Former Royal Chef Reveals Diana Accused Him of "Poisoning" Her With One Food During "Blotchy" Trooping the Colour Disaster
Fortunately, Kensington Palace had a secret in-house solution at the time.
Former royal chef Darren McGrady experienced his fair share of hilarious moments while working in the kitchens at Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace, but one juicing incident might just take the cake. McGrady, who spent 11 years cooking for Queen Elizabeth before moving over to work for Princess Diana, says that Diana had a penchant for healthy eating, but one idea ended in disaster when she didn’t take his advice.
Speaking on behalf of Smooth Spins Casino, McGrady says that Princess Diana loved to eat “fresh and clean” meals like “a peach and feta salad with walnuts.” She also was a huge fan of fresh juice, and the former royal chef says Diana “was juicing before juicing was even invented.”
After Diana asked McGrady to buy a juicer, he started making “fresh orange juice every morning” for the princess, he recalls. “Then, after that, she would have a green drink mid-morning. That would be spinach, celery, cucumber and apple juice. She would have that religiously every morning.” However, one type of juice didn’t quite agree with the princess.
Princess Diana is pictured at a 1996 charity dinner.
Darren McGrady served as a chef at Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace.
“One day, she came in and said, ‘Darren, I want some beet juice. I’ve heard that beetroot juice is healthy,’” McGrady shares. However, he even though he warned her that it needed to be diluted with another type of juice, Princess Diana insisted on straight beetroot juice only.
“A few hours later, she came into the kitchen and said, ‘Darren, you’ve poisoned me! Look at my face, it’s all blotchy,’” McGrady shares. “I told her it could have been the overdose of beetroot juice.”
Unfortunately this happened right before Trooping the Colour, but McGrady says that Diana solved her splotchy face situation with a fresh tan and some heavy-handed foundation.
Princess Diana, pictured with the Queen Mother and Prince Harry, attend Trooping the Colour 1992.
“She went onto the sunbed, which we had at Kensington Palace back in the day, got a little bit of a tan and put on loads of makeup,” he recalls. “Thankfully, no one noticed when she went out on the balcony for Trooping, and no one picked up on it.”
“That worked fine, but after that she listened to me when I told her about juicing, what we could use and what we couldn’t,” McGrady shares.
