Before becoming working members of the Firm, the royal in-laws had very ordinary day jobs. Photo / AP
Before becoming working members of the Firm, the royal in-laws had very ordinary day jobs. Photo / AP
It’s hard to picture a princess or a duke scrubbing a toilet or working in a fish and chip shop - but several of the royal in-laws’ first jobs were just like ours.
Many of those who married into the British royal family started their careers with humble beginnings, including many of the not-so-glamorous jobs that most of us take on in our school or university years to help pay our way.
Kate Middleton has admitted she was a “terrible waitress” during her uni days, while Princess Diana herself worked as a teacher and babysitter and Mike Tindall has said selling fish and chips from a van was the “worst job” he ever had, according to the Daily Mail.
So here’s a look back at the early careers of those who married into the Firm.
Kate Middleton graduated from St Andrews University in 2005. Photo / AP
In her royal role as the Princess of Wales, it seems that Kate Middleton is constantly making public appearances or fulfilling charitable duties.
But before she met and married Prince William, Kate had several different jobs, from working as a deckhand to waitressing.
She worked at the Ocean Village Marina in Southampton on a reportedly low wage as a deckhand before heading to university - which, according to a skipper she worked with, was “back-breaking work”.
“She mucked in and was very professional,” Cal Tomlinson told royal expert Katie Nicholl for her book Kate: The Future Queen.
But asked whether she was good at serving drinks, Kate’s response was: “No, I was terrible!”
Sarah Ferguson
The Duchess of York, fondly known as Fergie, met her husband Prince Andrew when she was just 12 - though their relationship began many years later in 1985. They married in 1986 and divorced 10 years later.
But Fergie’s early life wasn’t all glitz and royal glamour - in 2016, she told Swedish TV show Skavlan what she did for work in her younger years.
“You won’t believe it, but when I was 18, I cleaned very good mirrors,” she revealed.
“I cleaned lavatories when I was 18 and graduates’ bedrooms - they all left it very messy.”
The Duchess also had a stint in hospitality, waitressing at a strudel house.
“I just took the strudel out of the deep freezer and put it in the oven; that’s cooking!” she joked, adding, “Then I married a prince, it was great!”
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson married in July 1986. Photo / AP
Mike Tindall
He’s played for England and he’s married to the Queen’s granddaughter Zara - and since he was seven years old, Mike Tindall was determined be a rugby star.
Growing up in West Yorkshire, he played for the Otley Rugby Club, but the now-retired rugby player has revealed he balanced his studies with working in a fish and chip van, which he called “the worst job I’ve ever had”.
“No real disasters, just a lot of rowdy northerners complaining about the size of the fish. I was paid according to how many fish we sold.”
He went on to win the 2003 Rugby World Cup for England, the same year he met his wife Zara Phillips, Princess Anne’s daughter.
Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh
Today, the Duchess of Edinburgh is known as the Firm’s “secret weapon” and also as one of the late Queen’s favourites.
But before she joined the royal family by marrying Prince Edward in 1999, she was a businesswoman, working at several different firms, including Capital Radio as a press officer.
It was then that she met Edward, who was seeing one of her friends at the time. Sophie launched her own PR agency RJH in 1996 with her business partner Murray Harkin, continuing to run it after her marriage until 2001.
Years before she became a mum, Princess Diana was known for her love of children - and she worked as a babysitter and a teacher before becoming a royal. Photo / NZ Herald
Princess Diana
Princess Diana was known for her love of children, so it’s no surprise that before she joined the royal family, she worked as a nanny.
She was employed as a babysitter for the baby son of American businesswoman Mary Robertson from 1980 to 1981, until her wedding to then-Prince Charles.
Robertson later remembered her as a “wonderful” person who was “totally focused” on looking after her son.
Diana worked for the family three days a week and earned just four pounds an hour at the time, taking on another job as a kindergarten teacher at the Young England School in Pimlico on the other two days.
Meghan Markle
Meghan is known for her acting career before she married Prince Harry - but what’s slightly less well-known is that her first job was working in a frozen yoghurt shop in the US when she was just 13.
When a teenage Meghan worked at Humphrey Yogart in Los Angeles for a few dollars an hour, one of her jobs was to take out the rubbish bins.
Her “outgoing personality” made her a hit with the customers, according to her old manager Paula Sheftel.
“She earned minimum wage and was very popular with customers. She had to prove she had an outgoing personality and would work well with staff,” Sheftel told the Mirror in 2017.
King Charles III and Queen Camilla hold the King George V Trophy as they attend day three of Royal Ascot 2023. Photo / Getty Images
Queen Camilla
The Queen Consort is known for taking on issues like domestic violence and literacy rates as well as her other duties as a senior royal.
In 2022 alone, she carried out 102 royal engagements - but apparently, she wasn’t always so energetic about her work.
The Times’ Valentine Low once described her as a “woman who would far rather be putting her feet up at home than doing any proper work”, and her family and friends worried she wouldn’t be able to keep up with the demands of her royal role when she married King Charles in 2005.
But she must have proved the naysayers wrong, with even the late Queen Elizabeth recognising her hard work and asking for her to be known as Queen Consort when Charles became King.
