Princess Diana’s butler is spilling the tea on the royal family’s favourite drink and just how often it was consumed.
Paul Burrell, who served as a footman for Queen Elizabeth II for 11 years before leaving the role to become Princess Diana’s butler from 1987 to 1997, has long dished on his time working within the royal residences.
In his new book, The Royal insider: My Life with the Queen, the King and Princess Diana, Burrell revealed that gallons of gin were consumed each week at Buckingham Palace — “some legitimately, some not” — which was just a drop in the naughty bucket.
“It wasn’t just bed-hopping that went on in the palaces; there was a degree of inebriation which often helped loosen people’s inhibitions,” Burrell wrote, per the Telegraph.
“Forget Buckingham Palace, it was nicknamed ‘Gin Palace’ after the spirit that flowed freely through the everyday workings of the building.”
Burrell noted that Gordon’s gin was the “drink of choice.”
The butler wrote that the drinking culture within the palaces was wildly different from his own exposure to alcohol and teased how other hired help would sneak booze into the building.
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“Coming from a world where a pint of Mansfield Bitter pulled by my auntie Pearl in the local was the norm with a cherry brandy or a snowball at Christmas,” he wrote.
“I wasn’t used to such extravagance, but I quickly became quite familiar with the ingenious ways in which the household smuggled booze for their soirees.
“I would be ordered by senior members of staff to empty a screw-topped tonic water bottle each night and fill it with gin for them to use for parties in their rooms. These parties were for a select group of staff.
“Footmen could be seen carrying Russell Hobbs electric kettles around the palace, not full of water but full of gin.”
Burrell added: “There was a hierarchy downstairs as well as upstairs. Certain cliques of servants, depending on your rank and length of service, were invited to the soirees.”
It was no secret that Queen Elizabeth II could handle her liquor, particularly her favourite cocktail — a gin and Dubonnet.
Her former personal chef Darren McGrady divulged the late monarch’s diet and drinks in a series of YouTube videos (four small meals a day plus afternoon tea along with the sweet aperitif) — but not four drinks a day, as some reported.
McGrady clarified: “She’d be pickled if she drank that much.”