How Diana sent message to the world
Author comes clean: It was her words all along
ANDREW Morton knew, as he was writing his seminal book on Diana the Princess of Wales back in 1992, that he was crafting a piece of history.
The book Diana: Her True Story blew the lid off Diana’s unhappy marriage to Prince Charles, his closeness to Camilla Parker Bowles, Diana’s eating disorders and her suicide attempts.
It shook the royal household to its core, but what nobody knew at the time was that the book was based on taped interviews with the Princess of Wales herself, conducted by a mutual friend who then smuggled the tapes out of Kensington Palace and into Morton’s hands.
That information only came to light after her death in a car crash in Paris, 20 years ago next month.
Now, 25 years after it was first published, Morton has revised his book, including more details from the taped interviews, and revealing the restrictions he was under as he wrote what turned out to be the closest thing ever published to Diana’s own biography.
“I realised it was a historic document I was producing,’’ Morton said this week from his home in London, where he has just completed his next book on another complex female character, Wallis Simpson, the divorcee for whom King Edward abdicated the throne. “It was a piece of history. “It was deemed to be unofficial but when you look at it, it’s actually an official biography.’’
Morton said if Diana was alive today, the extent of her involvement would still not be known. The book would forever have referred to information coming from those close to Diana — when in fact it came from the Princess herself.
“It was a thin veil even at the time,’’ Morton said of his efforts to keep Diana’s involvement in the book under wraps. “But it gave her some wriggle room in terms of determining her future.’’
The book, and Diana’s bombshell Panorama TV interview three years later, changed forever the public view of the royal family and damaged the reputations of Prince Charles and his now wife Camilla so badly they have never fully recovered.
The tapes were recorded throughout 1991 and 1992, when the Wales’ marriages was in its death throes and Diana was desperate to break out of the grasp of “the Firm’’ — the royal family and its courtiers who she felt had never supported or welcomed her.
The book was not a perfect record of events at the time — libel lawyers refused to allow Morton to print that Charles, the heir to the throne, was having an extramarital affair with Camilla, so their relationship is referred to in the book as a “secret friendship”.
And Diana never mentioned that she had embarked on secret affairs, and was in the throes of falling for wealthy art dealer Oliver Hoare even as she revealed damaging details about Charles and Camilla’s illicit affair.
But it gave a warts-andall look at the dysfunctional state of the Wales’ marriage and showed how deeply unhappy and emotionally unwell Diana was.
Morton, now 63, said the way the book had come about, through third-party interviews, was “absolutely unique”.
Diana chose Morton as the person she wanted to tell her side of the story and he obtained the information through the help of a third party, Dr James Colhurst, a friend of Morton’s and an old and trusted friend of Diana’s.
Colhurst would go to Kensington Palace, read Morton’s questions to Diana, record her answers, and give the tapes to Morton.
As a royal watcher, who worked as a freelance author and was not associated with any of the major newspapers, Morton knew Diana but only from a distance.
He believed Diana wanted to deal with someone not connected with the newspapers, who had close ties to Buckingham Palace and the royal court. “It was about control, taking control of her life,’’ he said.
Diana, he said, “is a fascinating character and no one has been able to replace her”.
“Think about how hysterical people get about everything to do with Diana. Look at the really vitriolic comments on stories about her. There’s no balance on the dial, even 20 years after her death.”
Morton continues to watch the royal family, and noted, although disagreed with, press reports this month comparing Prince William’s wife, Catherine, to Diana. The comparisons were meant as a compliment, after thousands turned out to see Catherine and press flowers and gifts upon her at public events in Germany and Poland.
“Poor old Kate has always been compared with Diana,’’ he said.
“She’s very different. Her and Prince William act much more as a team and she married into the royal family a decade older than Diana did.”
The updated book has a slightly different title, with “in her own words’’ added to the cover. But he said: “I have always said Diana: Her True Story is not a balanced portrait in that there is no Prince Charles voice.”