Prince George and Princess Charlotte’s ‘bizarre’ nickname for dad Prince William

He may be the heir to the British throne, but Prince William’s children have a very informal nickname for their famous dad. Photo / AP

There’s been a plethora of royal nicknames that we’ve eaten up over the years, but this one takes the cake - or hake, shall we say?

Prince George and Princess Charlotte’s latest pet name for their heir-to-the-throne dad is said to be “Poachy”, and was inspired by British TV chef Ainsley Harriott.

The royal siblings' nickname for their dad is "Poachy". Photo / AP

Harriott sat down for an exclusive with The Sun to promote his new ITV show Ainsley’s Fantastic Flavours and instead divulged the details of an extremely bizarre interview with Radio 1′s Greg James that shed light on some fishy royal secrets.

“We did this thing about whether you take a bath or not. What do you do in the bath, and I was like, ‘Sometimes you have a little wee in the bath.’ You don’t mean to but there’s something about that relaxation. We then talked about cooking fish in the bath, [and] Greg asked ‘Could you cook a fish in the bath?’”

“I said, ‘Yeah, if it’s a little bit of sea bass or plaice or something like that.’ You wouldn’t want a thick bit of fish because it wouldn’t poach.”

“Anyway, apparently Prince William and Kate were taking George and Charlotte to school and they found it hysterical”, added Harriott.

Harriott inspired Princess Charlotte and Prince George to call their famous dad Prince Wiliam "poachy". Photo / MelMedia GI Images)

“He [William] came in to do an interview at the studio, and he called over Greg James and said, ‘The kids love it. They loved that you were talking about eating fish in the water.’”

Harriott then altered his catchphrase, “Why hello there, Jill” – which reached ‘iconic’ status soon after he used the phrase to greet a competition winner on live TV – to “Why hello there, Will. Poachy, poachy, poachy.”

He continued: “George and Charlotte now call their dad Poachy. Isn’t that sweet and so lovely? [laughs].”

The chef then teased that he might be beheaded for inspiring the funny nickname.

What’s more, Kate Middleton’s nickname for poor William is “baldy” - which began as a sharp retort to him “complaining about her endless mane of hair”.

The Prince has no hard feelings, but rather his own silly name for the Princess of Wales: “DoD”, which is short for “Duchess of Dolittle”.