Princess Diana, the Big Pineapple and my true blue mumu

GLENYS Mengel hated her work mumu — until the dated dress lured the people’s princess during a visit to the Big Pineapple (while Charles got lost in the loo).

GLENYS Mengel didn’t think much of her mumu — until the dated dress snared her a meeting with the people’s princess.

Bosses instructed Glenys to don the flowing gown when Diana and Prince Charles came to visit the Big Pineapple on the Sunshine Coast in 1983.

And it proved an irresistible lure to the fashion plate princess.

“This was in the days when the Big Pineapple was good, it was the place to be,” says Glenys, of Pacific Paradise, who shares her memories in the video above.

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“We put on a buffet lunch for them. At the end all the staff stood around in these ghastly mumus we had to wear. We were all told to wear different colours and I had my blue one on.

“The Princess asked me why mine was a different colour — I said it was the only clean one I had, which is probably not what you should say to royalty.

“She smiled and said ‘Ah, I see.’ There wasn’t much else she could say!”

A hit with the locals ... Princess Diana and Prince Charles went to the nearby Ginger Factory before heading to the Big Pineapple in April 1983.

In contrast to the dreaded mumus, Grandma Glenys recalls what Diana was wearing.

“A beautiful yellow dress with a nice white hat. It was buttoned up to the neck and the sleeves were long, with a white pattern throughout. She was very pretty, she had that English skin.”

But beneath the style and smalltalk, Glenys spotted something else about the then-22-year-old princess, whose firstborn was just ten months old.

“She didn’t look comfortable, like she wanted to be somewhere else. She kept her eyes down and was very shy, you got the impression she was doing what she was supposed to do. She would smile suddenly as if she’d just remembered to. At the time I just thought she was bored out of her brain.”

Presents and correct ... Princess Diana and Prince Charles with gifts at the Big Pineapple

What Glenys — and the rest of the world — did not know was that Diana had suffered post-natal depression after the birth of Prince William.

“She didn’t engage much with people, but she had something. An aura. She gave off the aura that she was a genuine person stuck in this life she would not have chosen for herself.

“It’s no surprise how she ended up — a tragic princess. I just had that feeling about her, that she was not for a long life.”

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Away from the sombre overtones of what was to come — divorce and Diana’s death in August 1997 — Glenys recalls the day at Nambour being a great event and somewhat amusing, especially when Prince Charles went missing on a loo break.

“Prince Charles got lost when he went to the toilet; he was directed to use the staff toilet in the back but was wandering around there. He ended up talking to the washing-up lady until his minders came to find him.”

‘An aura’ ... Glenys Mengel met Princess Diana when she worked at the Big Pineapple. Picture: Ric Frearson

And the royal couple were almost upstaged — at least in the eyes of the female Big Pineapple staff — by one other famous face: a young Mal Meninga, then a police officer before he became a rugby legend.

“There were police everywhere, with divers going through the dam and dogs sniffing everywhere. One jumped up on the kitchen counter — health and safety would have a fit today.

“One of the policemen was Mal Meninga and half the girls were more excited to see him. He was very good looking, with a beautiful body ... but that’s enough of that.”

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“A beautiful body”. Mal Meninga pictured in his early rugby league days.