From living in palaces to being waited on by staff – the lives of the royals seem anything like those of ordinary people but many of them have worked in the real world and held down ‘normal’ jobs such as a part-time role in a garden centre and a sales assistant at a high street store
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Queen watches Lady Louise Windsor lead horse show parade
Members of the royal family may be accustomed to a highly privileged lifestyle, but some of them also have to work hard to bring home the bacon.
In 2022, it was reported that the Queen’s youngest granddaughter Lady Louise Windsor had taken a part-time job throughout the summer as she waited for her A-level results. The 18-year-old was believed to have worked at a garden centre for £6.83 an hour, with shoppers praising her for being “polite and attentive” in her role.
Lady Louise later went to St Andrews University in Scotland, where her cousins Prince William and Princess Catherine met. She is currently studying English Literature. But Louise isn’t the only royal to have held down a job in the real world – many of her relatives have also worked for a living. But what positions have they held? Here we take a look…
Prince William
Now he is a full-time working royal attending engagements up and down the country and even overseas. But before throwing himself into royal life, Prince William did a stint with the RAF Search and Rescue before working as an air ambulance pilot with the East Anglia Air Ambulance.
While working for the air ambulance, William had to endure gruelling shifts working alongside medics to save lives. He was paid around £40,000 a year for the job, which he held down for two years – although he donated his salary to charity.
In 2021 he told of the strain he sometimes felt working on as a frontline emergency responder and how he tried not to let it affect his family life.
Kate Middleton
The Princess of Wales only joined the Royal Family when she married William in April 2011. So before that, she had to earn her living like the rest of us – and her pre-royal life saw her spend some time working for her parents’ hugely successful firm Party Pieces, a party supplies business. Here her duties included taking photos, producing catalogues and helping with marketing.
Aside from this, she also had a stint working as an accessories buyer for fashion chain Jigsaw although she reportedly quit the position when the photographers following her to and from work became too much.
Sophie Duchess of Edinburgh
Sophie stepped up her royal duties to help ease the workload of the ageing Queen, who she was extremely close to, even referring to her as ‘mama’. But before she married Prince Edward and became a working royal she had a very successful career in PR.
Sophie worked briefly in a bar and as a ski rep at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana and once she decided a career in press relations was for her, she worked for several firms and even spent four years working in Capital Radio’s press and promotions department., which is where she met her future husband.
Sophie set up her own PR company called RJH Public Relations, with her business partner, Murray Harkin, which she quit in 2002 to become a full-time working royal.
Princess Beatrice
Like most of her cousins, Princess Beatrice attended university gaining a degree in history from Goldsmiths University. And while she figured out her career path, she worked as a sales assistant in Selfridges and even did a stint as an extra on a film set.
She’s also worked as an intern at Sony Pictures but now, as well as being a mother to daughter Sienna and step son Wolfie with husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, she is currently the vice president of partnerships and strategy at American software company Afiniti. She was put in charge of a programme to engage senior business chiefs worldwide to support women in business and regularly attends charity functions and speaking engagements.
Princess Eugenie
Like her older sister, Princess Eugenie holds down a job – despite her royal title. She too attended university and gained a degree in English literature and history of art at the University of Newcastle.
In 2013, she moved to New York to work for online auction firm Paddle8. After a two-year stint in the Big Apple, she came back to London and is now an associate director at the Hauser & Wirth art gallery.
She is also a full time mum to her two sons August and Ernest, who she shares with husband Jack Brooksbank and works privately with a number of charities, including Children in Crisis and Anti-Slavery International. In 2023, she joined the advisory board of Goals House, a community aimed at making progress towards the UN’s sustainable development goals.
Prince Harry
Like many of his male relatives, Prince Harry spent time in the Armed Forces, rising to the rank of captain in the Army. He completed two tours of duty in Afghanistan and spent a total of 10 years in the military.
Upon leaving, he became a working royal but following he and wife Meghan Markle’s decision to quit as senior royals and become “financially independent”, the couple have signed several big business deals and taken on several jobs.
In March 2021, it was announced he had been appointed chief impact officer at BetterUp, a Silicon Valley start-up. While in October of the same year, it was revealed he and Meghan had become partners in a New York-based sustainable investment firm.
Called Ethic, the firm advises its wealthy clients on investing their money in companies that prioritise issues such as climate change and human rights.
Meghan Markle
Of course, it’s well-known that Meghan was a successful actress with a leading role in legal drama Suits. But before this, when she was a jobbing actress, Meghan held down several jobs to get by. These included being a briefcase girl on the US version of Deal or No Deal, selling frozen yoghurt, teaching calligraphy and being a waitress.
Now, like her husband Harry after quitting the royal family, she too has signed several big-money business deals and is also a partner in investment firm Ethic. In March 2024, Meghan launched the lifestyle and cooking brand American Riviera Orchard and the couple’s Archewell foundation, which they launched in 2020, is working with Netflix to produce two new shows for the streaming platform.
Peter Phillips
He is the Queen’s oldest grandchild but holds no royal title – the same as his younger sister Zara. And Peter Phillips has had a variety of jobs throughout the years, starting his career as a corporate hospitality manager for Jaguar after completing a sports science degree at the University of Exeter.
He became sponsorship accounts manager for Williams racing team until 2005. He then joined the Royal Bank of Scotland and designed and ran their first global Formula One sponsorship programme.
In March 2012 he, alongside long-term friend and mentor James Erskine, set up Sports & Entertainment UK Ltd which has the address Buckingham Palace Road. The firm describes itself as a “sports and entertainment agency specialising in large scale event delivery, sponsorship and consultancy”.
