YouTube legend Louise Pentland has opened up about working with King Charles and Queen Camilla, as well as a special invite to the Monarch’s private country house
Louise Pentland has revealed she was left flustered after meeting King Charles. This, however, was not the YouTube icon’s first meeting with the Monarch who ascended to the throne in 2022.
The social media star who first launched her channel in January 2010 has gone on to amass over 195 million views on the platform, with a staggering 2.17 million followers. Louise, 40, was part of the original group of what are now known as social media influencers, alongside the likes of Joe Sugg, Caspar Lee, Jim Chapman, Marcus Butler, Niomi Smart, Tanya Burr, Zoe Sugg and Alfie Deyes.
Collectively, the group were known as the Brit Crew – although this wasn’t a name that they chose themselves. Since launching her channel and her blog, Louise has travelled the world and worked with some of the biggest brands, including her favourite, Disney – but she admits working with the King and Queen is one of her major highlights.
“Really cool, it was really cool,” she said of working with the then Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall in 2018. Louise went on to reveal to the Mirror: “It was a real honour, I worked with them a long time ago with YouTube around the now Queen Camilla’s charity, Bookstart and that was amazing.
“I got to meet the now King and I just thought ‘Wow, what a once in a lifetime, incredible opportunity. I’ve followed them on everything they do and supported them; I really love the charities that they choose – I love that King Charles is all about conservation and preserving the art of craft.
“Camilla is so into books and literacy, especially childhood literacy – I love that. I’ve followed them all this time.” This is also a subject close to Louise’s heart as a mum to Darcey, 14, and Pearl, seven. She added: “Last year, The King’s Foundation, which was The Prince’s Foundation, invited me to Highgrove – it was boujee. It was really cool, we had Afternoon Tea.
“I went back at Christmas, met His Majesty The King, had a little handshake, had a little chat, and he had to move on. On the outside, I was cool and chill about it. I’ll go as far as to say it was the best opportunity I’ve ever had. It was also incredibly generous because we each had our own three-tier little tray!”
But while Louise has previously appeared on the likes of ITV’s Lorraine and Loose Women, she admits she never knows what is around the corner with TV work, but has ruled out appearing on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! “Me on I’m A Celeb would be horrendous,” she laughed joking that she wouldn’t cope on the flight to Australia, let alone in the jungle.
Almost two decades after launching her channel, Louise admits the biggest lesson she’s learnt is that you can’t please everyone. “It doesn’t matter how good you are, how careful you are, how anything–you will never be able to please everyone,” she said. While she can’t please everybody, Louise says that knowing in your heart that you’re being true to yourself is the biggest thing she has learnt.
This was echoed when Louise announced a change to her YouTube channel, revealing she would no longer be creating content aimed at teenagers but instead, content for her older audience. She admits “a lot of people dropped off,” but later found her again on new sites, including TikTok.
Before YouTube, Louise wrote a blog that she set up while working as a receptionist in Liverpool after university, and she admits she could never have expected her career to take off in such a huge way. “I started a YouTube channel because I was like, oh, maybe the YouTube channel will help drive some traffic over to the blog. Then the YouTube Channel took off,” she laughed.
She went on to explain that she made YouTube her full-time role while on maternity leave with Darcey, admitting it’s been the “most wonderful, amazing experience.” She added: “Aside from motherhood, it’s been truly the best experience of my life. I just never thought that it would go this well and I would have the experiences I’ve had.” Away from the positives, though, Louise admits that there have been downsides to her career, but the positives outweigh these.
Louise recently teamed up with Nivea for their I AM… Thiamidol campaign and has spoken about her experience with hyperpigmentation. “I’m 40 now, and the very first time I ever thought about skin in that way was when I was a teenager,” she said.
Louise revealed that while in the changing rooms of her all-girls school, a fellow student pointed out stretch marks, which she didn’t even know were a thing. She said: “Because they had been sort of introduced to me in such a negative light, it has been hard to shake that off for my whole life.
“Obviously, I’ve gone through different things in life that have changed my skin, I’ve gone through puberty and then pregnancy, twice. And now I’m starting the early days of the ageing process into a middle-aged woman, which I’m very glad to be doing, it’s a privilege to age.” Louise admits that she no longer feels negative and having a product which has Thiamidol in gives her a “bit of reassurance.”
Working with Nivea was a no-brainer for Louise as the brand aligned with her personal views, given its deep roots in families across the world. “To find a new product from them with Thiamidol is a little bit exciting,” she gushed, before adding it was a “real honour” to be involved in the campaign alongside Dani Dyer, Louise Redknapp and Paul C Brunson.
Working with Dani, Louise and Paul, she admits it was “really good,” as her young daughter Darcey sat in the corner offering support on the photoshoot saying: “Slay queen!” “It was a lovely day, and the big billboard was really cool – it was so smooth and easy,” she joked.
At the age of 40, though, Louise admits the answer to having great skin is “a lot of water,” before explaining that each night she does a “full proper cleanse” before going to bed. Despite being 40, Louise said she doesn’t feel old but instead, feels “great.” She said: “We do products like Nivea, Thiamidol, that do help with anything that you’re worried about. It’s not just hyperpigmentation, marks and all that sort of stuff. There’s so many things out there to help with so many of the things you might be worried about and to give you the confidence that you want.”
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