Channel 4 defends screening Diana tapes
● Close friend says controversial video footage is ‘betrayal of her privacy’
Channel 4 has defended the use of controversial video tapes of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, in a forthcoming documentary, describing the material as an “important historical source”.
Featuring the footage in the documentary Diana: In Her Own Words has been strongly criticised by royal commentators and Rosa Monckton, one of Diana’s closest friends, who said it was a “betrayal of her privacy”.
But the broadcaster said the programme, due to be screened on Sunday, gave the Princess a voice and placed it “front and centre” in the runup to the 20th anniversary of her death in a car crash in Paris on August 31 1997.
The documentary features Diana speaking candidly and informally about her upbringing, her courtship with the Prince of Wales, her troubled marriage and her public life.
Kensington Palace, the royal household of Diana’s sons, the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry, has declined to comment about the documentary.
Channel 4 said in a statement: “The excerpts from the tapes recorded with Peter Settelen have never been shown before on British television and are an important historical source.
“We carefully considered all the material used in the documentary and, though the recordings were made in pri-
0 The tapes of Diana, Princess of Wales were recorded by her speech coach Peter Settelen vate, the subjects covered are a matter of public record and provide a unique insight into the preparations Diana undertook to gain a public voice and tell her own personal story, which culminated in her later interview for Panorama.”
The tapes – recorded by Diana’s speech coach Peter Settelen – have been screened in the US but never broadcast on British television, with some of the footage due to be shown for the first time.
Ms Monckton has said the tapes should be given to the princes and not broadcast.
She told the Guardian: “This doesn’t belong in the public domain. It is a betrayal of her privacy and of the family’s privacy. I certainly don’t think they should be broadcast.”
Diana hired Mr Settelen between 1992 and 1993 to help with her public speaking voice, following her collaboration with author Andrew Morton on a biography, and ahead of her bombshell Panorama interview in 1995.