Princess Diana’s hairdresser says late royal had a ‘filthy’ sense of humour – and reveals what he thinks of Meghan Markle

Throughout his four-decades-long career, renowned hairstylist Sam McKnight has worked with more than his fair share of glamorous women.

However, none, he says, have quite compared to his most prominent client, Princess Diana, for whom he created her famous blonde bob hairstyle.

The celebrity hairdresser, 69, first met Diana in 1990 when he and makeup artist Mary Greenwell were hired by Vogue for a photo shoot with a secret celebrity.

He recalled the moment he met the late royal, who was killed in a car crash in Paris in 1997, saying: ‘Princess Diana comes bouncing up the stairwell. She stuck out her hand with a big smile and said, “Hi, I’m Diana’ – both of us melted.”

In a new interview with The Telegraph, Sam remembered Diana as being ‘so funny’ – with a rather ‘filthy’ sense of humour.

‘I loved her,’ he said. ‘She was so funny. She sent [me] these really filthy birthday cards from this card shop on Kensington High Street.’

The ‘void’ left by Diana when she tragically lost her life at just 36 has never been filled, Sam said.

‘There’s never really been a replacement [for her],’ he told the publication, before correcting himself.

Celebrity hairstylist Sam McKnight first met Diana in 1990 when he was hired for a Vogue photoshoot to style a mystery celebrity – who turned out to be the princess

The pair went on to have a close working relationship for the next seven years, and Sam even travelled with Diana on her royal tours, including to India in 1992

Sam cut Diana’s hair short after the Vogue photoshoot, which led to her iconic look sparking thousands of copycat styles 

‘That’s the wrong word. No one has ever fitted into that spot she created, there’s been a void there.’ 

Sam also revealed his feelings about the current state of the royal family, particularly on Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton.

He lamented how ‘sad’ it was that Meghan left the royal family alongside Prince Harry in 2020, when they stepped down as senior royals and moved to the US.

In the interview with the newspaper, he said: ‘I think Meghan could have done an amazing job too, I really do. And I thought that was sad, you know?’

However, he praised the Princess of Wales, who is married to Prince William and shares three children with him.

‘I think Kate does a great job,’ he said.

Sam cut Diana’s hair short for the Vogue cover shoot, shot by Patrick Demarchelier, and the resulting black-and-white photograph is now one of the most iconic photos of Diana ever taken.

It showed the princess sitting on the floor of the studio and beaming up at the camera, dressed in a strapless satin gown with a string of pearls around her neck and a tiara in her hair. 

Diana, seen here at a charity concert in 1994, was a style icon at the time and still is nearly 30 years after her death

Sam also styled Diana’s slicked back hairstyle at the 1995 Fashion Designer Awards at the Lincoln Center, New York

The stylist also expressed his thoughts on the Princess of Wales, saying she’s doing ‘a great job’, and said it was ‘sad’ that Meghan Markle decided to break from the royal family (Kate and Meghan in the Royal Box on Centre Court at Wimbledon in 2019, a year after their bridesmaid dress row)

Sam went on to work with Diana for the next seven years, even travelling with her on her royal tours.

He went with her to India in 1992, where the now-famous photograph of the princess outside the Taj Mahal was taken. 

He spoke of her love of perming her hair, adding that the princess would have a ‘sneaky perm’ between the times he travelled back and forth from London to New York for work.

In order to create her short hairstyle in the Vogue photoshoot, the stylist previously revealed he had to ‘fake it a bit’ before cutting Diana’s hair.

In 2021, he took part in British Vogue and YouTube UK’s series of free masterclasses, Vogue Visionaries, and recalled the moment that led to Diana’s iconic hairstyle.

‘This was 1990, I made [Diana’s hair] look short under the tiara – I faked it a bit… at the end of the day she said, “What would you do with my hair if I was to say, ‘Just do anything'”?’

‘And I said, ‘I would cut it all off and just start again’.

Earlier this year, the stylist offered a frank appraisal of Prince Harry’s thinning hair, saying it was time for a hair transplant, or to cut it short like his brother’s. (Pictured left: The young Prince in 2002 attending a charity event at a polo ground in Tidworth, Wiltshire. The Duke of Sussex photographed at the WellChild Awards in London in 2024)

‘It was the beginning of the 90s and it was the time that I was doing a lot of shows and covers and a lot of the girls had short hair and we were moving from the big frou-frou 80s into the sharp, more androgynous, business chic of the 90s.

‘So she said, ‘Well, why don’t you just cut it off now?’, so I cut it off then and we never looked back.’

Sam also used to be Prince William and Prince Harry’s go-to hairdresser when they were young boys.

However, earlier this year, he had some rather hard truths for Harry after seeing photographs of the Duke of Sussex at the Invictus Games in Vancouver and Whistler in Canada in February.

Fans pointed out 40-year-old Harry’s thinning hair at the back during the event, which did not go unnoticed by Sam.

The A-list hairstylist shared photographs of Harry and advised him to either have a ‘good short clip’ or to ‘sort himself out’ with a hair transplant.

‘It’s time Harry!’ he wrote. ‘Many moons ago, when you and your brother were young boys, you both had the most magnificent, thick healthy crowning glories, just like mum.

‘Many an afternoon was spent with me thinning and shaping the topiary! However, just like myself, the lush hedging is no more, a mere wisp or two of its former self.’

Sam said his advice for Harry to clip his hair shorter – like William – would ‘look sharp and clean, and take years off that handsome face’.

‘If I were your age, I’d go for a transplant, so much more natural these days, unlike the plug plants of yore.

‘And no need for a quick easyJet trip to Turkey, you’re in California where they have the best!

‘So Harry, from one baldy to another, it’s time. As they say in Disneyland, ‘Let It Go’. Sent from your old hairdresser, Sam, with love, a wink and a smile.’