DIANA ON CONTROVERSIAL TAPES RECALLS CHARLES WAS ALL OVER ME LIKE A RASH
IT’LL BE LIKE A DAGGER IN THE HEART
LOOKING into the camera with her distinctive gaze, Princess Diana lays bare her disastrous marriage to Prince Charles in videos never before seen here.
Opening up to her speech coach, she is extraordinarily candid about her husband’s affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, her struggles within the Royal Family and her battle with bulimia.
Yet Diana also shows her playful side and giggles when sharing intimate details of her courtship with Charles, telling how he was all over her “like a rash” at a party and “leapt” on her for a kiss.
The controversial tapes will be played for the first time in the UK in a Channel 4 documentary marking 20 years since Diana’s death.
The remarkable footage shows her at ease as she reveals how she met Charles just 13 times before they were married.
But there is sadness when she remembers Barry Mannakee, the tragic royal protection officer she fell in love with.
Diana: In Her Own Words comes just two weeks after the palace’s own approved documentary aired, fronted by Princes William and Harry. They spoke openly about their mum’s death for the first time.
Intrusive
Sources say the upcoming documentary has not been met with the same support by the Royal Family, who did not respond to Channel 4’s approach.
And the show will be a devastating blow to Prince Charles as it does not reflect favourably on the way he treated Diana.
The tapes used in it were previously played in the US, but deemed too intrusive to air in the UK.
Yet as the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death approaches, some of her confidantes say they are happy the recordings are being shown as they give a true representation of the much-loved princess.
The videos were filmed by Peter Settelen between 1992 and 1993 in her private residence at Kensington Palace, after she and Charles separated. Diana had hired him to help her prepare to publicly present her own account of events and reinvent her public persona.
As she reclines in a chair, Diana recalls the beginning of her relationship with Charles. “Things really started to get serious when I was 18-and-a-half,” she says.
“I was asked to stay with some friends in Sussex and they said, ‘Oh, the Prince of Wales is staying’, and I thought I hadn’t seen him in ages. He’d just broken up with his girlfriend and his friend Mountbatten had just been killed. I said it would be nice to see him. I was so unimpressed.
“I sat there and this man walked in and I thought, well, I am quite impressed this time round. I was different.”
In an animated fashion, she recoils when she describes Charles’ forthright advances. “He chatted me up like a bad rash. He was all over me... We were talking about Mountbatten and his girlfriend and I said, ‘You must be so lonely’.
“I said, ‘It’s pathetic watching you walking up the aisle with Mountbatten’s coffin in front, ghastly, you need someone beside you’. Argh, wrong word.
“Whereupon he leapt upon me and started kissing me and I thought, urgh, this is not what people do. And he was all over me for the rest of the evening, following me around like a puppy. Yes, I was flattered, but I was very puzzled.”
Diana’s feisty spirit comes out as she opens up about the early days of their relationship. “He wasn’t consistent with his courting abilities. He’d ring me up every day for a week then he wouldn’t AT the height of her fame Princess Diana had men falling at her feet. Sadly for her that power over men didn’t stretch to the one man she wanted – her husband.
Diana: In Her Own Words is a quality documentary featuring compelling testimony from key players in Diana’s life, including her private secretary Patrick Jephson. But the star of the film is Diana herself on screen on video tape, and in her own words The film will be devastating for speak to me for three weeks. Very odd. And I accepted that. I thought, fine, well, he knows where I am when he wants me.
“I was thrilled when he used to ring up. It was immense and intense. It would drive the other three girls in my flat crazy. It was odd.”
She even makes light of the famously awkward moment in an interview about the Prince of Wales. She is blunt and deeply personal in her criticism. It is like a dagger in the heart.
The Prince of Wales must have been dreading this 20th anniversary – the splurge of media coverage, books and TV. I doubt very much he will watch it, but millions will who will regard this as a “must see TV”.
Robert Jobson is co-author of bestseller Diana: Closely Guarded Secret. His latest book, Guarding Diana, with Ken Wharfe is out on August 10.