Royal butler's sad admission about Princess Diana's favourite meal
Ella Scott
Featured Image Credit: Bettmann/Getty Images
Come evening, Diana, Princess of Wales, would apparently dine on a trio of dinner dishes that were always served in the same heartbreaking way, according to a former member of the British royal family’s household.
Seven years after her death, Paul Burrell, who first worked as a footman to the late Queen Elizabeth II before serving as Diana’s butler, released his tell-all book, A Royal Duty.
The book was initially designed to ‘reveal new truths about Princess Diana - and present… as faithful an account of her thoughts as we can ever hope to read’, according to a synopsis.
Despite being published over two decades ago, the butler’s tidbits have recently resurfaced, with Marie Claire reporting on various passages and claims made in the non-fiction tome.
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These included the tea that the mother-of-two would drink after returning home (ginger root tea) and how he once had a Big Mac from McDonald’s delivered to her.
Apparently, Diana was a huge fan of the fast-food favourite, with Burrell and fellow staff member Mark Simpson catching her ‘attacking’ it in the kitchen.
“She giggled a lot and was so friendly and down-to-earth. She kept repeating how thoughtful Mark had been and how grateful she was to have such an unexpected interlude,” he wrote, as per the publication.
According to the former royal butler, the Princess of Wales would also often take dinner in her rooms and was partial to grilled trout, pasta, or a baked potato topped with a spoonful of caviar and vinaigrette.
Heartbreakingly, she would apparently eat this alone, with staff wheeling in the meal for her to enjoy.
"It was often a solitary meal, served on a wooden trolley on wheels that I pushed into the drawing room in front of the striped sofa where the Princess sat,” the expert claimed.
"I had already pulled the television out of its cabinet at the bottom of the bookcase and into position. Evenings were the loneliest, quietest times for the princess. The chef had gone. Her dresser had gone.
"At the day's end, as the princess wound down from an energetic, engagement-filled morning and afternoon, I got to know her better on a personal level," the former butler claimed
"She was relaxed, not fraught, and talkative.
“It became clear, as I wheeled in her two-course evening meal, that with William [Prince of Wales] and Harry [Duke of Sussex] at boarding school, she preferred not to be left alone. 'Stay a while,' she said, more times than I can remember."
Elsewhere in his book, Burrell claimed Diana found Buckingham Palace ‘friendless, foreign, and peculiar’.
He suggested that if Elizabeth had ‘helped’ with the transition in 1981 then perhaps she would have adapted better.
"It is ironic that The Queen left her to her own devices out of faith in her: she had adopted the trusting attitude that 'if she needs me, she knows where I am,'” he shared. “The monarch had belief in her—even if the future Princess of Wales did not share it.”
King Charles, who divorced from Diana a year before her death in August 1997, recently made a state visit to the United States, where he was served an item he may not have been particularly fond of.
The monarch and his wife, Queen Camilla, attended a dinner at the White House, where a chocolate-based dessert was designed by the First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump.
However, according to Darren McGrady, who was a personal chef to the late Queen, Diana, and her sons William and Harry, the royal does not really like chocolate.
"America has some incredible produce. But having said that, the palace would have been in touch, saying, ‘King Charles is not a great lover of chocolate, but the queen loves chocolate.’ Anything with chocolate on the menu, Camilla will love,” he claimed.