Diana tapes reveal her ‘greatest love’

LONDON: Princess Diana ( pix) revealed her “greatest love” was a bodyguard she had an affair with, in video footage broadcast for the first time.

In tapes shown in the Channel 4 documentary Diana: In Her Own Words, she sensationally claimed bodyguard Barry Mannakee was sacked from his job and then “bumped off”.

While Prince Charles’ late ex-wife did not name Mannakee, it was clear this is who she was talking about.

Diana also said she was “completely traumatised” when Prince Charles infamously remarked “whatever love is” when asked before their wedding whether he was in love with her.

She only found true love several years later, she revealed in the recordings, made with former Coronation Street actor Peter Settelen between 1992 and 1993.

Mannakee, a police officer, was her bodyguard for about a year in the mid-1980s before he transferred to the Diplomatic Protection Group in London.

The 39-year-old died in 1987 when a motorcycle being driven by a friend, who survived, was involved in a collision with a car.

“He was the greatest love I’ve ever had, and that was a real killer,” Diana said.

During the recordings, Diana revealed she met Charles just 13 times before their wedding day.

She said on their second meeting, he chatted her up and was all over her “like a bad rash”.

His initial ardour soon cooled into a dispassionate marriage with a far from active sex life.

“Once every three weeks, and then it fizzled about seven years ago, six years ago,” she said in the recordings, filmed over 18 months when the socalled “War of the Waleses” was at its height and Diana was aged 31 to 32. – The Independent