King Charles recently gave a brilliant speech to Congress, which reminded me of when I met him …
Back on November 8, 2010, I was having dinner with two of Marriott’s PR representatives at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London. I had stayed there for five nights when Marriott took it over, so I got to know the GM, Anthony Stewart-Moore.
Anthony is a real character and has some of the best stories, especially from his time running one of Washington, DC’s most famous hotels. As luck would have it, he walked by, so we invited him to join us.
While we were eating and listening to his outrageous stories, he got a call saying he needed to greet Prince Charles and Camilla at the front of the hotel when they arrived for the Pride of Britain Awards.
He stepped out but came back a few minutes later, saying the Prince was running late. When the call came again, I told him he had to let me come with him to take a photo. He said no problem, but needed to clear it with the Prince’s security team. Shockingly, they said yes and positioned me right in front of the paparazzi and fans lined up behind barricades.
It was freezing outside, so I was kicking myself for not bringing a coat and even more for not bringing my big Nikon camera, which I usually carry. Since I was heading to the Travel + Leisure party after dinner, all I had was my BlackBerry.
Just when I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore, about 20 minutes later, and was thinking about going back inside, the police escort and the Prince’s car rolled up. I snapped a shot of Tony greeting them, and then Prince Charles walked right toward me. I didn’t know what to do, so I instinctively stuck out my hand. He looked at it for a second. It was awkward, and I thought I had just made a huge faux pas since you’re not supposed to approach royalty.
But then he shook my hand and asked if the paparazzi were there for me. I don’t even remember what I said back, but it must have been funny because later one of the photographers asked what I had said to make him laugh. I do remember him being genuinely kind and funny.
The following day, I spotted the back of my head in the papers, but I couldn’t find the photo of us shaking hands and talking, which was a real bummer.
