Princess Diana Had a “Blotchy” Skin Mishap Right Before Trooping the Colour After She Had an “Overdose” of This Juice
Princess Diana Had a “Blotchy” Skin Mishap Right Before Trooping the Colour After She Had an “Overdose” of This Juice
Rachel BurchfieldThu, July 23, 2026 at 4:58 PM UTC
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Princess Margaret, Prince Harry, Prince William, Princess Diana, Prince Charles, and Queen Elizabeth during Trooping the Colour 1989.Credit: GettyThe Gist -
Princess Diana’s royal chef Darren McGrady worked for the former Princess of Wales at her Kensington Palace home.
Diana was a healthy eater, and started “juicing before juicing was even invented,” he said.
After an “overdose” of this type of juice, she was left with “blotchy” skin just before Trooping the Colour, McGrady recalled.
Even when you are as beloved as the late Princess Diana was, having the world’s eyes on you all the time has to be a daunting prospect. It is made more complicated, no doubt, by a skin mishap that goes awry right before Trooping the Colour—one of the days of the year when the royal family is the most visible.
The former Princess of Wales’s royal chef Darren McGrady told Marie Claire an anecdote about Diana, who he said enjoyed “fresh and clean” meals like “a peach and feta salad with walnuts.” The princess was also a fan of fresh juice, and was a trendsetter in this regard—Diana “was juicing before juicing was even invented,” he said.
Princess Margaret, Prince Harry, and Princess Diana at Trooping the Colour.Credit: Getty
Diana asked McGrady to buy a juicer, and he began making “fresh orange juice every morning” at her Kensington Palace home. “Then, after that, she would have a green drink mid-morning. That would be spinach, celery, cucumber, and apple juice. She would have that religiously every morning.”
“One day, she came in and said, ‘Darren, I want some beet juice,’” McGrady said on behalf of Smooth Spins Casino. “I’ve heard that beetroot juice is healthy.” McGrady—who worked as a chef at Buckingham Palace before joining Diana at KP and an expert in his craft—told the royal that the beetroot juice needed to be diluted with another type of juice. Diana insisted on straight beetroot juice, though.
“A few hours later, she came into the kitchen and said, ‘Darren, you’ve poisoned me!’” he recalled. “‘Look at my face—it’s all blotchy.’ I told her it could have been the overdose of beetroot juice.”
The Queen Mother and Princess Diana at Trooping the Colour 1992.Credit: Getty
This incident happened right before Trooping the Colour—an event that takes place every June and serves as the public birthday celebration of the monarch. McGrady didn’t specify what year this happened, but he did explain that Diana solved her “blotchy” face fiasco with heavy foundation and a fresh tan.
“She went onto the sunbed, which we had at Kensington Palace back in the day, got a little bit of a tan and put on loads of makeup,” McGrady said. “Thankfully, no one noticed when she went out on the balcony for Trooping, and no one picked up on it.”
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“That worked fine, but after that she listened to me when I told her about juicing—what we could use and what we couldn’t,” he added.
According to Diana’s makeup artist Mary Greenwell, the princess “had the most incredible skin, which frankly at the end of the day also can come down to family genes.” Speaking to Stylist (and per Elle U.K.), Diana never took that for granted and cleansed, toned, moisturized, and applied serums and SPF daily—and sometimes twice a day.
She “realized the power of hair and makeup, and that is something that should never be underestimated—by anyone,” Greenwell said.
The Queen Mother, Princess Diana, and Prince William at Trooping the Colour 1990.Credit: Getty
“Diana was very sensible when it came to her skin—she would always make sure she took her makeup off at the end of the day and make sure she always had a clean face before applying makeup,” Greenwell continued.
Eloise Moran, the author of The Lady Di Look Book: What Diana Was Trying to Tell Us Through Her Clothes, told InStyle that Diana’s “approach to beauty shifted over the course of her life.”
“By the 1990s, her beauty aesthetic became much more refined—even sexy,” she added. “What made her routine so enduring, however, was that it never felt intimidatingly perfect. It reflected a woman whose relationship with beauty evolved alongside her growing confidence and independence.”
on InStyle
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
