PRINCESS CELEBRATED DIVORCE WITH BALLET Di’s dance o

DANCE maestro Derek Deane stared across the table at his glamorous lunch companion and instantly knew this was a woman who had changed for ever.

Carefree and relaxed, Princess Diana had just finalised her divorce from Prince Charles... and there was no wiping the smile from her face.

As she sat in a restaurant in central London she excitedly shared her plans for the future. It is a moment that Derek will never forget. But it also one that will forever be bittersweet.

“A new Diana was born,” says Derek. “One free of pain and sorrow. She now had a future. Or so she thought.”

A year on from that lunch on August 28 1996 Diana was gone. Now, 20 years on, Derek still struggles to accept his beloved friend is dead.

Derek, a dancing choreographer and ex-director of the English National Ballet, became one of Diana’s closest friends, due to her love of ballet.

She headed straight to the English National Ballet’s performance of Swan Lake at the Royal Albert Hall on the day she divorced Charles.

After the performance Diana, then 35, and Derek enjoyed lunch.

Strong

Derek says: “There was no more drama. She had lost a lot of the burden that weighed her down.”

Derek’s recollection is just one of a series of remarkable memories that he reveals today.

In a moving interview he also tells of the last conversation he had with Diana shortly before her fateful trip to Paris.

He tells how she described that period with Dodi Fayed as her summer of love.

Derek also reveals she turned to dance to get through her “hellish marriage” to Charles.

And he tells how the heartbroken royal would constantly cry during her honeymoon because she knew Charles was in love with Camilla, who went on to become his second wife.

Reminiscing about their celebratory lunch, Derek says: “On the day her divorce was made official, Diana visited one of our shows, which really shows the connection she felt to our art and how it calmed her.

“After the performance we dined, like always. She appeared strong, never complained. No more drama.

“She had lost the burden that weighed her down and a new Diana was born, free of pain and sorrow. It was clear all this had made her stronger. She now had a future. Or so she thought.”

It took five minutes and cost just £20 for Diana and Charles to legally divorce in a dingy London basement office.

Six weeks earlier Diana had been in floods of tears as the first stage of her

“I got to know a very different Diana when she became a patron of my English National Ballet.

“We shared the same sense of humour and could really make each other laugh. She trusted me and could be herself with us.

“To us, the team, the dancers she wasn’t a princess, she was just Diana.

“She didn’t have an attitude, she didn’t do protocol. She was open,