Inside Princess Diana's 'lonely' last Christmas away from Prince William and Harry
Diana spent Christmas at Kensington Palace without her sons in 1996Princess Diana had a “very quiet and lonely” final Christmas months before her death as she spent it apart from sons Prince William and Prince Harry.
Diana‘s former butler Paul Burrell opened up about how the late Princess of Wales spent Christmas 1996. She died in August 1997 following a car crash in Paris.
According to Paul, Diana wanted her young sons Prince William and Harry to spend time with their royal cousins on Christmas.
Princess Diana had ‘lonely and quiet’ Christmas without William and Harry in 1996
Speaking to The Sun‘s Fabulous mag, Paul said: “Despite moments of joy, her birthday and Christmas Day were often her loneliest days of the year.
“Diana’s final Christmas was a very quiet and lonely one. 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.'”
Paul said William and Harry went to Sandringham – where the royal family usually spends Christmas – to spend it with their royal relatives.
He said Diana “sacrificed them” and her day was a “very quiet one”.
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Diana set off fire alarms at Kensington Palace
Paul said Diana spent her last Christmas Day in Apartments 8 and 9 at Kensington Palace, enjoying a bath.
She told him to go home and unwrap presents and come back on Boxing Day.
However, shortly after Paul returned home, he received a call from Diana urging him to return as the fire alarms were going off. Paul explained that candles Diana had set up with her bath had set off the alarms in the palace.
Despite Paul managing to turn off the alarms, four fire engines turned up to the palace and Diana’s apartment.
Paul said she “stood there in her dressing gown having been in the bath before that” and she was “giggling away”.
Apparently Diana said “well, isn’t this a perfect Christmas morning” with “all these firemen on my doorstep”.
Months before that Christmas, Diana and Prince Charles’ divorce was finalised. They had split in 1992, 11 years after marrying.
Princess Diana tragically died in August 1997 aged 36, after a car accident in Paris. William was just 15 at the time, while Harry was 12.
Princess Diana’s Christmas gifts to Harry and William were ‘taken away’
Royal biographer Andrew Morton explained a former bodyguard revealed that Princess Diana would donate William and Harry’s Christmas parents, so that they stay grounded.
He said: “She took the young royals with her on her private charity visits from a young age – one of the reasons was she didn’t want the boys to grow up thinking the whole world was 4×4 Range Rovers, shotguns and nannies.”
The royal would also restrict the number of presents her sons would receive, and sometimes return presents members of the public would send to them. Or she would donate them to charity. The palace would receive a lot of Christmas gifts from unknown sources and well-wishers.
Read more: Prince William’s heartbreaking promise to Princess Diana he couldn’t keep
Her former bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, said: “Diana was very careful to ensure that they weren’t flooded with gifts – gifts did appear from unknown sources, and they were often returned or given to charity because they didn’t need them.
“She was very conscious about what she bought as she knew the hallway at Sandringham would be full of presents.”
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