Just as our parents are engineered to protect and nurture us, there's something in their genetic coding which also tells them that they need to embarrass us from time to time. Whether that's by calling us embarrassing nicknames in front of friends, going into full-on paparazzi mode at school concerts or buying hideous outfits for us before we were able to have a say in the matter – parents have a special skill in being able to turn us red-faced in an instant.
And it seems that you're not immune to this even if you're a royal. Prince William, who just celebrated his 36th birthday this week, experienced a moment in which he "went bright-red" 23 years ago. It was during his 13th birthday, where his mother, the late Princess Diana, thought it would be hilarious to embarrass him.
In a heartwarming recollection of the events in 1995, the princess’s former chef, Darren McGrady, shared the memory with Hello magazine last year.
His cheeky mother thought that his entry into teenage-hood would be best marked with something that he would never forget. So what does one get a 13-year-old boy? Why, a huge cake in the shape of two, voluminous breasts, of course!
William's good-humoured mother made sure that there were plenty of cool guests at his 13th birthday party too, inviting supermodels Claudia Schiffer, Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell to their palace home. The teenager reportedly returned home from school to discover the cake.
"I came into work that morning and went down to the refrigerator, opened the door and I was just confronted with the biggest pair of boobs I've ever seen in my life," Darren recalled. "The Princess had ordered a boobs cake for William's 13th birthday."
William reportedly "went bright-red", but Darren pointed out that although Diana "loved embarrassing people", it was always with good intentions.
"The Princess loved embarrassing people in the nicest way, in a fun way, whether it was telling a dirty, risqué joke – which usually got me," he said. "William just went bright-red.”
“I wish I'd taken a photograph of it!" he added. "I didn't know anything about it, I just thought, 'Oh my gosh.' I asked the butler, 'What on earth is this?' and he said the Princess had ordered it for William's birthday.”
Peak embarrassing mum moment, am I right?
Princess Diana died two years later, in a fatal car accident in Paris. Today, she would have been celebrating her own birthday in a few weeks time, turning 57.
Prince Harry's recent wedding to Meghan Markle paid tribute to his mother on several occasions, including one seat that was left empty in the chapel – supposedly reserved for her. The flower and music choices for the royal wedding also included nods to the princess.
Though the cake remained a sensible and elegant Elderflower sponge cake, we sure are glad to have learned about the "boobs cake" that William was gifted with back in the day. Good one, Diana.
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