PRINCESS DIANA

EARL SPENCER ‘I know it sounds macabre, but I read my tribute to Diana’s coffin before the funeral in the chapel at St James’s and somehow felt yes, it’s right. The most bizarre thing about it was when I had finished reading it to her I could almost hear applause. I’m not being melodramatic, but I thought, “It does sound right to me.”’ (June 2000)

‘I saw Diana in the July before she died. She looked so fantastically well. I don’t think old age would have suited her. She was such a young and vibrant person. I can’t imagine her growing old. But perhaps I’m saying that because I know now that she won’t. The day she died was extremely traumatic. I was in South Africa, it was just me and my children in the house. I put on the TV and flicked between the BBC and CNN. At that stage they thought they had witnesses who’d seen her walk away. Then I got a call from my sister Sarah. She said, “I’m afraid it’s bad news. Brain damage.” I was stunned. I think I said, “Oh God.” I rang our sister Jane because her husband Robert worked for the Queen and I knew he’d have information. Jane said, “Robert is on the other line now.” She stopped talking and I heard him say, “Oh no.” Jane came back to the phone and said, “That’s it, I’m afraid. She’s dead.” We were both absolutely stunned.

‘I stayed up the rest of the night. Then my three daughters came rushing in early and I told them

Aunt Diana had been killed in a car crash. Eliza smiled at me and said, “No, Daddy, not in real life.” She was just five.’ (June 2000)

‘The relationship with Diana was waning. It was difficult to sustain from a distance. But it reignited when I was sent to the Gulf. I’m no psychotherapist, but there’s excitement in having someone in a war situation. If I’d been killed it would have been a good ending, from everyone’s point of view.’ JAMES HEWITT, right (March 2002)

‘It was a love affair for both of us, and we did all the things that people in love do. We didn’t discuss in huge depth how it would pan out. I did think about guilt, but who was I deceiving? I thought I was being helpful to Diana. I was loyal to her, and that mitigated any guilt. It was a fair deal, in as much as Prince Charles was having an affair, and what’s

good for the goose is good for the gander.’ (March 2002)

On his last phone call to Diana, six months before she died: ‘She sounded bubbly and happy and jokey. She said she was going to shock the world. I asked her how, and she said, “I’ll marry some big, fat black man and have lots of children.” She liked to test people’s reactions.’ ( March 2002)