{"id":729322,"date":"2026-01-29T20:33:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T20:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/729322\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T20:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T20:33:13","slug":"why-princess-diana-didnt-celebrate-this-silly-holiday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/729322\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Princess Diana Didn&#8217;t Celebrate This &#8220;Silly Holiday&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Princess Diana apparently considered Valentine&#8217;s Day to be a &#8220;silly holiday.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Former royal chef Darren McGrady revealed as much during a recent interview.<\/li>\n<li>McGrady also explained that it simply was &#8220;not something that the royal family celebrated.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_2-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> As couples all over the world prepare to celebrate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instyle.com\/valentines-day-makeup-8782043\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Valentine&#8217;s Day<\/a> next month, one former royal chef has revealed that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instyle.com\/princess-dianas-most-iconic-looks-5369926\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Princess Diana<\/a> apparently found the holiday &#8220;silly.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_4-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> &#8220;They didn\u2019t celebrate Valentine\u2019s at all,&#8221; Darren McGrady recently said of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instyle.com\/british-royal-family-tree-8648198\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">British royal family<\/a>, per <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marieclaire.com\/celebrity\/royals\/royal-chef-princess-diana-didnt-celebrate-silly-holiday\/\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"externalLink\" data-ordinal=\"2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Marie Claire<\/a>. &#8220;It was a silly holiday for them, I think. Absolutely not something that the royal family celebrated, even Princess Diana on that one.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p> Princess Diana at the premiere of &#8216;Stepping Out&#8217; in September 1991.<\/p>\n<p>Getty Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_9-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> McGrady went on, adding, &#8220;It\u2019s not a proper holiday, and food-wise, it\u2019s not really something you celebrate with a foodie thing.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_13-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> Aside from Princess Diana, McGrady also worked as a royal chef for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instyle.com\/queen-elizabeth-jewelry-8691089\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Queen Elizabeth II<\/a>. When it came to the late monarch and her husband <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instyle.com\/queen-elizabeth-memorial-tribute-to-love-story-prince-philip-11760187\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Prince Philip<\/a>, the chef explained that they also &#8220;wouldn\u2019t have gone out or requested a special meal for Valentine\u2019s Day.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p> Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth II at a polo match in Windsor in May 1987.<\/p>\n<p>Getty Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_16-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> Of course, McGrady is not the only former employee of the family to dismiss Cupid. This time last year, former royal butler Paul Burrell shared a similar sentiment with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marieclaire.com\/celebrity\/royals\/exclusive-princess-diana-valentines-day-cards-prince-charles\/\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"externalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Marie Claire<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_18-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> &#8220;Do you know what reminds me of Valentine&#8217;s Day, is the fact that the royals never acknowledged it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It was never a day for the Royal Family, [more of] a day for the people.&#8221;\n<\/p>\n<p> Prince William and Kate Middleton in Tobermory, Scotland on their 14th wedding anniversary.<\/p>\n<p>Getty Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_21-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> Nowadays, however, the generation following Diana&#8217;s has clearly embraced the holiday, with both <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instyle.com\/kate-middleton-prince-william-pda-valentines-post-11679911\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Prince William and Kate Middleton<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instyle.com\/meghan-markle-prince-harry-relationship-11834849\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Prince Harry and Meghan Markle<\/a> sharing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instyle.com\/meghan-markle-declares-love-wins-sweet-valentines-day-post-prince-harry-11680098\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"internalLink\" data-ordinal=\"3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">loved-up photos<\/a> on February 14.\n<\/p>\n<p id=\"mntl-sc-block_25-0\" class=\"comp mntl-sc-block mntl-sc-block-html\"> \u201cMy love, I will eat burgers &amp; fries and fish &amp; chips with you forever,\u201d the Duchess of Sussex <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DGD0IQdJzpl\/\" data-component=\"link\" data-source=\"inlineLink\" data-type=\"externalLink\" data-ordinal=\"1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote<\/a> on Valentine&#8217;s Day in 2025. &#8220;Thank you for you.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Princess Diana apparently considered Valentine&#8217;s Day to be a &#8220;silly holiday.&#8221; Former royal chef Darren McGrady revealed as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":729323,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7708],"tags":[5105,7710,519,448],"class_list":{"0":"post-729322","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-royals","8":"tag-royal","9":"tag-royal-families","10":"tag-royal-family","11":"tag-royals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115980298002133503","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=729322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/729322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=729322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=729322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=729322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}