For years, Princess Diana’s life was splashed across the tabloids. Yet one story cut deeper than all the rest, said her hairdresser.
Richard Dalton, Princess Diana’s hairdresser, claimed she often brushed off many of the tabloid stories written about her throughout her royal life. However, there was one persistent story that affected her the most, reported PEOPLE Magazine.
“They always [went] on about, ‘Is [Prince] Charles the father of [Prince] Harry?’” Dalton revealed, adding, “Of course he is.”
“Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, when I used to cut his hair, his hair was bright red,” the hairdresser admitted. “Lady Sarah [McCorquodale], also red,” he said, citing Diana’s oldest sister as having the same color tresses.
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He concluded, “The Spencer’s definitely had red hair. But at that time, I wasn’t in a position to actually say, ‘Hello, Charles Spencer’s hair was red.'”
Speculation regarding Harry’s paternity due to the color of his hair began surfacing after Diana’s relationship with Major James Hewitt, also a redhead, which lasted from 1986 to 1991, came to light. Yet Prince Harry’s birth in 1984 clearly places him outside the period of their affair.
Charles additionally made comments about Harry’s hair color soon after his birth. According to The King author Christopher Andersen, Diana confided in tapes recorded for journalist Andrew Morton — who later wrote Diana: Her True Story — that Charles had been disappointed Harry wasn’t a girl and remarked on his red hair, per FOX News.
“‘Oh, God,’ Charles blurted out disdainfully, much to the astonishment of doctors and nurses in the room,” said Andersen. “’It’s a boy. And he even has red hair!’ At that moment, said Diana, ‘It just went bang, our marriage. The whole thing went down the drain. Something inside me closed off.’”
Princess Diana’s relationship with the British tabloids
Richard Dalton revealed that Princess Diana liked to read all the British tabloids. Although they were banned from the palace, she often asked her close friends to sneak them in.
He told PEOPLE Magazine, “One of the hairdressers smuggled them in. Did I say that? They were smuggled in, but it’s not to do with me.”
Dalton added that Diana asked him to “bring them in for me.” However, despite the papers being unwelcome at the palace, Dalton admitted, “Nobody questioned it because nobody knew. Once I’d got through security and into the pantry, it was all plain sailing from there.”
Additionally, according to PBS, Diana maintained a secret rapport with several editors from Britain’s leading tabloids. “The Princess was in regular and close contact with the editors of the red-top titles,” the outlet revealed.
PBS reported that Diana chose to keep close ties with the media as a way to protect her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. She believed that giving the press limited access would buy her children a measure of privacy in exchange.
Former Vanity Fair contributing editor Sally Bedell Smith wrote in 1998 that Diana, “and the press performed a dance designed to satisfy both of their audiences.” She added, “In the last five years of Diana’s life, her contacts with British journalists were frequent, substantive, and often chummy.”
Tragically, that same media attention would play a role in her death. On August 31, 1997, Diana was killed in a Paris car crash while being chased by paparazzi, as reported by The Guardian. She was 36.