![Princess Diana and then-Prince Charles at Cheltenham Races](https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Princess-Diana-and-then-Prince-Charles-at-Cheltenham-Races-1.webp)
King Charles’ Sad Response to Princess Diana’s ‘Romantic’ Valentine’s Day Gifts
Valentine’s Day is a day for love and a holiday celebrated in several countries around the world. But during Princess Diana‘s marriage to then-Prince Charles, it wasn’t the most romantic day.
Now, someone who used to work for the royals says that’s because now-King Charles “didn’t have a romantic bone in his body.”
Princess Diana tried to celebrate Valentine’s Day with Charles
Paul Burrell began working in the royal household when he was 18 years old and served as Queen Elizabeth II‘s personal footman. In 1987, he was moved to Charles and Diana’s household. When they separated, Burrell remained on staff and served as the princess’s butler until her tragic death in 1997.
![Then-Prince Charles and Princess Diana arriving at Sandringham for a photocall](https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Then-Prince-Charles-and-Princess-Diana-arriving-at-Sandringham-for-a-photocall.webp?strip=all&quality=80)
He shared that when he worked for the royal family they never celebrated the day, although Diana tried.
Speaking on behalf of Prime Casino Burrell explained: “It was never a day for the royal family, it was more a day for the people. It’s like birthdays and Christmas. The royals never send cards to each other, which I could never understand. I mean the staff get birthday cards, the royals just don’t send birthday cards to each other. It must be a German tradition or something that is passed down, like opening your presents on Christmas Eve which is another tradition of theirs.”
However, Burrell said that Diana was a “romantic” and did give her husband a card each year but he never gave her anything.
“Diana was a girl of her time, and she was such a romantic,” the former royal butler said. “She did send romantic cards to Charles. She was very much in love with him. It’s such a sad thing to say that he never loved her and so he never returned the compliment. He wasn’t romantic. He tried to be, but he didn’t have a romantic bone in his body.”
King Charles made up for the mistakes in his first marriage when he married Camilla
![King Charles III and Queen Camilla smile during a visit to a beach in Apia, Samoa](https://www.cheatsheet.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/King-Charles-III-and-Queen-Camilla-smile-during-a-visit-to-a-beach-in-Apia-Samoa.webp?strip=all&quality=80)
According to Burrell, the monarch made up for his lack of romance when he married Queen Camilla (formerly known as Camilla Parker Bowles) in 2005.
“It is astonishing to think that Charles and Camilla’s wedding anniversary is 20 years this year,” he noted. “Charles made up for his lack of romance with Camilla. He’s been married to Camilla longer than he was married to Diana. That is astonishing.
“There’s more public record of his life with Diana than there is with Camilla. That tells you something. And I’m thinking to myself, wow, what did you do in the 20 years married to Camilla? I can’t think of anything. But what did he do in his short marriage with Diana? A lot. There’s more public record of his life with Diana than there is with Camilla. That tells you something.”