A Valentine's Day card and a note requesting a bacon sandwich, "with a much needed rest from our friend the tomato", are two of the items in a collection of private letters Princess Diana wrote to her chef which reveal her fun-loving nature.
The card reads: "Hey Valentine! Not many men will receive a card from Princess Diana… And you're one of them!". The recipient, Mervyn Wycherley - who was the personal chef of the late Princess and Prince Charles - is putting the collection up for sale later this month.
Mervyn, who stayed with the Princess after her divorce, spoke for the first time this week about his 22 years in the royal household, 13 of which were spent working for the royal couple. "I have nothing but wonderful memories," he said.
He recalled how Diana once bumped into workmen wearing nothing but a tiara and a dressing gown. "One day our lift broke down and we had some engineers in the kitchen," he remembers. "It was the state opening of Parliament and Diana's hairdresser had already woven a tiara into her hair. The Princess wanted a yoghurt for her breakfast and swept into the kitchen wearing just her dressing gown and a tiara."
"She came out laughing her socks off saying. 'You do realise they're going to leave Kensington Palace thinking I always wear a tiara – even when I'm in my dressing gown!'."
Other highlights of the sale include a letter in which the heir to the throne requests his eggs are boiled for precisely four minutes, and a fun birthday card from Prince William and Harry which reads: "Of all the people I have ever met… you're the weirdest".
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
