Princess Diana’s Butler Reveals Her ‘Lonely’ Last Christmas
Christmas 1996 was quite different for Princess Diana. After her divorce from then-Prince Charles was made official, Diana was unable to spend the holiday with her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, as they were with the royal family at Sandringham. Her butler, Paul Burrell, reveals the princess’ “lonely” last Christmas.
Princess Diana’s last Christmas was spent by herself
Paul Burrell worked as Princess Diana’s butler beginning in 1987 and continued in that role until Diana died in 1997.
In an interview The Sun, Burrell was frank about Diana’s experiences during the holiday season of 1996. He revealed she felt lonely.
Burrell admitted that “despite moments of joy, her birthday and Christmas Day were often [Diana’s] loneliest days of the year. Diana’s final Christmas was a very quiet and lonely one.”
He continued, “Her Christmas Day was usually spent alone, as she gave up her boys. She always said, ‘Well, they need to be with their cousins and the royal family, because they’re royal princes.'”
“They went to Sandringham to spend it with their relations, rather than her. So she sacrificed them. Her day was a very quiet one,” he concluded of that quiet day Diana spent alone.
Princess Diana’s final Christmas wasn’t that quiet after all
Despite being by herself during the 1996 Christmas holiday, Diana’s wish for a quiet day was anything but. This was due to a mishap that set off alarms within the palace.
Burrell revealed that the late Princess of Wales wanted to spend Christmas day at Apartments 8 and 9 at Kensington Palace, indulging in a relaxing bath. But, she inadvertently caused chaos.
Diana’s former butler explained, “In 1996, her very last Christmas, she said: ‘Go home, unwrap some presents, spend the day with your family, and I’ll see you in the morning on Boxing Day.’ No sooner had I got home and started unwrapping presents with my children than my direct line rang.”
“It was the Princess, and she said: ‘I think you’d better come back.’
“I asked: ‘What’s the problem?’ She replied: “Can’t you hear? All the alarms are going off, all these sirens are going off and I can’t stop them. Help!’”
Diana had set off the palace’s alarms after lighting some candles. The smoke caused the mishap, and Burrell had to disengage the system before returning home to his family to celebrate the remainder of the holiday.
That wasn’t the end of the embarrassing saga for Princess Diana’s Christmas
Paul Burrell had one more piece of news for Princess Diana: all the fire alarms at Kensington Palace were linked to the local fire stations.
That meant firefighters were on the way to check on the princess. Burrell told Fabulous that several fire engines came to Diana’s apartment, each with six firemen in tow.
“She stood there in her dressing gown having been in the bath before that and she’s giggling away and she said: ‘Well, isn’t this a perfect Christmas morning? What could any girl want more than this? All these firemen on my doorstep on Christmas morning,’’” Burrell joked.
Eight months after her final Christmas at the palace, Princess Diana was dead. She was 36 when she died after sustaining life-threatening injuries in a car accident in Paris, France.
