Former Royal Butler Says Princess Diana's Christmases Were "Close-Knit and Simple" Compared to "Victorian" Royal Extravagance

Princess Diana didn’t hide her feelings when it came to visiting the Sandringham estate for Christmas, telling biographer Andrew Morton that the experience was “terrifying and so disappointing” on numerous levels. The “minefield” of royal rules and traditions left her feeling exhausted, and Diana’s former butler, Paul Burrell, says that the princess eventually decided she’d rather spend Christmas “by herself.”

Speaking exclusively to Marie Claire on behalf of Casino.org, Burrell, who worked for Diana for the last decade of her life, says that the princess “tried her very best” to fit in at Sandringham.

However, he shares that the late royal found “the endless timetable” at the royal residence to be “relentless.” Burrell explains, “You had to be downstairs for breakfast, in the dining room for lunch at one o’clock, in the drawing room for tea at five, then changing again to go down for a drink before dinner at 8:15. The day flew by, yet it was all so regimented, and you always had to be dressed appropriately.”

With royal women expected to change “three or four times” throughout the day, the former butler, who previously served as a footman to Queen Elizabeth, says that Sandringham was like “a minefield” of expectations to Diana. “She couldn’t stand the protocol,” Burrell adds.

“She tried so hard to fit in, but she didn’t like it,”he tells Marie Claire. “She felt trapped. She would often say to me, ‘I’m climbing the walls at Sandringham because I don’t fit in. I don’t belong to that Victorian world. I want to be free of it.’”

After Charles and Diana separated in 1992, Diana made two more appearances in Norfolk for the royal family Christmas celebrations, but that ended after she received a frosty reception from the family in 1994. Instead, the late princess decided to stay home at Kensington Palace for the last two Christmases of her life.

Burrell shares that Diana’s festivities “were actually very simple and never elaborate at all.” The weekend before Prince William and Prince Harry would join their father, grandparents and other relatives in Norfolk, Diana would hold “their own small Christmas at Kensington Palace” including a lunch and gifts.

“Diana’s Christmas was always very close-knit and very simple,” Burrell shares.

Although the former butler says he “hated leaving her” on Christmas Day, Diana would insist he go home and spend time with his family. As for Princess Diana’s typical Christmas schedule, he says the late royal would exercise, then “sit at her desk for most of the day, writing thank-you letters for all the Christmas presents she had received, using her time productively with her correspondence.”

Even though Diana's Christmas was “isolated,” Burrell says “that was the way she liked it,” preferring to keep her own company instead of face the endless walks, games and shooting parties at Sandringham.