Daily Mail - Daily Mail Weekend Magazine
DI-NAMITE!
Diana rose from the ashes of her marriage in spectacular fashion thanks to an army of personal trainers, healers, therapists and designers. Here, those who watched it happen reveal how she did it
PETRONELLA WYATT Writer
‘During the years before she died, I met Diana quite often and she seemed to have “settled”. She had become the toast of London. It was not only that she was the most famous woman in the world, but because she was polite, thoughtful and sang for her supper. She was fun to be around, unlike Princess Margaret, who kept reminding you how royal she was and was often very rude. Diana hated that kind of behaviour.
‘Even those who had disliked her started to come round. Caroline, the Duchess of Beaufort, my godmother, showed me a wonderful letter Diana had written to her after Caroline was diagnosed with cancer in 1994. She was tremendously touched. It was as if Diana had become a different person. Her marriage had made her toxic and once she was free of it, a lot of her histrionics just disappeared. Yes, she manipulated the Press, but she was essentially a benign person. She laughed a lot in those days; she was simply radiant.’
JAYNE FINCHER
Photographer ‘In November 1980 I went to The Ritz to photograph Pr incess Margaret’s 50th birthday party. I’d been out of the country so I hadn’t been following stories about this Lady Di who was supposed to be Prince Charles’s new girlfriend. The photographers were all standing on the pavement when this girl came up behind us and said, “Excuse me.” We all let her through and she went inside. A few seconds later somebody said, “Do you know, I think that was Lady Diana.” We’d all missed her.
‘So I waited outside until the early hours to try and see her. Finally she came out with her sister, and she looked really unsophisticated with a funny old coat that she normally went shopping in over her dress, which looked like a dress she’d borrowed from her mum. I took about three frames. She went bright pink, held on to her coat tightly and looked really embarrassed. Even today that picture (see right) is a favourite, because it showed the innocence of this girl. I hadn’t got a clue who she was or what she was like, but she looked so young. I thought, “No, that can’t be Prince Charles’s girlfriend, she’s like a schoolgirl compared to some of his other girlfriends, it’s ridiculous.”
‘ To begin with she was incredibly shy, it was impossible to get her to put her head up.
She told me later that she knew where we were when she heard the photographers’ aluminium ladders rattling, and she knew not to look up. But she became a more confident woman, you could see that in her clothes and her body language. She grew up basically, she became very confident, she knew how to stand and pose and look down the lens. It was a totally different person later on but that took time to come.
She had the most wonderful legs and I was always incredibly jealous of them. As she got out of the car that night at the Serpentine she had that very tight-fitting black dress on with her endless legs showing and she looked really radiant, she looked on a high. She must have been a bloomin’ good actress because she knew what was going on [with Charles’s interview with Jonathan Dimbleby going out on TV].’
DR JAMES COLTHURST
Diana’s close confidant and old friend ‘That day she was mightily fed up At the Harbour Club in 1993, and leaving Princess Margaret’s birthday party in 1980 (right)
because she’d had criticism from what she called the “Grey Men”, I think to do with one of her successful speeches. There was a lot of jealousy in Prince Charles’s camp, and she’d had criticism for something she thought she’d done well. She often felt she was doing her bit for The Firm, as she called it, and she wasn’t appreciated. The day before the Vanity Fair party she was saying, “Oh for goodness sake, here we go again!” So I told her, “You’ve got to show defiance; put something on that really swings the heads.” In the end she chose that dress.’
DICKIE ARBITER
Former press secretary to Charles and Diana ‘With Charles and the documentary interview with Dimbleby in 1994, the original plan was to do something for the 25th anniversary of his investiture as the Prince of Wales. It was going to be quite bland – what a jolly fine fellow Charles is. Then the goalposts were moved between the private secretary and Jonathan Dimbleby. They thought it would be too bland, so they decided that instead of a one-hour programme they would do two- and- a- half hours which would be warts and all, and it was. I said, “If you’re going to do this, you can’t hold anything back” and I was told they were prepared for that. I didn’t know Charles was going to confess to his affair. We had a pretty good idea it would come out, though.’
JONATHAN DIMBLEBY
On that interview with Charles the day after it was broadcast ‘It was a Catch-22 for him, wasn’t it? On the one hand, for months, indeed
‘As time went on she discovered her sexuality, the power she had over men’ PENNY JUNOR, BIOGRAPHER
years, people had been speculating in the tabloid press about this, most of them insulting and asserting that he had been indifferent to his wife from the start, that he was unfaithful with Camilla Parker Bowles from the very beginning. And on the basis of that a lot of people were very shocked. What he said on the programme was that he had tried, as the Princess of Wales had tried, to make that marriage work. When it collapsed, which was at some stage in the second half of the 80s, he then ceased to be faithful to his wife. It seems to me to be intrusive and not the task of a television interviewer to say, “When was that, what were the circumstances?” The point is the marriage collapsed and he then continued a close relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles. What matters was that he said, “I was unfaithful.” You may want to know when, how and where – the question is where it established the truth. He told me off-camera in a private conversation that it was in the latter half of the 80s that he had been unfaithful. It was at that point he ceased to be faithful to his wife. He was unfaithful with someone who was a long-standing friend.’
CAROLAN BROWN Former personal trainer
‘We talked a lot about posture and I told her to remember those cameras. Keep your boobs out, lean back and look lovely. I advised her that she can’t stop photographers taking pictures so they might as well take good ones of her looking her best. I urged her not to fight it, but be confident and go with it. She had a laugh about that but did agree with me. I tried to instil some personal confidence about looking great.’
NISH JOSHI Holistic health practitioner
‘I first started to treat Diana’s spine in 1993. She had driven out of Kensington Palace and a taxi had gone into her car and she’d suffered a mild whiplash. She had some old injuries from horse riding too, which is why she was afraid of horses. I believe Diana had scoliosis, curvature of the spine. This was noticeable in her deportment because she tended to walk with her shoulders hunched; exacerbated by her trying to avert her gaze from the paparazzi and also because she was self-conscious of how tall she was. She was concerned William and Harry may have inherited this.
‘We were working with Pilates to reclaim her self-confidence and get her body looking great. Her posture changed a lot. The night she wore that black chiffon off-the-shoulder dress at the Serpentine Gallery she looked transformed and stunning. She stood tall and looked beautiful.
‘She heard about me from the dancers at the English National Ballet – she was patron. The dancers performed these exercises to strengthen joints and improve posture. Diana was keen on exercises that strengthened her spine. I encouraged her to stand tall and not be ashamed of her height. I persuaded her to celebrate it and not bow her head and stoop or round her shoulders.’
PENNY JUNOR Journalist and biographer
‘As time went on she discovered her sexuality and the power she had over men. One of those she enchanted was my father Sir John Junor, then editor of the Sunday Express, but who latterly wrote for the Mail On Sunday. She invited him to lunch several times, confided in him, flattered him, and he became a devotee. He wrote glowingly about her, and during the War of the Waleses he shamelessly took sides. The Mail On Sunday offices were across the road from Kensington Palace and she would sometimes spot him in the street as she was driving by and stop the car for a chat. He grew 6ft taller every time. I met her one day when I was with him at The Landmark hotel in London. The actor David Hasselhoff was there too, and my father and I were talking to Mr Baywatch when Diana joined us. She delivered a masterclass in flirtation. I might not have existed.’
JAYNE FINCHER Photographer
‘She was a real flirt. If you went to the Gulf there would be all these restrictions about what you could and couldn’t wear. But wow did she flirt with those Arabian dignitaries – they were fluttering round her like little schoolboys. Before we went to Saudi Arabia in 1986 the few women going were told we had to have our arms and neck covered, and we ended up all looking like big sacks of potatoes. Then she got off the plane with this dress on. All right it was below her knee, but she had the tightest belt round her waist and she’d had her hair cut really short and she had her neck exposed. She got away with it because she was fluttering her eyelashes at them – they were all mesmerised.’
PATRICK JEPHSON Diana’s former private secretary
‘She was eating a prawn sandwich and one disappeared down her cleavage. I said, “Poor prawn”, and she corrected me, “Bloody lucky prawn!” It was just a funny exchange, but since her husband didn’t appear to take pleasure from her attractive
ness, and since in order to do her job she had to maintain a certain standard of confidence and self-assurance, working closely with someone like that I’d quite often say, “You’re looking good.” How she looked mattered. She was aware how high people’s expectations were of her. There was nobody in the morning to say, “Gosh darling, you look wonderful, go out and knock them dead” and nobody in the evening to say, “Darling, you did a great job today. Sit down and let me pour you a drink.”
‘To maintain her morale for her to do her job properly, at times it was necessary to say, “You’re looking good.” Since normal human kindness and consideration wasn’t forthcoming from her husband or in-laws, somebody had to make up the deficit.’
CATHERINE WALKER
The late fashion designer ‘Over time, her reaction to my clothes changed from “Yes please” to “It’s different” and later, when her understanding of clothes became more European, “It’s smart”. Later still, when she started dressing more sexily, it was “Eat your heart out, Brazil!”’
PETRONELLA WYATT Writer
‘The late Charles Churchill, a distant cousin of Diana’s, told a very good friend of mine that the Queen was coming to visit Charles and Diana at Highgrove. Charles’s car was parked at the front of the house. He needed to move it so the Queen’s car could draw up at the entrance. He went to fetch his keys, but the keys were missing.
‘ The whole house was turned upside down looking for them. Everybody was asked. Diana swore she hadn’t seen them. The staff all said the same thing. Then came the moment when the Queen’s car was just arriving. Diana leant out of a top window and shouted, “There are your lousy f***ing keys” and threw them out onto the drive. She had them all the time and was just trying to irritate
Charles and the Queen.’
WINSTON CHURCHILL The late former Conservative MP
‘Within a month of Charles and Diana’s wedding, her father Johnnie Spencer said, “Why don’t you come and have lunch with us at Althorp? I’d love to show you the private apartments.”
So we had lunch, and he said, proud as a little turkey cock,
“I must show you the guest room that I had completely redone for the return from honeymoon of Charles and Diana.” He’d had new green silk wallpaper, and the four-poster bed had been completely redone. He opened the door and he said, “I’m afraid it’s a bit of a shambles now.” And clearly there had been a battle royal: there were water stains on the green silk wallpaper; there was a Chippendale chair that was broken; there was a mirror cracked.
‘At the time, my then wife and I put it down to a lovers’ tiff. But now, with the benefit of hindsight, one can see that the marital discord started right at the beginning. And I suspect it was when he told her of his affair with Camilla before they were married. This seemed to drive her ballistic, and from that moment everything went downhill rapidly. She became very sick, mentally, in terms of the bulimia and all the rest of it.’
PENNY THORNTON Astrologer
‘I first met Prince Andrew through mutual friends, photographer Gene Nocon and his wife Liz. Gene was Andrew’s photographic mentor. One evening in 1986 at dinner at their
Diana stepped out at the Serpentine Gallery that night in this sexy strapless cocktail dress – choosing it over a Valentino creation at the last minute – hoping it would overshadow Charles’s TV interview and have every man in the country thinking, ‘How could he have given her up?’
ANDREW MORTON
Author of Diana: Her True Story ‘On the day of the Vanity Fair party Diana was due to wear a Valentino dress, she wasn’t due to home, Andrew said to me, “My sisterin-law would love to have her chart done.” For a minute I thought he meant Anne. I said, “I’m very surprised, I didn’t think she’d be interested in astrology.” And then I realised, “Oh, he means Diana.” I said, “I’d be very happy to do that.” After my first visit with Diana, Liz Nocon rang me straight after. Sarah Ferguson had rung her and said, “Please tell Penny how grateful we all are, her bags were packed. Charles is extremely grateful.” She was going to bolt and she didn’t. That Christmas I had a card signed by Charles. He certainly knew of my first visit and approved it. He wanted a solution.’
‘Charles was very grateful to me. Her bags were packed, she was going to bolt’ PENNY THORNTON, ASTROLOGER
DEBBIE FRANK Astrologer
‘Diana was fascinated by her astrological chart. She knew it would give her insight into who was around her and what was going on. She consulted me for literally everything. All the intimate details of her life, whether it was the President of the United States, her friends, Charles and Camilla, her children or what she was going through. The chart is about giving somebody the tools to manage their feelings. She was going through a big process of transformation and the chart helped her to manage each stage of that process. What was so remarkable was that by the end of her life she had vanquished so many of her issues and she was glowing and radiant.’
DR LILY HUA YU Acupuncturist and herbalist
‘Diana confided in me a lot. I remember her telling me on more than one occasion, “Men don’t like neurotic women.” She felt this was the reason her marriage did not work. She told me she would burst into tears and lose her temper if she had a problem, but since seeing me she felt better about herself and more confident to face her problems without being so neurotic.’
CAROLAN BROWN Former personal trainer
‘I introduced her to Peter Settelen, who was voice-coaching me for my fitness videos, in 1992. I told Diana how my voice sounded like a little girl’s, and she said, “I have that problem too and don’t know how to come across with conviction.” I said Peter helps you not just change your voice but build your confidence as he believes the voice comes from within, and if you’re happy in yourself your delivery will be better. She said, “That’s what I need.”’
DR LILY HUA YU Acupuncturist and herbalist
‘She was interested in the Chinese signs of the zodiac and each time she came she would buy a book on Chinese medicine. She would always ask questions and she even diagnosed Prince Charles’s problems. She told me he was losing his hair and constantly opens windows and always feels hot at night. She said, “I think he has kidney yin deficiency,” which made me laugh. She felt Nelson Mandela should see me too. She was close to Mandela and she had diagnosed that he had water retention, yang deficiency and arthritis.’
JAN CISEK Feng shui consultant
‘Diana invited me to Kensington Palace in May 1994 [the month before her appearance at the Serpentine Gallery] and said she wanted me to make her home healthy and happy. The boys were at boarding school but she wanted me to do the whole home including their bedrooms. The bedroom is the most important space. Everything relies on power points such as the position of the bed as it can determine how you feel – if you have a commanding view you will have good energy flow. I told her that the position of the bed is key to sleep – you need to be in the “power position”, with a wall behind the headboard and the door diagonally opposite, so you can see who is coming in. Sleeping with your back to the window isn’t good either, it doesn’t give you protection. She asked lots of questions and was fascinated about the subject. She really understood that whatever you do in your home will affect you. It made complete sense to her at a time when people were suspicious of feng shui.’
ANDREW MORTON Author of Diana: Her True Story
‘ Diana started to realise that she needed to take steps to escape the prison she considered herself to be in –a bitterly unhappy marriage coupled with a royal system ruled by “men in grey suits” as she used to call them. She had a humanitarian vision for herself and wanted to explain her story to the people – what she saw as her people – so everyone could understand who she really was before it was too late. I don’t think she did my book for revenge. I think she felt she was a prisoner trapped inside the system. She felt voiceless. She felt that the image we had of this kind of fairytale princess was a grotesque lie and she wanted to let people know what was really going on in her life. She felt utterly trapped. The first tape we did was like a prisoner gabbling out her story before the guards came back.’