MY DECADE AS DIANA’S SECRET FRIEND
They danced, shared silly jokes . . . she even served him breakfast. As he returns to TV, WAYNE SLEEP on a bond FAR closer than anyone knew
ing at the Dominion she came along and said: “Do you want me to sit in the wings or out front?” I said: “Sit out front, it’s a better view.” And she said: “Do you want them to be looking at you or me?” I said, “Sit in the wings.”
‘We had a schoolboy/schoolgirl humour and I doubt whether she could share that with a lot of people.
‘When I was in Munich on tour with Song and Dance I got a call at my hotel on my day off, saying, “This is your early morning call.” I said, “I didn’t ask for an early morning call!” And she said, “It’s Diana.” I said, “Diana who? I don’t know any Diana”. And she went “Diana Wales”. She was at the next hotel and I went over and she greeted me in the lift and served me breakfast in her suite, just as a laugh. Little things like that.
‘It was her idea to dance with me. She took to dancing like a duck to water, she was such a natural. I couldn’t believe how good she was, she was a wow.’
Diana wanted to surprise Prince Charles with her performance. ‘ We had eight curtain calls and she wanted to do it again but I said, “No, it’s best to leave them wanting more. Now bow to the royal box”. She said, “I am not bowing to him: he’s my hubby.”
‘That’s how we were, silly banter, fun and giggly. She knew whatever she said to me would go no further.’ Later she wrote to thank him. ‘The letter said: “Now I understand the buzz you get from performing. It’s fantastic.” ’ But after photographs she sent him of the performance appeared in the papers he believes she blamed him. ‘I think she thought it was me who had passed them on. I think that was the start of her thinking, “Can I trust him or not?” And it wasn’t me at all, it was the photographer.’
They gradually drifted apart, and it was only after her death in 1997 that he learned how lonely she had become. ‘If I’d known I would have made much more of an effort. I thought she had much closer friends than I was and I don’t think she had that many at all,’ he says.
The early Nineties had been a difficult time for Sleep. He was estranged from his mother after she became a Jehovah’s Witness. In 1991 his friend Freddie Mercury died from bronchial pneumonia due to AIDS. Two years later their mutual friend Kenny Everett announced he was suffering from HIV/AIDS and died in 1995.
Sleep was targeted by a Sunday tabloid convinced he had the virus. Four journalists camped outside his home. ‘One of them said, “Come out, we know you’re dying.”’
He believes they went after him because of his association with Diana. ‘She said to me at one point: “It must be awful knowing me.” And I said: “What do you mean?”
‘And I suddenly realised what she meant: I had become famous for knowing her. So if they could find something bad about me, they could then say: “What is she doing with him?” ’
Sleep hired a lawyer who convinced the paper the allegations were untrue and highly defamatory, but the episode had a profound effect on him. ‘I thought I didn’t do it for this. I just couldn’t handle it. I thought I was over the hill. I couldn’t think of anything new to do, so I gave up.
‘My relationship ended with an architect, so I was on my own. On tour I had started to drink brandy and port. I’d knock them back, go to bed, get up at 4pm, go to rehearsals, and be perfectly all right on stage.’
BUT he adds: ‘ Then when I stopped touring I just cried into my pillow and realised I was so alone. I woke up in the morning and just went out and drank. The next morning I’d wake up and phone my best friend George and he’d say, “Wasn’t it a lovely evening?” and I couldn’t remember. I realised I had to stop.’
He says he never had a nervous breakdown, preferring the term ‘meltdown’, and denies ever being an alcoholic.
Today, he’s still able to drink socially. ‘I am lucky. If I don’t have another drink in my life it wouldn’t bother me at all. But now, as I’m getting older, I do want to be more dignified.’
Outwardly at least, whatever problems he had in that direction appear to have faded, his mind is sharp and focused and he looks healthy and in shape. And he is content in his personal life with his partner of 20 years José Bergera. They went through a civil partnership four years ago.
In 2003 he came out of his selfimposed media and social purdah to appear on I’m A Celebrity . . . Get Me Out Of Here! ‘I wanted to improve my profile. I had set up my foundation to provide scholarships for young dancers and raised £88,000 for it from being on the show,’ he explains.
‘I didn’t find the conditions hard, except the dunny, which I was a bit shocked at. I was expecting a Portakabin. It was only a bucket with a piece of wood across it and some hessian around it. Being small I couldn’t quite reach.
‘They might as well have called the show Ready, Steady, Cook the way Anthony Worrall-Thompson took it over. All he wanted to do was prepare dinner.
‘But I had no regrets doing it. I stayed until the day before the end. I could have stayed until the end but I fractured my foot jumping on my bed. I couldn’t walk.’
Appearing on I’m A Celebrity not only brought him back to the wider public’s attention, it also brought him out of himself. He is no longer hiding away. Four years ago he returned to the stage at the Royal Ballet to play an ugly Sister in Cinderella and as his appearances on Stepping Out — the dance show he’s done on ITV to rival Strictly — and Big Ballet show, he is at ease with himself on TV.
Over the years he has truly suffered for his art. There are four screws in his shoulder. He’s torn his medial ligament, sprained his ankles about six times, broken his metatarsal and big toe and soon after his ugly Sister appearance had a hip replacement.
‘It came to the point I couldn’t reach my sock and I thought: “This isn’t just theatre you need repairing for, this is your life.” I staggered in and had a hip replacement, and the next day I thought I had gone to heaven.
‘It is one hundred per cent resolved. I have a ceramic ball and socket and titanium right down the middle of my marrow.’
And off he skips, a new man in more ways than one.
Big BalleT is on Channel 4 next Thursday at 9pm.