When it comes to staff crises in the Royal Family, recent years have been dominated by the Duchess of Sussex’s constant staff turnover.
Meghan has been labeled “Duchess Difficult” after media reports claimed the “high-heeled dictator” made grown men cry because of her “barking” orders, although she denies the allegations.
But long before the American actress married The Firm, Princess Diana, who is generally remembered for her gentle nature, also had her fair share of turmoil in that department.
Towards her final years, the then Princess of Wales, who also held the title Duchess of Rothesay in Scotland when she was married to Charles, repeatedly dismissed her household staff for a seemingly endless list of arbitrary reasons.
Due to labor laws, whenever the princess fired people without notice or good reason, her husband, Prince Charles, would have to pay them what a court would have awarded them plus twenty percent, according to author Penny Junor.
As the succession of cooks, maids, dressers, secretaries and butlers left, getting rid of each of them cost between £12,000 and £14,000 (around £27,000 in today’s money).
The constant turnover of staff included his long-time secretary, Victoria Mendham, after they fell out during a holiday in the Caribbean at Easter 1996.
In her 1998 book, Charles Victim or Villain?, Junor wrote that the “utterly devoted” 27-year-old maid, who had worked with Diana for seven years, had become so close to her boss that they became personal friends.
Princess Diana and Victoria Mendham (to her left) laugh together while watching a performance of The Indiana Jones Adventure at MGM Studios at Walt Disney World.
Victoria Mendham, who was 27 when she was fired, was “totally devoted” to Diana and had worked for her for seven years, says author Penny Junor.
Meghan, pictured in a 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, has been labeled a “Difficult Duchess” after media reports claimed the “high-heeled dictator” made grown men cry because of her “barking” orders, which caused a series of resignations. although she denies the accusations
Diana repeatedly fired her household staff for a seemingly endless list of arbitrary reasons, according to a book
They became so affectionate that Diana asked Victoria to go on vacation with her for four years straight.
For the first two, Diana paid the full cost. So when they went to the Caribbean for Easter 1996, Victoria assumed she was there as a guest of the wealthy princess once again.
But halfway through the trip, Diana suddenly said, ‘Oh, Victoria, I’ve written a note… to make sure you get your share of the bill.’ I think it’s about £5,000, according to Junor.
“But, ma’am,” Victoria sputtered, “you asked me to come.”
“Yes,” replied the princess, “but you always knew you would have to pay for your trip.”
According to Junor, after the conversation, Victoria called the London office crying her eyes out, saying she didn’t have £5,000 and worried about what the hell she would do.
The Prince of Wales finally showed up and quietly paid the bill.
Nine months later, on another vacation in the Caribbean, it happened again.
This time Victoria told Diana that she could pay for the plane ticket, which was in economy class, but that they had stayed at the K Club, where the beachside villas cost £1,700 a night, something that would have been impossible to afford. pay for a secretary.
Diana became so close to her long-time secretary Victoria Mendham that she invited her to go on vacation with her for four consecutive years. The couple, above, in 1995 leaving for Antigua
Princess Diana and Victoria Mendham walking in a garden in July 1996
Victoria at an engagement with Princess Diana at Saint Benedict’s Hospice in Newcastle in 1993
Diana and Victoria on vacation on the Caribbean island of Barbuda in 1996
When the princess learned that her husband had paid the previous bill, she “went through the roof” and Victoria was frozen like others before her had been, according to Junor.
Then, in her anti-mine campaign in Angola, Diana abandoned Victoria and took her butler Paul Burrell.
When Diana returned, she had a confrontation with a very upset Victoria, which led her to tender her resignation. He was told to clean up his desk and leave immediately, without giving four weeks’ notice.
At the time, Diana was not considered mentally fragile and saw conspiracies everywhere.
He left disturbing messages on several people’s pagers and answering machines.
Junor writes that in the late 1980s Camilla had also received several threatening and disconcerting phone calls in the middle of the night.
Diana never said who she was, but she would say things like, ‘I’ve sent someone to kill you.’ They are outside in the garden. Look out the window, can you see them?
And she was even suspicious of those staff members who did a good job of secretly undermining her.
Diana and Victoria in Mayfair in 1995
He fired William and Harry’s diligent nanny, Barbara Barnes, in 1986 after feeling she was becoming too possessive of “his” children.
A surrogate mother to Prince William for more than four years and Prince Harry for more than two, Ms. Barnes had not been allowed to say a farewell word to her children, according to royal author Robert Lacey.
But despite how Diana had treated her, Victoria Mendham remained loyal to the end.
When Diana died in 1997, she volunteered to go to her old office and help organize the funeral, according to royal author Tim Clayton.
And in the years since, he never succumbed to the temptation of selling stories about the princess to the press, which would have fetched a high price due to their many years together.
As the years passed, William and Harry became enraged at how their mother’s former assistants “exploited” her name by selling stories, most famously Paul Burrell.
The princes have expressed their displeasure at the way they ‘cash in’ on their mother’s memory by revealing secrets about her during the most turbulent years of her life.
Charles, Harry and William arrive at a memorial to mark the 10th anniversary of Diana’s death at the Guards Chapel in London on August 31, 2007.
Many would go on to forge lucrative careers as royal experts as the fascination with his life continued to dominate the world years after his death.
In 2007, a memorial service was held for the 10th anniversary of Diana’s death, and the princes did not invite servants who had sold stories or written books about their mother.
Mendham was originally not on the guest list, but courtiers ultimately did an U-turn to invite her, claiming it was a “regrettable oversight.” Burrell was not invited.
And now, more than 27 years after Diana’s death, Mendham has stayed out of the press and has never uttered a single word about her royal service, including her firing after that trip to the Caribbean.