Princess Diana Was a “Terrible Cook,” According to Her Former Royal Chef

You could stay that Princess Diana excelled at many things, including being a devoted mother and a style icon. But the one thing she was never quite good at was cooking, according to her former chef. This little-known revelation makes Diana all the more relatable, in our opinion. After all, you can’t be good at everything, right?

“She couldn’t cook; the princess was a terrible cook, she really was,” Darren McGrady told HELLO! Online. “I would actually leave food for her. I worked Monday to Friday and I’d leave food in the refrigerator for the weekend, like stuffed peppers. She loved those for a weekend lunch.”

Not only did Diana not know how to cook, but she also wasn’t sure how to reheat food, according to McGrady. “I actually put cling film on with a little sticky note with a number two on it, and that told her to put it in the microwave and press two. That’s just how bad she was at cooking! When the boys were home, I’d stay there and cook on weekends too, but if it was just the Princess, I’d have weekends off and leave food for her.”

Even though Diana was far from a whiz in the kitchen, her boys still enjoyed their meals. In fact, the late royal made sure sons Prince William and Prince Harry were able to experience a normal childhood, complete with their favorite junk foods. “Princess Diana would say, ‘If you want fried chicken or loaded potato skins or hamburgers, that’s fine,'” McGrady said in an earlier interview. Diana wouldn’t partake, though, opting for healthier versions of her sons’ meals.

It seems William and Harry liked their junk food so much, they tried to play a trick on McGrady. The former royals’ chef recalls finding a note that read, “Please give the boys pizza tonight instead of chicken,” signed with the nanny’s name. But there was something fishy — it was in a six-year-old’s handwriting. “I knew the boys wrote that, so I said ‘No, I’ll give them chicken.'”

One thing we’ve always admired about Diana is her ability to connect with regular folks; it’s what’s endeared her to us. Finding out that, like many of us, she could hardly whip up a royal-worthy dinner (let alone reheat one) makes us feel a little better about our cooking skills — or lack thereof. She truly was the “People’s Princess.”

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This post originally appeared on our sister site, Woman’s World.