He’ll be really disappointed because one thing about him is that when he says he’s going to do something, he likes to do it.
“He will not like the fact that this has happened, to be postponed. I think it will be something that will upset him and really frustrate him.
“This is obviously important for him because France has always been a close ally. Even his late mother, five years into her reign, had a state visit to France.
“As I mentioned, he will not like the fact that this has been postponed, if anything well it really will frustrate him and upset him that this is what happened.”
