Kitchen item late Queen was obsessed with – and so are Charles and Kate

For all the pomp and ceremony surrounding the late Queen, she was surprisingly practical and pragmatic – and her breakfast table every morning proved exactly that

The royal family might live a life of great privilege and luxury – but they are known to have some surprisingly down to earth habits.

The late Queen was known to have a habit of washing up herself. And she also reliant on a very common kitchen item when it came to storage. Back in 2003, an undercover reporter breached security to get a job as a footman at Buckingham Palace and revealed many secrets of the royals’ everyday lives.

Daily Mirror journalist Ryan Parry claimed that Her Majesty liked to use Tupperware – plastic containers – to store her cereals. He described how the late monarch’s breakfast table would be meticulously prepared before she and Prince Philip arrived, and would always feature Tupperware boxes containing cornflakes and porridge oats.

“A thick white napkin embroidered with the EIIR emblem lies folded on the table next to the cornflakes and porridge oats in their Tupperware containers.” Now a source has claimed that her son, King Charles, as well as his daughter-in-law, like to do the same thing. An insider told Express.co.uk: “Charles and Camilla urge their staff to keep everything fresh by using Tupperware. Charles got that from his mother and father. They use it mostly when they are having picnics on the estate [Balmoral].” They added: “William and Kate also put everything into Tupperware as well. She’s quite hands-on.”

Dickie Arbiter, who worked closely with the Queen for many years as her Press Secretary, previously recalled an unforgettable day when he was invited to a small private lunch with the late Monarch and her husband, Prince Philip – which ended in the most unexpected way.

“When I arrived at Buckingham Palace , my boss said to me, ‘you’ve been invited to Balmoral for a dine and sleep to meet the Queen’,” he recalled. “There were only four of us at this lunch: The Queen, her lady-in-waiting, Prince Philip and myself. It lasted about 45 minutes, with china plates, silver cutlery and Tupperware that we helped ourselves from.

“And at the end of it, the Queen said, ‘We’ve got to clear up’ and I took it as my cue as the junior flunky to do the washing up. So I went into the kitchen and started washing up. I heard this footfall behind me and assumed it was the lady-in-waiting coming to give me a hand.

“I said over my shoulder without even turning, ‘Okay, I’ll wash you dry’. This very familiar voice behind me said, ‘No, I’ll wash, you dry’. It was the Queen. So she plunged her hands into the fairy liquid – no gloves – and I did the drying up. It was quite an experience to actually do a bit of domesticity with a head of state.”