Fancy working out with a royal PT (yes really, great auntie is The Queen)

Personal trainer Arthur Chatto is 26th in line to the throne and the youngest person to row round the UK. But who cares when you’re definitely King of the Biceps

arthur chatto
Maria Coole
By
published
in News

Personal trainer Arthur Chatto is 26th in line to the throne and the youngest person to row round the UK. But who cares when you’re definitely King of the Biceps

Joe Wicks who? The Queen’s great-nephew, Arthur Chatto, is the world record-holding royal athlete we’d burpee with all day long. You can find the 22-year-old, level 3 personal trainer at BoundFitness, Edinburgh, where he's working while completing his geography degree at the university.

A photo posted by on

Now with gyms closed thanks to Lockdown 3.0, he’s posting workouts on Instagram, like this 50-min HITT one. “I specialise in strength and endurance training,” he revealed. “I’ve found physical training to be an essential cornerstone in improving my own mental health and I want to share this with others.”

And that's only the start of this rugged royal's prowess. In August 2020, he posted on @artchatto that his ocean rowing team were the youngest people to complete the GB Row Challenge, around Britain.

"We are thrilled to announce we finished the GB Row under Tower Bridge and became the youngest team ever to do it," he said. "We did it in 42 days 8hrs 23 mins 16 seconds. It was an amazing moment and made it all worth it."

To be honest his account is full-on fitness inspo, stuffed with his impressive physical feats, plus some amazing shots of the natural world on his global travels. Lucky Arthur. Not that we've been scrutinising too closely, but there are worse ways to waste lockdown limbo time.

A photo posted by on

"Brilliant run in the Pentland hills just outside Edinburgh," he posted in September, alongside a photo of him having a post-run snack. "Perfect way to escape the city for a few hours: get outdoors and get fit!"

Three facts about Arthur Chatto

1: He's Princess Margaret's grandson

The Queen's sister, Princess Margaret, died in 2002, aged 71, but in her heyday she was arguably more glamorous than Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton and known for her sharp wit. She was the first royal superstar before a teenage Lady Di stormed the palace in 1980, so it's pretty obvious where Chatto gets his star quality from.

His mum is Lady Sarah, Margaret's daughter and Princess Charlotte's royal lookalike, and dad is an artist David Chatto. Arthur his an older brother, Sam, 24, who is very good with his hands. Describing himself as "a British artist and maker currently working in clay to create functional and sculptural wood fired ceramics, from my home and studio in West Sussex."

2. He's an Eton boy like his cousins

He attended Westminster Cathedral Choir school. Then headed up to Eton, keeping that tradition in the family, following in the footsteps of Prince William and Harry.

3. He's got a very good Friend, thanks for asking

Romantically linked to fellow Edinburgh student, Lizzie Friend. He took her to Royal Ascot in 2018. No Nando's dates for Lizzie.

Right, now who's up for a few star jumps with Arthur?

Maria Coole
Maria Coole

Maria Coole is a contributing editor on Marie Claire.

Hello Marie Claire readers – you have reached your daily destination. I really hope you’re enjoying our reads and I'm very interested to know what you shared, liked and didn’t like (gah, it happens) by emailing me at: maria.coole@freelance.ti-media.com

But if you fancy finding out who you’re venting to then let me tell you I’m the one on the team that remembers the Spice Girls the first time round. I confidently predicted they’d be a one-hit wonder in the pages of Bliss magazine where I was deputy editor through the second half of the 90s. Having soundly killed any career ambitions in music journalism I’ve managed to keep myself in glow-boosting moisturisers and theatre tickets with a centuries-spanning career in journalism.

Yes, predating t’internet, when 'I’ll fax you' was grunted down a phone with a cord attached to it; when Glastonbury was still accessible by casually going under or over a flimsy fence; when gatecrashing a Foo Fighters aftershow party was easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy and tapping Dave Grohl on the shoulder was... oh sorry I like to ramble.

Originally born and bred in that there Welsh seaside town kindly given a new lease of life by Gavin & Stacey, I started out as a junior writer for the Girl Guides and eventually earned enough Brownie points to move on and have a blast as deputy editor of Bliss, New Woman and editor of People newspaper magazine. I was on the launch team of Look in 2007 - where I stuck around as deputy editor and acting editor for almost ten years - shaping a magazine and website at the forefront of body positivity, mental wellbeing and empowering features. More recently, I’ve been Closer executive editor, assistant editor at the Financial Times’s How To Spend It (yes thanks, no probs with that life skill) and now I’m making my inner fangirl’s dream come true by working on this agenda-setting brand, the one that inspired me to become a journalist when Marie Claire launched back in 1988.

I’m a theatre addict, lover of Marvel franchises, most hard cheeses, all types of trees, half-price Itsu, cats, Dr Who, cherry tomatoes, Curly-Wurly, cats, blueberries, cats, boiled eggs, cats, maxi dresses, cats, Adidas shelltops, cats and their kittens. I’ve never knowingly operated any household white goods and once served Ripples as a main course. And finally, always remember what the late great Nora Ephron said, ‘Everything is copy.’

Latest