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A chef who worked for Princess Diana offered a rare glimpse into her daily life, revealing that the beloved royal’s dedication to her beauty sleep often conflicted with the rest of the family’s schedules.
Darren McGrady, who worked for the Princess of Wales until her death at age 36 in 1997, told InStyle that her nightly habits often put her at odds with the late-evening agendas expected of senior royals.
Diana, who married the then-Prince Charles in 1981, liked to “be in bed at 8 p.m. at the latest,” a routine consistent with her equally early mornings, McGrady said.
“The princess was also an early bird, so she liked to get up early, around 7 a.m.,” the chef explained.
To ensure she was tucked in before her self-imposed curfew, Diana reportedly took her bath before dinner, often arriving for her evening meal in a bathrobe with her hair still damp.
“She would often pop her head into the kitchen and tell me she was going for a bath, so would be ready for dinner in 30 minutes,” McGrady told InStyle. “She’d later come into the kitchen in a white toweling robe, bare feet, with wet hair. She looked stunning and amazing.”
Diana’s strict bedtime routine often dictated the palace dinner schedule, though it frequently clashed with the routines of other members of the royal family, including Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth II.
“Dinner for her was 6:30 p.m., but if the royal family were dining, she couldn’t go to eat or go to bed at her usual time,” McGrady recalled to the outlet.
Those lifestyle conflicts were especially troubling for the Princess of Wales during the royal family’s annual summer stay at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where dinners and evening activities frequently stretched until 11 p.m.
Sir William Heseltine, the former Private Secretary to Queen Elizabeth II, previously recalled that “for Diana, the long royal evenings were agony.”
The late Queen, who reportedly preferred staying up late, often hosted dinners beginning around 8 p.m.
“Diana was driven to such extremes that she’d excuse herself and go to bed, which was thought to be rather bad form, going to bed before the Queen,” Heseltine reportedly said.
It wasn’t just her mother-in-law who liked to stay up—Charles, too, has been described as a night owl, often working past midnight during that time.
“This is a man who has dinner ridiculously late at night,” Prince Harry said in a 2018 BBC documentary honoring his father’s 70th birthday.
Harry continued, “And then he goes to his desk later that night and will fall asleep on his notes to the point where he’ll wake up with a piece of paper stuck to his face.”
