JAMES GILBEY
THEN: Upper-crust luxury car salesman James Gilbey endeared himself to Diana when they met at parties given by mutual friends before she married Charles. His fun-loving nature put her at ease and he provided a shoulder to cry on when
she was going through difficult times in her marriage.
On New Year’s Eve, 1989, the couple held a phone conversation, which unknown to them, was recorded. In it, James called her “Darling” 53 times and “Squidgy” 14 times. The tape was made public three years later by a newspaper and dubbed “Squidgygate”.
Just how cIose the couple got in the intervening years is not known, but once their relationship was exposed by the media, Diana cut off all ties with James. One source says although she was very fond of him, she knew that if ever she was able to leave her marriage, James would not be able to keep her in the manner to which she was accustomed. NOW: James (60), to his credit, never spoke publicly about Diana. He stayed single for many years, apart from an engagement to an earl’s daughter. She died of a drug overdose in 1994.
In 2014, he married for the first time, at the age of 57, to mother-of-five and interior designer Lavinia Hadsley-Chaplin.