Ant and Dec’s bizarre friendship with Prince Charles from stag do invite to job offer
Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly opened up about their friendship with heir to the throne Prince Charles in their new book Once Upon A Tyne
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Ant and Dec have lifted the lid on their bizarre friendship with Prince Charles after they spent a year with him making a documentary.
The Geordie duo were teamed with the heir to the throne to work on 2015 film When Ant And Dec Met The Prince: 40 Years Of The Prince’s Trust.
During work on the film, they followed Charles as he worked, meeting him at numerous events and they even landed an invite to stay at his home in Scotland.
To break the ice at the start of the project, the pair asked the royal if he would be up for a stint on I’m A Celebrity in return for their work on the documentary.
In their new book Once Upon A Tyne, they reveal Charles politely declined the offer.
Ant goes on to reveal that Charles told him he’s always offered food to try at events he attends and can’t possibly eat it all himself – so Ant offered to do it for him.
The telly star then slipped into the role of royal taste tester.
He wrote: “I took it upon myself to step in and try any food he was offered, just to help avoid the awkwardness.
“I could tell him what it was like, it would get him off the hook, plus the host gets their food eaten and I get a free lunch.
“Everyone’s a winner. After a few functions, I put on approximately half a stone.”
Charles even offered to get a royal spoon made for Ant to cement his role as taster – but Ant admitted he’s still waiting for the gift.
After several months of following him around for the documentary, the pair were invited to stay with the royal at Dumfries House in Ayrshire.
The stately home was bought by a consortium headed by Charles in 2007, but he keeps his private residence at Highgrove.
Ant and Dec were amazed to be greeted by butlers and put in rooms right next to where their royal host was staying.
Calling the outing “surreal”, Ant admitted it got even more bizarre when he bumped into Prince Charles outside his room with the telly star in his dressing gown.
He wrote: “I’m stood in a robe, in his house, in the middle of the day.
“He smiled, I smiled then I did the only thing I could. I slowly backed into my room, closed the door and silently screamed into a pillow…”
However, the trip went well and by the end of filming the telly stars had bonded with their famous subject.
Ant even invited Charles to Dec’s stag do ahead of his 2015 marriage to Ali Astall, but the royal turned the offer down.
He did send Dec a handwritten letter and a wedding gift.
Dec wrote: “When I got married in 2015, Ant got in touch with HRH. He politely declined the stag do…
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