Princess Diana's little known nickname

Much of the world knew her as ‘Princess Di’, but it turns out that nickname wasn’t so palatable to Diana.

In fact, according to one biographer, the Princess of Wales hated being called ‘Di’ so much, that she would playfully threaten anyone who used it.

“Diana was usually friendly and good-natured, but not when she was called Di,” Beatrice Gormley wrote in her 2005 book Diana Princess of Wales.

“’Say that again,’ she told her schoolmates, ‘and you die. I am Duchess. Duch’.”

Diana instead preferred to be called ‘Duch’ – which is quite ironic considering she later became a royal duchess upon marrying Prince Charles.

While she was always of aristocratic heritage, Diana was only a ‘lady’ before she married into the royal family – a title she got after her dad became an earl.

In English peerage, a duchess is ranked higher than a lady, which is the title many countesses and viscountesses go by. In order of descending importance, it goes; duke/duchess, marquess/marchioness, earl/countess, viscount/viscountess, and baron/baroness.

In her recorded interviews with biographer Andrew Morton, Diana refers to herself as ‘Duch’ while recounting a conversation with her sister Lady Sarah McCorquodale.

“We were so angry, but my sister Sarah said, “Right Duch” – my nickname was Duch – ‘You go in and sort him out’,” Diana said.

And the nickname didn’t wear off after she officially became the Duchess of Cornwall, as she again referred to herself by that moniker when recounting something sister-in-law Sarah ‘Fergie’ Ferguson said to her.

“‘You mustn’t worry, Duch – everything is going to be fine. Let me do this, let me do that’,” Diana quoted Fergie as saying.

The nickname has recently resurfaced on Twitter after it was revealed Diana actually signed one of her palace Christmas cards from ‘Duch and Charles’.

Diana was a big fan of nicknames and used a lot of them when referring to other members of the royal family.

She started calling William ‘wombat’ after his first visit to Australia at age two, and even Prince Harry’s name ‘Harry’, is a nickname for his real name, ‘Henry’.

The late princess also called her youngest son GKH – which is short for ‘good king Harry’ – according to her butler Paul Burrell.

“Nannies would always whisper in William’s ear, ‘You’d better sit up straight, you’d better behave, because you’re going to be king one day’, he said.

“’I don’t want to be king,’ William said one day. And Harry piped up, ‘Well, I’ll do the job instead of you then.’

“So from that day on, the Princess and I called Harry GKH – Good King Harry.”

Got a story tip? Send it to tips@yahoo7.com.au

Want more celebrity, entertainment and lifestyle news? Follow Be on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram.