Prince William Had Just 3 Words Before His Wedding to Kate Middleton That Left His Private Secretary 'Petrified'
Prince William Had Just 3 Words Before His Wedding to Kate Middleton That Left His Private Secretary 'Petrified'
Meredith KileTue, June 23, 2026 at 4:35 PM UTC
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Prince William and Kate Middleton leave Westminster Abbey following their Royal Wedding on April 29, 2011Credit: Anwar Hussein/Getty -
In a new interview, Prince William's former private secretary opens up about running point on the royal's 2011 wedding to Kate Middleton
Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton served as private secretary to both Prince William and Prince Harry from 2005 to 2013
He has remained a part of William and Kate's family life, as they made him one of Prince George's godfathers in 2013
When it came time for Prince William's royal wedding to Kate Middleton, there was one man he trusted to make sure the massive event went off without a hitch.
Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton was a military veteran, having earned an MBE for his service in the British Army's Special Air Service (SAS), when he found himself a unique second career in the royal household — first as an equerry to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, and then as the full-time principal private secretary to both Prince William, now 44, and Prince Harry, now 41.
He served in the role from 2005 to 2013, which encompassed much of Prince William's courtship with Kate Middleton, as well as their April 2011 wedding, which Lowther-Pinkerton, 65, recalls fondly in a new interview with The Times. However, he admittedly had some nerves at the time.
"The wedding was great," he said. "I was petrified because he had said to me early on, 'You're running it.'"
"It's the closest I'll ever get to a divisional command because you had all these brilliant experts, and you didn't need to do anything. You just needed to set the parameters and let people do what they were so bloody good at," he added.
Prince William and Kate Middleton walk down the aisle at the close of their wedding ceremony at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011Credit: Dominic Lipinski - WPA Pool/Getty
The wedding went off better than Lowther-Pinkerton's most recent meeting with the Princess of Wales, during her September 2025 visit to Suffolk, where he now serves as Deputy Lieutenant.
While Princess Kate, 44, went in for a kiss, Lowther-Pinkerton bowed his head in reverence. "I was so embarrassed, I nearly headbutted her," he admitted. "I didn't know if I should be bowing. It was so sweet of her."
Brushing off what could have been a mortifying moment is just another characteristic that makes the princess a "really cool woman," according to Lowther-Pinkerton.
"[She's] amazing. He chose well," he said. "I think they're great."
Kate Middleton is greeted by the Deputy Lieutenant of Suffolk, Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, as she arrives in Sudbury on Sept. 11, 2025Credit: CHRIS RADBURN/AFP via Getty
The former equerry started working with the princes when they were 22 and 20, and his military training helped him guide them both through their own respective periods of service.
"It was important that they did it right and properly," he said of William and Harry's military careers. "That's how I saw that 10 years I had [with them], primarily to get it right so they could say, as my Anglo-Irish father used to say, 'I've known the days. I've done it.'"
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Lowther-Pinkerton is credited with helping Prince Harry remain under the radar during his tours in Afghanistan, and he even revealed that he "battled" for Prince William to be allowed to serve in the war as well but was "blocked" by royal security.
Prince William and Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton during the Remembrance Day service at Camp Bastion in southern Afghanistan on Nov. 14, 2010Credit: John Stillwell/PA Images via Getty
The brothers required Lowther-Pinkerton to be "different things for them at different times," he explained.
"A rottweiler if you needed to be cross with people, either on their behalf, not that I was very rottweilerish, or at them. A gentle ticking-off without getting all hot and bothered, because whether you're an officer in charge of soldiers or you're working with [the princes], there are similarities."
His loyalty and service earned him the respect of the family — even Harry, who, despite spending a large portion of his 2023 memoir, Spare, rebuking the rigid structure of royal life, had words of admiration for the man he and his brother called "JLP."
"Despite his spit and polish, however, his enamelled exterior, JLP was a force, the product of Britain's finest military training, which meant, among other things, that he didn't deal in bullshit. He didn't give it, didn't take it and everyone, far and wide, seemed to know," Harry wrote.
When asked about the ongoing rift between the royal brothers, Lowther-Pinkerton remained tight-lipped; however, according to the interviewer, he seemed troubled by the feud.
"I think I'd better steer clear of that Harry issue," he said. "What I would say is that I was and am very fond of him. He has huge redeeming features, and I'm a perennial optimist."
Prince Harry and Prince William with their private secretary, Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, at the 10th Anniversary Memorial Service for Princess Diana on Aug. 31, 2007Credit: Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty
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Currently, "JLP" remains a peripheral but significant part of the royal family through William and Kate, who made him one of Prince George's godfathers when the royal heir was born in 2013.
"It sounds awful," Lowther-Pinkerton said, "but I'm a better godfather when it comes time to have a bit of fun. I've got other godchildren, and I have huge fun with them when they reach a certain point, so hopefully that'll be the time when JLP comes out of the chrysalis."
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