Prince Harry once gave the Queen a racy present for Christmas & it went down surprisingly well
WHAT do you buy a member of the royal family who has everything? Something comical, of course.
Typically the royals exchange “gag gifts” on Christmas Eve - but renowned joker Prince Harry once took this to an extreme length with his present for the late Queen.
On the TV show A Very Royal Christmas: Sandringham Secrets, it was revealed that Prince Harry bought his regal grandma a shower cap which said “ain’t life a b**h”.
While Her Majesty may have found the gift hilarious, former royal butler Paul Burrell wasn’t sure that she would have used it on a daily basis.
He explained on the show, which first aired in 2020: “As I know the Queen doesn’t take a shower - no, don’t think it would have been worn.
“The Queen likes to take a bath.”
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Meghan Markle's joke present to the Queen also went down well, according to the experts.
The former actress is said to have given the late monarch a singing hamster toy - but it may have been more appreciated by the corgis.
Paul said: “I presume a furry clockwork singing hamster, which would have been torn to pieces by the corgis in seconds, good present for the corgis, not that good for the Queen.”
Another year, Prince Harry is said to have given the Queen a “pool of plastic sick”, according to the former butler.
He continued: “She’s got everything anyone could possibly need so you have to think of something she might use.
“When William and Harry were thinking of presents to get granny and grandpa, Harry thought he’d give a pool of plastic sick, because that would be fun wouldn’t it?
“William and Harry were always the jokers, and I remember the Queen exclaiming one day when she lifted the lid on the sugar basin and there was a fly in the sugar.
“Of course, it wasn’t a real fly but a plastic fly put there by Harry.”
Prince Harry was also spotted buying a mystery feather-edged thong for an unknown recipient, before he married Meghan.
During the show, royal editor Katie Nicholl claimed the Duke of Sussex once pranked the Duke of Edinburgh with a rather rude present.
She said: “When Prince Harry put a whoopie cushion under his seat, he found it hilarious, as did everyone else.
“If you can achieve something that is tongue in cheek and has the Queen laughing then you’ve really done well that Christmas.
“The more kitsch the better, nothing ostentation or lavish, that doesn’t really go down that well with the Queen.”
While Christmas used to be one of the Queen’s favourite times of the year, not everyone was a fan of the Sandringham celebrations.
Royal commentator Lady Colin Campbell told the Express: “Diana did not like Christmas with the Windsors.
“She was very keen to disappear into her room as much as she could."
This was also voiced by royal chef Darren McGrady who claimed Princess Diana was more interested in talking to staff than the other dinner guests.
He told Yahoo: “Once the Queen and the royals had left the dining room, Princess Diana just liked to come in for a chat, just sort of walk around the kitchen and see what was going on.”
“Sandringham was so tight, so compact, there were so many people there, all the families.
"You just couldn’t get away. You came out of the dining room and you couldn’t go into the sitting room because there were three or four people in there playing charades or Scrabble or something.”
"She would go off for a walk on her own and often I would bump into her when she was out walking. So, I think that’s probably what she wasn’t keen on.”
Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell, also added that she would confide in him that she would be “crawling the walls” by the end of a Sandringham Christmas and “couldn’t wait to escape”.
This year it will be the Firm's second Christmas without the late monarch, who died in September 2022.
After celebrating 32 Christmases at the royal estate, the Queen's tradition will again be continued this year by King Charles and Queen Camilla.
Prince Harry won't be spending Christmas with Charles or William, it's believed after explosive claims were revealed in Omid Scobie's Endgame.
Instead, Charles will reportedly spend the day at Sandringham with the other royals - along with Queen Camilla's children and grandchildren.
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Harry and his wife Meghan are expected to celebrate Christmas in California with their children Archie and Lilibet, Tatler reports.
Hopes relations between Harry and the Royal Family would be improved were revealed when Harry broke six months of silence to call King Charles and wish him a happy birthday.
