The late Princess Diana was subjected to endless headlines and tabloid gossip, so one might imagine she wouldn’t have the time of day for them. However, she would reportedly ask for some mags to be "smuggled" into the palace.
Proof that even royalty couldn’t resist the allure of a bit of scandal and tabloid fun, one of Princess Diana’s former hairdressers revealed that she would ask for them to be brought in on the sly.
Richard Dalton, who worked with Diana between 1981 and 1990, told People, "She used to say, ‘Richard, can you bring them in for me?’ Nobody questioned it because nobody knew. Once I’d got through security and into the pantry, it was all plain sailing from there."
He added, "She wasn’t allowed to see the tabloid newspapers" but once they’d been "smuggled" in, the Princess would flick through, only to find herself getting annoyed by the coverage.
He said, "I’d be doing her hair, she’d be flipping through the pages, and she’d go, ‘Ugh… Then another one comes along and then [she'd go], ‘Oh’”. He added that most of the time, despite asking to see them, it would end with Diana throwing them to the side.
While she would find herself the subject of much press attention, there was always one rumour that would affect her the most, according to Richard. And that was questions of Prince Harry’s paternity.
Tabloids were known for running stories insinuating - without merit or credit - that Diana’s youngest son might have actually been the child of Major James Hewitt. One of the reasons for this baseless rumour was Harry’s hair colour - red, like Major Hewitt’s.
However, Richard is quick to add that, having been a hairdresser to other members of Diana’s family, red hair was, indeed, a Spencer trait.
"Diana's brother, Charles Spencer, when I used to cut his hair, his hair was bright red," Dalton remembers. "Lady Sarah, also red," he notes, referencing Diana’s oldest sister. "The Spencers definitely had red hair. But at that time, I wasn't in a position to actually say, ‘Hello, Charles Spencer’s hair was red.'"
For Richard, the answer was definitive. "They always [went] on about, ‘Is Charles the father of Harry?’ Of course he is."
Diana’s reported love of tabloids fits with the picture of the Princess her close friends have painted over the years - a very modern-thinking, social person who loved the trends of the day and a good gossip.
Elton John, a close pal of the late Princess, remembered her as "blessed with social ease" in his 2019 memoir, Me. "She was fabulous company, the best dinner party guest, incredibly indiscreet, a real gossip: you could ask her anything and she'd tell you."
