These Were Princess Diana’s Favorite Practical Jokes

Who knew that the Princess of Wales was a whoopee-cushion kind of gal? According to Richard Dalton, Princess Di’s former hairdresser, she loved nothing better than a good practical joke that bordered on the scatological. If you could fake a bodily function with a rubber replica, Princess Di was there for it.

“She always had plastic vomit or plastic dog poop in her bag to place on people’s seats when we traveled on long flights,” Dalton told PEOPLE. “She was hysterically funny and loved playing jokes on all of us.”

Your definition of “hysterically funny” may vary, but Dalton insists that Princess Di had an “amazing, wicked sense of humor” in his new book, It’s All About the Hair: My Decade with Diana. In his estimation, no one spent more time with the royal than he did between 1981 — before her marriage to the future King Charles — and 1991.  

“Her jokes were hysterical,” Dalton said, claiming that Diana was always telling jokes and playing pranks. As evidenced by the fake poo, her sense of humor was “very naughty at times.”

“I do find the humorous side of Diana to be very sweet,” agreed Renae Plant, the curator of the Princess Diana Museum and the book’s co-author. “She just wanted to be ‘normal’ and was just like the rest of us.”

Dalton tells the tale of the time one of Queen Elizabeth’s corgis followed him into Di’s dressing room. “I was patting it, as I love dogs, when Diana came up and the corgi started to lick her legs,” he writes in the book. “She said, ‘Whose dog is that?’ I said, ‘It’s your mother-in-law’s new corgi.’ She replied with a laugh, ‘Well, get it out of here, as it’s licking all the fake suntan off my legs.’”

Princess Di’s good pal Julia Samuel also applauded the royal’s sense of humor, particularly her habit of buying children loud, flashy toys that took hours to assemble. Samuel has carried on the tradition with Diana’s grandchildren. “William then has to spend days putting together … and it makes awful tooting noises and lights flashing and all of that.” 

Cheeky but not “very naughty.” For proof of Di’s ribald side, look no further than a pair of risqué greeting cards, signed by Diana, that were up for auction this summer. One featured a cartoon of a naked man leaning against a tree. The front of the card reads, “Adam came first…” The inside punchline? “Men always do!”

The second card takes the naughty up a notch. Its front features an ecstatic woman apparently being pleasured by a kneeling lover, along with the caption: “What’s the definition of a perfect man?”

Open the card for the answer: “A midget with a 10” tongue who can breathe through his ears!”

The card was signed in black ink: “Fondest love as always, from Diana.” 

I’m guessing it was attached to a package of fake dog poop.