Royal group chats have been making headlines in the past week after it was revealed that the Duchess of Sussex’s phone number was leaked. Meghan, who had joined a WhatsApp group of fellow parents from Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet’s new school in England, replied to a welcome message, which was then shared outside the school. But the duchess isn’t the only royal who has taken part in group chats, as former royal gardener Jack Stooks reveals.
Speaking to OLBG, Stooks, who served as a senior gardener to King Charles at Highgrove House, shares that members of the Royal Family “are big WhatsApp users.”
“They have groups with their friends, and there is also a family group with the royal cousins, including Prince William, Zara Tindall, Peter Phillips and the York sisters,” he shares. “They’re very much like any other family when it comes to keeping in touch through their phones.”
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Zara and Mike Tindall walk ahead of Princess Beatrice, Prince William and Prince George on Easter 2023.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Stooks recalls William and Harry “always had the latest phones” and they would give out their numbers to members of staff. “They also had our numbers, and they would just WhatsApp us if they needed anything,” he says.
However, palace staff weren’t allowed to program the royals’ numbers into their phone as, say, “Prince Harry,” and members of the family had special code names.
“We couldn’t have them saved under their real names, so they had nicknames instead,” Stooks shares. “William was ‘Bobcat,’ Harry was ‘Baz,’ and when Kate joined the family, she became ‘Mrs Bobcat.’”
Prince William, Princess Kate and Prince Harry are pictured in 2016.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Stooks shares that Prince William, in particular, was always “really polite” to the staff and “was never one to demand something.”
“He would always check how busy I was before asking me to do errands for him,” Stooks recalls. “And whenever I said I would do something for William, he would always reply: ‘You’re a legend.’”
However, when it comes to WhatsApp groups, don’t expect King Charles to get involved. “The King didn’t really use technology at all when I worked there,” Stooks shares. “He used to have a very old-fashioned, basic mobile phone, but he never used it.”
The former Highgrove staffer says that Prince William and Prince Harry used to try to convince their dad to “keep up to date” with the times. “They were always encouraging him to use his phone, but he wasn’t interested. He wasn’t a fan at all,” Stooks shares.
