Prince Charles was invited to Dec’s restaurant – and sent him a touching handmade gift

Ant and Dec, who are hosting The Prince’s Trust Awards tonight, have a strange but warm friendship with Prince Charles and have even slept around his house

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CHARLES PRINCE CHARLES of Dumfries House’s Got Talent sings when meeting Ant & Dec

Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly have some famous friends – but the weirdest one has to be Prince Charles.

The cheeky Geordie duo became best friends with the future King in a “surreal” experience in 2015 where they followed him to watch a documentary.

They are also the hosts of The Prince’s Trust Awards, with this year’s ceremony airing tonight on ITV for the first time, in a decade.

The Britain’s Got Talent presenter spent a lot of time with the Prince in 2015 for When Ant And Dec Met The Prince: 40 Years Of The Prince’s Trust – and even got to stay overnight at one of the his house.

After a few months of filming, Charles invited the pair to stay at Dumfries House in Ayrshire, acquired by a consortium led by Charles in 2007, where they were greeted by housekeepers and taken to a room right next to the host. their royalty.

Ant admits things got very strange when he ran into Prince Charles outside his room – with the host wearing only a robe.

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Ant explained: “I was wearing a cape, in his house, in the middle of the day. “He laughed, I laughed and then I did the only thing I could. I slowly backed into the room, closed the door and silently screamed into the pillow…”

They were so close that they were worried they would wake Charles up with a party all night long.

The couple continued: “We shared a housekeeper and when we went to bed he asked if we wanted anything else and we asked for two bottles of wine.

“Then we got drunk with my wife but we were so aware that Charles was down the hall so sometimes we would scream louder, one of us would say, ‘Shush, he’s in bed! ‘ It’s very weird. “

Despite being warned in advance, the boys still found themselves a little too excited and “too familiar” with His Royal Highness during production.

Ant confessed: “Protocol wise, sometimes we forget things. “I found myself a bit familiar and grabbed His Highness and slapped him on the back a little bit – I have to keep stopping myself.”

Luckily for the boys, they didn’t need to worry about messing up their lines as Prince struggled to understand their Geordie accent.

Ant added: “We have no problem with his voice, but I think he might have a few issues with me. “I would ask him a question and sometimes he would just smile. Then Dec would ask the same question and get a full answer!”

According to Ant, he must continue to eat whatever food his Royal Highness was offered during filming to avoid any awkward rejections.

The Byker Grove star accidentally landed the role of Charles’ main taste tester.

“I went in myself and tried whatever food he was offered, just to avoid any awkwardness,” explains Ant.

“I could tell him what it would be like, it would get him out of that situation, plus the host gets to eat their food and I get a free lunch.

“Everybody is a winner. After a few functions, I put about half a stone.”

To show how close they became, Ant invited Charles to Dec’s ceremony before his 2015 marriage to Ali Astall.

Unfortunately, the royal turned down a drunken offer to the boys but he sent Dec a handwritten letter and touching wedding gift.

Dec wrote: “When I got married in 2015, Ant contacted HRH. He politely declined…

“But he sent a handwritten letter to Ali and me as well as a lovely wedding present – a set of all watercolors that he drew himself.”

In their book, Once Upon A Tyne, the pair talk about having dinner at Buckingham Palace – and they daringly try to grab a souvenir.

They wrote: “We are extremely excited to be heading to Buckingham Palace for dinner for the first time.

“We were ushered into the main lobby and Rod Stewart was already there so we headed over to say ‘hello’ to him … while keeping an eye out for potential souvenirs.”

Dec said: “We found that the only available piece of jewelry that could be on the nick, I mean release, is on the Christmas tree.

“We’ve heard a lot of stories about people releasing a memento when they got there.”

“Freeing a keepsake” means getting rid of something – an ashtray, a roll of toilet paper with the coat of arms, a full set of armor, that sort of thing, Ant explains.

“And what surprised us when we arrived was that there really wasn’t much to put, I mean release, because they were wise to the memento-liberation brigade or because, if it’s not nailed, it’s already clamped. by some opportunistic celebrity.”

Last May, Charles made a cheeky joke about his Geordie friends “following him everywhere” during a surprise appearance on The One Show.

He recorded a video message for the duo when he was helping launch a joint initiative to help young people secure jobs – the Ant & Dec’s Making it in Media project.

The Prince of Wales said: “I couldn’t think of a better duo to help drive this action than Ant and Dec, who have enjoyed illustrious media careers over the past 30 years.

“During that time, they both watched me, they followed me while filming the ITV documentary.”

He continued: “And they also played an incredibly generous part in our annual Prince’s Trust awards event in London.

“So thank you Ant and Dec, more than ever I can say, for all of your amazing efforts on behalf of the young people that will be supported by this project.”

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