When it comes to celebrating Christmas, many often dread the big day with their extended family – and according to royal biographer Andrew Morton, Princess Diana was no different.
Andrew, who wrote the biography, Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words, Diana ‘hated’ spending Christmas day at Sandringham with the Royal Family.
Andrew claimed her disdain for the traditional royal festive celebrations began during her first Christmas at Sandringham in 1981, just five months after she tied the knot with her husband then Prince Charles on July 29, 1981.
By the time Christmas had arrived Diana was already five months pregnant with the couple’s first child, Prince William, and, despite suffering from extreme morning sickness, she still took the time “to buy her new family members thoughtful and expensive gifts”.
But it was later revealed she was “mortified” on her first Christmas Day, when she found out the royals only gave one another ‘gag’ presents. She remembers giving Princess Anne a cashmere sweater and getting a toilet paper holder in return.
Diana reportedly told Morton: “It was highly fraught. I know I gave, but I can’t remember being a receiver. Isn’t that awful? I do all the presents, and Charles signs the cards. [It was] terrifying and so disappointing.”
Diana confessed to the royal biographer she felt she was an “outsider”, explaining that Christmas at Sandringham involved: “No boisterous behaviour, lots of tension, silly behaviour silly jokes that outsiders would find odd, but insiders understood.”
The princess’ hairdresser Richard Dalton had told Kitty Kelley when she was writing her book, The Royals, that Diana hated Christmas with the Royal Family stating: “The princess just hated going to Sandringham for Christmas. She told me it was freezing cold and dinner had to be over by 3 o’clock. ‘It’s 3 and time to watch me on TV,’ she’d say, imitating you-know-who.
“The Royal Family had to watch the Queen’s Christmas message on television. Diana said it was a command performance.”
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Diana’s friend told the author of The Diana Chronicles, Tina Brown, that towards the end of Diana’s marriage to Charles she “used to get calls from her on Christmas Eve and she was alone”.
Diana’s last Christmas at Sandringham was in 1991, as Charles and Diana formally separated on December 9 the following year, where Diana spent her first Christmas without her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.
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