‘I knew something wasn’t right’ Princess Diana’s bulimia laid bare by royal chef who hid treats
A ROYAL chef has told how he dealt with Princess Diana’s bulimia, revealing he “knew something wasn’t right” at the time.
Mervyn Wycherley, who served the family for 33 years, revealed he knew something was wrong with the princess and her eating disorder during the early 1980s.
He told The Sun how he used to hide treats for Diana in the fridge during her struggle with bulimia.
Speaking of the time, he said: “You knew things weren’t quite what they should be.”
The former chef said he used to “always” leave things she liked in a “small fridge” in the kitchen.
Some of the princess’ favourite snacks at the time were hidden in the refrigerator for her to enjoy.
Mervyn served as a royal chef for 33 years to the late Queen and the then Prince of Wales as well as Princess Diana from their honeymoon until the end of their marriage.
He added: “[This included] cold lamb cutlets and mint aspic so that she could just snack whenever she wanted to.
“Of course with the illness there was bowls of custard which were obligatory.”
The chef confirmed that this was done at his own volition, saying the princess never asked him to leave food for her.
And Mervyn revealed the real reason behind him leaving snacks had to do with when members of the household went out to dinners.
He said: “They could never eat [at dinners] because people don’t want to see them eating, they want to actually talk all the time.
“So they could go to these dinners, chop a few things up and not eat anything and come back absolutely starving.
“I always left stuff in the fridge so that they could have something to snack on.”
Ken Wharfe, a former royal protection officer, told The Sun’s Matt Wilkinson: “It was serious.
“It was an eating disorder but by the time I arrived there that illness had moved on.”
The guard, who had worked as a Personal Protection Officer for Diana, also reminisced about the princess having an “amazing appetite”.
Ken recalled: “Her favourite restaurant at the time was San Lorenzos in Beauchamp Place – you know great Italian cuisine there.
“Diana was always talking about the quality of food.”
The Sun’s royal editor Matt Wilkinson was joined by ex-royal protection officer Ken Wharfe and Diana and Charles’ former head chef Mervyn Wycherley for our Royal Exclusive show.
Mervyn described how Charles and Diana were “quite simplistic” when it came to their choices of food.
The chef also revealed how members of the Royal Family are given a menu each week with options of first, main courses and desserts.
Ken told the show: “Mervyn would write out a week at a time suggestions for both the prince and the princess at that time.
But, he said, “Very often, the princess would come in and sit in the kitchen with you and whatever you’d written down in the book, you’d knock it up in the kitchen and she would eat it.
What it is like being a chef for the royal family
COOKING for royalty means that everything has to be perfect as former royal chef Darren McGrady well knows.
Darren, who worked for the royals for 15 years and cooked at Buckingham Palace, Sandringham and Balmoral, has revealed that when it came to banqueting events he had to prepare no less than 150 plates of food for the late Queen.
Speaking to Coffee Friend, Chef McGrady said: “There were no food tasters, no.
“Some Royals had their food prepared separately away from guests at big banquet events.
“However, with the Queen, we would prepare 150 plates and the Queen’s page would come in and pick one at random.
“That way, if you were to tamper with the food you would have to tamper with all of them.
“From our perspective, it also meant we had to get the same standard across every plate, not knowing which one the Queen would be eating.”