April 5, 2021 • 42 mins
In this royal special event, Melissa Doyle sits down with those who knew Diana, Princess of Wales best: her butler Paul Burrell, her bodyguard Ken Wharfe, her best friend Rosa Monckton and journalist Richard Kay. They open up about the struggles behind the smile and the heartache inside that generous heart. Plus Diana's never-before-seen letters in which she predicted her death.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Now on Sunday Night, it was if you like the
stuff of fairy tales, Ah, that's what everybody's been waiting for.
She seemed to fulfill all our romantic notions of what
a princess should.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Be behind the palace walls.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
You can't do that, I don't What are we going
to tell the police?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
The Insiders reveal Princess Diana's most intimate secrets.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
They were always man ten. I think he was at
the time ten.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
She was hunted. She said, I'm being hunted and she
was the conspiracy.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
My husband is planning an accident in my car.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
A chilling letter never seen before.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
That is part that she should think that nine months before.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
She died, And the question everyone wants to answer, are
you Harry's father?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Diana was the jewel in the crown. Thirty six has
no age to die.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
A sea of flowers and tributes covered Kensington Gardens, a
spontaneous expression of love for the people's princess. It's been
twenty years since Diana's death, and on this anniversary, the
central people in Diana's life have agreed to step back
(01:31):
into the spotlight. Her lover James Hewitt, her bodyguard Ken Wharf,
the Fleet Street Journal Richard Kay, her trusted butler Paul Burrell,
and her best friend Rosamunpton. The man who was by
her side the longest was her trusted butler, Paul Burrell.
(01:55):
During the eighties and nineties. He was never far from
the drama that surrounded the Princess.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Diana has been a blessing and it's a double edged sword.
You can't have one without the other. You have to
weather the storm knowing that the good bits are worth it.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Today Paul runs a quite flourish shop in the north
of England, still surrounded by memories of the most exciting
times of his life. Might start at the very beginning
and ask you about when you first met Diana.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
You will be nineteen eighty And the Queen said to me,
a young lady's arrived in this afternoon as a house guest.
And the car arrived and this very shy, innocent girl
stepped out, and I said, can I take your bag?
And she said yes. I said, one small bag. How
are you going to survive the weekend? And she said, oh,
my goodness matter, very good impression have I.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
During the early days of her courtship with Prince Charles.
She kept working at a local kindergarten even as the
media interest intensified.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
She certainly ticked all the boxes. I mean, she was beautiful,
right background a virgin were led to believe, you know,
all the things that were absolute requirements for an heir
to the throne.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
For Fleet Street correspondence, like Richard Kay, Diana added spice
to the royal round. He reported extensively on Diana and
eventually became a trusted friend. I remember that photo of
her at the kindergarten. She had her long skirt on
and the sun shining behind it.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Do you remember that picture.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
I remember that picture extremely well because that's the day
that everybody said, oh wow, and she's got legs too.
She had fantastic legs. The royal family didn't do glamour.
Suddenly that all changed. Diana was glamour on sticks. I
mean she really was. And she sprinkled this sort of
(04:07):
ferry dust over the stuffy old house of Windsor and
transformed it almost overnight.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
Colhoune Court is very famous.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Where did Diana live?
Speaker 1 (04:20):
This is where it all began. Diana's apartment was up
there on the first floor. She shared it with three friends.
She was dating Charles while she lived here.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
So we were in the Diana dashing out the front,
hopping into the.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Mini, running around the corner into the Mini Metro, all
the photographers crowding around, some tripping over themselves. She's got
her head down. That's where the shy died story began.
She sort of hid her eyes below her fringe. I
mean she was faintly embarrassed by it all.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
She was nineteen.
Speaker 5 (04:52):
That's so young.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
I know she was barely out of school herself.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
How will you coping with all the press attention?
Speaker 6 (05:00):
Can you see? You can tell?
Speaker 7 (05:02):
Are you bearing up with it quite well?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Because it must be quite a strain with all of ourselves.
Speaker 7 (05:06):
Well, it is naturally the out of the throne presented
his beautiful ride de Bee.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
On February twenty fourth, nineteen eighty one, Prince Charles announced
Diana would be his queen. The pair looked anything but comfortable.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Just delighted, unhappy, and I'm amazed that she's been brave
enough to take me on.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
And I suppose in love.
Speaker 8 (05:34):
In love.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
It was really doomed from the outset in many ways,
and Diana was not the pliant, conventional daughter of an
Earl that one might have expected. She had an independent thought.
But she was great cunning, She was very smart. She
was witty and fast.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
On the twenty ninth of July, a crowd of more
than six hundred thousand lined the streets for the royal wedding.
Speaker 8 (06:08):
Hi Diana Francis, Hi, Diana Francis, take the Charles Philip
Arthur George to my wedded husband, husband, to have them
to hold top, to hold from this day forward, this
day forward.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
So happy, She was so happy on that day, something
I'll never forget. How are you enjoying married life?
Speaker 9 (06:41):
I recommend how have you cooked a breakfast? Shirt?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
A year later, Diana gave birth to Prince William and
soon after brought him here to Australia.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
I'll never forget, the Prince of Wales later complaining whenever
he got out of the car on his side, there'd
be sizhe and oohs and asks from the crowd, and
he would apologize, I'm sorry, my wife's on the other side,
and that side of the road would get Diana and
there'd be lots of shrieks and crying with happiness.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
See jealous, I think he was. I think he was
jealous of popularity. I'm about to be eclipsed by somebody.
Well there somebody was his wife.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Less than a day old.
Speaker 10 (07:46):
He already sports four highly traditional names, but he'll be
known to say his parents as Harry.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
What was their love and happiness in the marriage and the.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Early Yes, I think there was love there. I think
those two boys are born out of love.
Speaker 9 (08:00):
I do.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Royal bodyguard Ken Wharf had the role of keeping Diana
and her boys safe. Ken sheared special family moments, including
William's first day at school.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Prince William is in form one read with nineteen other boys.
Speaker 7 (08:18):
We arrived at the school. It was sixty to seventy photographers.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
One wave and he was gone.
Speaker 7 (08:25):
There's all these new boys there waiting to get into
the school. And eventually one sort of tiptoe across this
floor sort of appeared straight into William's face and said
to him, says, excuse.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Me, He said, is it true that you know the Queen?
And William so coolly said.
Speaker 7 (08:41):
Don't be silly, don't you mean granny. And that's how
it was from that moment on right through to what
eight nine years working within that household. It wasn't actually
a bad place to be, I have to say that.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
But it wasn't long before cracks started to appear in
the royal marriage.
Speaker 7 (09:02):
I firmly believe that Dianah did love the Prince of
Wor was actually told me on a number of occasions.
Whether he did is another matter.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Rumors were building that Charles was secretly seeing his former
flame Camilla Parker Bowls, and Diana was falling in love
with her riding instructor, Captain James Hewitt.
Speaker 9 (09:24):
I think she was quite easy to fall in love with.
It's really so. I think it can be forgiven for that.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
In just a few years, Diana had become more famous
than any other royal in history, with John Travalda on
VIP lists at the most glamorous events, and for the
most part, she seemed to enjoy the trappings of her celebrity.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
She sold magazines and their millions newspapers too. She knew
the pulling power she had, and every.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Time she appeared in public, the princess made a fashion statement.
Her dressers now sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars,
and I'm about to get a personal fitting from her
(10:29):
former butler.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Now, I thought you'd like to see this beautiful. This
is one of the princess's favorite dresses that she gave
my wife, Maria. And actually you're about the same high. Well,
I was going to ask how tall was she about you?
Speaker 4 (10:45):
So I think it was tall.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Yes, boy, did she carry it as well?
Speaker 4 (10:52):
She was very glamorous.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
She was.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
In public, Diana was confident, but in private she was
falling apart. Her marriage was crumbling. Years later, she would
admit to being in the group of a devastating eating disorder.
Speaker 11 (11:09):
I had BLIMA for a number of years, and that's
like a secret disease you inflicted upon yourself because your
self esteem as to loweer and you don't think you're
worthy or valuable.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
How badly did the Bolimia group her life.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
She never escaped from it ever. Never. There's not a
pill for bolimia. It's a mental condition. It's about lots
of talking. It's about being supportive, being there for someone.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
The private Diana was a lot lonelier than I had imagined.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
All I ever wanted, she said, was to somebody put
their arms around me and tell me I was beautiful
and they loved me. That's all I wanted, And that's
something which eluded her, the most famous woman in the world.
Trapped inside a palace.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Lovely Diana's own words, she talks about Blimia a lot.
You came into her life when she was clearly very unhappy.
Did you give her the confidence to blossom?
Speaker 9 (12:30):
I hope, sir. Whenever she was at my home in
Devon or with me, she said she didn't suffer from that.
So I late to think I helped just above freezing
(12:52):
a bit chillier than Australia.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Just a little in Devon, in the southwest of England,
I meet Captain James Hewitt, the man Diana turned to
for comfort and love.
Speaker 9 (13:04):
I suppose I was a good listener. I suppose that's
how it started, not really intentional.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
James Hewitt was twenty eight tall, handsome and charming. They
met at Buckingham Palace, where James was an army officer
in the Queen's Lifeguards Regiment. Diana asked him for writing lessons.
Speaker 9 (13:29):
She had an aura of the something special around her.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Do you remember when you realized you were falling in
love for this gorgeous young woman?
Speaker 9 (13:42):
Yes, because it's ever a gradual period and then you
know suddenly you can't you get enough for each other
or such other as much as you want.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Did you want to whisker away from it all?
Speaker 9 (13:59):
Yes? Yes, and she wanted that too.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
What did you guys do together?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
What did the two of you do in your time
away from London?
Speaker 4 (14:17):
From paparazzi, from spying eyes, frivolity?
Speaker 9 (14:22):
Really an escapism? Walk amazingly not far from where we're
sitting there along the beach or on the moor. A
bit of cooking, well, I'd cook and she'd wash up,
and just dinner and relaxing and laughing.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Protecting Diana on these secret rendezvous with James was her bodyguard?
Ken Wolf, You're sleeping on a camp bed in a
hallway while Princess Diana's behind closed doors with James Hewitt.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
Were you embarrassed?
Speaker 9 (15:05):
I know, I didn't.
Speaker 7 (15:06):
I wasn't embarrassed. I didn't have a problem with it.
I mean, it's pretty obvious you know what was happening.
But again, it wasn't for me to moralize on this.
I was there for one specific reason. I would never
let her down.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
As the affair became more serious, James got to know
William and Harry, even visiting them at their country home
High grove.
Speaker 9 (15:29):
The love and affection. Their help for their mother was tangible.
I had little uniforms made for them and shared around
some vehicles at windsor military vehicles. I suppared a lot
of boys at that age quite keen. But they followed
it through and joined up and served their country, which
(15:52):
is commendable. I mean it really is.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
At the height of their affair, James was called up
to serve in the Gulf War. The time of part
put pressure on their relationship, but the end came when
it was exposed in the media.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Did you, in your heart think that you would be
able to hold onto.
Speaker 9 (16:13):
It well for a short period, yes.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
As someone who loved her. What did you hope would
happen with the two of you?
Speaker 9 (16:22):
It's a very good question and it's quite difficult to
answer because there wasn't really any hope and I was
torn between duty and love. Really, I mean, it sounds
a bit corny, but it's true.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
James returned to England, forced out of the army, and
was maligned in the media for selling his story. He's
lived in virtual seclusion ever since. What were the biggest
misconceptions about you?
Speaker 9 (17:06):
Well, you know, love, rat kiss and tell all These
headlines and accusations are the most damaging I think, and
I wouldn't wish on anyone because they're not true.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Perhaps most hurtful of all the claims made about their
affair was that James is Prince Harry's father. Of you,
some even still believe today.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Are you Harry's father?
Speaker 9 (17:40):
No, I'm not.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Why does that keep being repeated?
Speaker 9 (17:45):
It sells papers.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
That's heartbreaking for you.
Speaker 9 (17:50):
For him, it's worse for him, probably poor Chap.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
So many people say to me, do you think that
Harry was James Hewett's child? No, not possible, because that
affair didn't start until Harry was born.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
It had become apparent to all that the marriage was over,
and publicly Diana made no effort to hide it. I
think of that image of her sitting on the seat outside.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
The taj Mahal.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
That was such a public declaration of there's really no
going back from here.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
It spoke volumes about the state of their marriage.
Speaker 8 (18:42):
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Ten months after that picture came this.
Speaker 9 (18:48):
It is announced from Buckingham Palace that, with regret, the
Prince and Princess of Wales have decided to separate.
Speaker 12 (18:56):
She was nineteen when she became engaged, incredibly, and at
that age, you romance is a fairy tale, and when
it turns out that actually life isn't like that, I
think that is difficult and it was very difficult for her.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Rosa Monkton was Diana's best friend and became a shoulder
to cry on as the royal marriage was coming to
a dramatic end.
Speaker 12 (19:25):
I remember her saying to me, you know, I go
out into the streets and people wave at me and
say they love me.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
Then I come home and nobody does.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
In nineteen ninety four, in an extraordinary television interview, Prince
Charles admitted to his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.
Speaker 9 (19:44):
Did you try to be faithful and honorable to your
wife when you took on the vow of marriage? Is absolutely.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
And you were, yes.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Until came irretrievably broken down.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
The princess was devastated that the Prince should actually come
out with this information and really pridicule her.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
What was Camilla like? Diana called her the rottweiler.
Speaker 7 (20:19):
Yeah, it's not exactly an encouraging phrase to be called,
but you know, I can understand that because Camilla didn't
go away.
Speaker 9 (20:30):
Do you think missus Parker Bowles was a factor in
the breakdown of your marriage?
Speaker 11 (20:35):
Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so
it was a bit crowded.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
In a candid nineteen ninety five interview, Diana also detailed
her affair with James Hewitt.
Speaker 9 (20:50):
Did your relationship go beyond a close friendship?
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (20:55):
It did.
Speaker 9 (20:56):
Yes? Were you unfaithful?
Speaker 11 (21:00):
I told him yes, I was in alone with him.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
But I was very let down. Did you love her
very much?
Speaker 9 (21:09):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (21:10):
I did.
Speaker 9 (21:12):
Yeah. That's why it's difficult to talk about it really,
but I did.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (21:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Do you regret meeting Diana?
Speaker 9 (21:26):
No, I don't regret that.
Speaker 8 (21:29):
No.
Speaker 9 (21:31):
I regret some of the things that have been caused
by that, but not that at all. No way.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
There had been years of scandals and sordid headlines, but
for the Queen, Diana's public sledging of Charles was the
final straw.
Speaker 9 (21:54):
Do you think he would wish to be king?
Speaker 11 (21:56):
There was always conflict on that subject with him when
we discussed it, And because I know the character, I
would think that the top job, as I call it,
would bring enormous limitations to him. And I don't know
whether he could adapt to that.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
She told me herself that she realized she shouldn't have
questioned Charles's suitability to be king, because that was the
critical thing as far as the monarchy was concerned. As
far as the Queen was concerned, That's where she overstepped
the line when she started saying chilv basically wasn't up
to it.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
The Queen ordered a divorce and stripped Diana of her
royal title, making her an outcast. She was thirty five,
more famous than ever, and now searching for her place
in the world. The royal marriage over Diana began the
(23:14):
new chapter in her life, immersing herself in the job
of being among.
Speaker 6 (23:21):
My first priority will continue to be our children, William
and Harry, who deserve as much love and care and
attention as I am able to give.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Diana wanted the boys to have as close to a
normal upbringing as possible. She encouraged them to do commonplace
activities like going to a theme park.
Speaker 7 (23:50):
These were great days because you could see the kids
enjoy themselves. It was something difficult. The objectors were, as so,
why would Dinah, why do you want to take your
kids to a theme park? I mean, the prince of world.
I think what Harry had left would rip it up.
Why do you want to go to the theme park,
(24:12):
because that's what kids want. They were great fun. Of course,
what a kids want to do. They want to drench
the security. So you have to live with that because
Diana found that highly entertaining.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Diana was also using her popularity to highlight causes that
were close to her heart. The carnage caused by abandoned
land mines.
Speaker 11 (24:37):
Yeah, I'm only trying to highlight a problem that's going
on all around the world.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Changing the way the world viewed AIDS.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
We thought there was a new plague and merely touching
the hands of an AID sufferer would pass this disease on.
So this one day in early nineteen eighty seven, she
went to an age unit and Diana shook hands with
these people, and she shook hands without gloves, and immediately
it sort of broke the taboo, broke down a barrier,
(25:11):
and suddenly it made a huge difference to the way
people engaged with AIDS and a notion of what it meant.
Speaker 12 (25:21):
Her humanity was absolutely extraordinary. Her way of cutting through
race language. You know, she didn't need words very often
it was a local a touch.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Diana's humanity was felt in a very personal way by
her close friend Rosa Monkton. When Rosa gave birth to
a steelborn baby, Diana made a surprising offer.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
Was that she who suggested burying your baby at Kensington Palace? Yes,
yes it was. It was, and again you know what
an extra thing to do.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
I said, well, what are we going to tell the police?
How are we going to get it through security? She said, well,
I'm going to tell the Chief Inspector that we're going
to bury a pet in the garden. She's only you,
I and Rosa will know it's a baby.
Speaker 12 (26:24):
We had a very very moving ceremony and she gave
me a key to the garden. She said, you come
in whenever you want. Policeman the gate will know. I
still have the key.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Do you miss so very much?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
The following year, Rosa had another daughter, Domenica, who has
down syndrome. Diana once again offered her support.
Speaker 12 (26:57):
She just gave me the biggest hug and picked Domenica
up and said, I'm going to be her godmother. She's
going to need all the help she can get.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Like Rosa, those closest to Diana got to see there
were many sides to this intriguing woman.
Speaker 12 (27:16):
She was a very complicated person and very emotionally insecure.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Volatile, moody, petulant, all of those things. Dressed up in
a beautiful way, she.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Had some real depth. She was amusing, She did great impressions.
She looked quite different away when she wasn't on show.
For example, her hair was much flatter, and she would
deliberately try and dress down. She would always inevitably wear
a baseball cap to cover her head, and she had
(27:56):
a very good line at sort of disarming people who
would come up to us, as they often did, here
are you Diana? She said no, but I'm told I
look like her, Oh yeah you do, and we would
walk on. She craved an ordinariness, That's what I would
say about her.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
She also craved love, and there was no shortage of
potential suitors.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
There were always men. They were like flies. The Boss
and I had this system of like a horse race.
We put everybody into a trap, into a pen with
all their names one to ten I think it was
at the time ten, and they were all vying for
(28:44):
the Princess's attention, and they'd ring constantly. There was a
famous movie star. There was a politician in the United
States who promised her, if you marry me, I will
make you the first lady of the United States of America.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Most were kept secret, a few were scandalous. The leaked
phone calls with James Gilby known as Squidgey Gait.
Speaker 7 (29:16):
It's a wonderful.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
It was just a very short fling.
Speaker 7 (29:25):
I think, well, let's say that it was a friendship.
There's no doubt about that. In terms of a fling.
That that that there was some throwing around, for certain,
but it was not on the scale that the hue
it was.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Ken Wolfe had the unenviable task of keeping her private
life private, which led to a few tricky situations.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Oliver Whare tell me about him.
Speaker 7 (29:50):
He was a friend of the Prince of the Prince
of Wales, so this was playing pretty close at home.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
I heard about the famous cigar scene hallway in.
Speaker 7 (30:00):
The fire Well that happened. I mean he was rather
keen on his uh, his Goheba cigars. But unforse he
set the alarm off one night in his departure, semi naked,
trying to get out of the front of Kensing Palace.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
In nineteen ninety five, Diana met a man she called
mister Wonderful, the Pakistani heart surgeon, doctor Hasnat Khan.
Speaker 12 (30:26):
Did you meet him? I did, yes, and I just
ask you if he was a nice man. He was lovely,
really lovely man. Yes, And did he love her?
Speaker 9 (30:37):
He did.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
The secret relationship with the conservative doctor ended after two years,
and her next boyfriend couldn't have been more different. Dodi
Fayed was the womanizing playboy son of Egyptian billionaire and
Harold's owner Mohammad al Fayed.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Off of Dirty Fired very quickly, totally head over heels
in a very short space of time.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Diana and Dodi's Mediterranean romance in the summer of nineteen
ninety seven played out in front of the long lenses
of the world's paparazzi. Among the media pack covering the
sensational story was French photographer PS two.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
Was there big money in it? Were people making a
lot from them?
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Yes?
Speaker 13 (31:33):
The money was flying, bucket loads of money. Fleet Street
were signing blank checks to everybody, no limit. It was
absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Diana's butler, Paul, spoke on the phone to her about
the holiday she was having with her reportedly recreational drug
taking boyfriend Dody.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
She said, I just want to come home. I mess
my boys so much, she said, And do you know what,
he doesn't spend any time with me. He's constantly locking
himself in the bathroom. What he doing in there? I said, Oh,
come on, you know what he's doing in there. Well,
it's so frustrating. I don't like it. She would not
(32:21):
have married Dordy alfhae It.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
The unlikely couple had been together for seven weeks when
Diana traveled to Paris with Dody on August thirty, nineteen
ninety seven, with the paparazzi in hot pursuit.
Speaker 11 (32:38):
I still do this day find the interest daunting and phenomenal,
because I actually don't like being the center for tension.
A normal day would be followed by four cars, A
normal day would come back to my car and find
six freelance photographers jumping around me.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Would you get that other whole time?
Speaker 4 (33:01):
It's quite difficult. She was hunted, she said, I'm being hunted,
and she was.
Speaker 8 (33:08):
About you.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
It was a hot August night in Paris. Diana and
Dodi had dinner here at the Ritz, the hotel owned
by his billionaire father Muhammad al Fayette, and just like
everywhere the couple went, crowds of paparazzi followed. French photographer
PS two had been pursuing the couple since their arrival
(33:48):
in Paris that afternoon.
Speaker 13 (33:51):
So these are upon the arrival at the Ritz Hotel.
So we'll just ready to get getting ready to come out.
Speaker 4 (34:01):
We can't even see Diana's.
Speaker 13 (34:04):
Fare no, but you can recognize her for sure. That's
how famous she was. Even from the back of her head,
you could tell.
Speaker 7 (34:10):
Who it was.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Diana no longer had Scotland Yard protection. Her safety was
in the hands of Dodie's security team.
Speaker 7 (34:20):
All the CCTV shows one man running this show, a
man called On Repaul. He's not a policeman, he's a
civilian that works in the hotel. He just so happens
to have been an employer of fired for many, many years.
On Repaul is seen talking to Dodie, talking to the princess.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
He gets into the car they were leaving in a
car parked at the back of the hotel. Most of
the paparazzi were waiting at the front. On Repaul, who
was driving, had been drinking all afternoon.
Speaker 13 (34:49):
Just after midnight and I learned that they had left.
They left through the back door.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
They were heading towards Dodie's apartment. Parazzi in hot pursuit
on motorbikes up ahead the Alma Tunnel, their Mercedes, traveling
at nearly three times the speed limit. I've got to say,
(35:18):
it's giving me chills knowing this is exactly where I at.
Just nine minutes after leaving the Ritz Hotel, Henri Paul
lost control of the car and crashed into the thirteenth
(35:39):
pillar in the tunnel. Both he and Dody Fayette died instantly.
Security officer Trevorice Jones survived, but Diana suffered devastating internal injuries.
Three and a half hours after the accident came the
news the world feared.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
The Queen and the Prince of Wales and the Prime
Minister have been informed of the accident and of the.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
Death of the Princess of walth.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
No, that's not true, that's not happened. Why are you
telling me this? And he took literally three four minutes
for the truth to actually sink in.
Speaker 9 (36:23):
Picked up a message to voicemail on my mobile and
I was told about it. Yeah, so it's quite a shock.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Paul Barrel flew immediately to Paris to be with Diana
and make the arrangements to bring her back to London.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
The princess was lying on her bed. She was covered
by a white sheet to the neck and to the ankles.
And I approached the bed with and held her hand,
and she was warm. So I thought, she's sleeping. She's
(37:07):
not dead. This isn't a dead person in front of me.
So I kept telling her to wake up, and I
started to shake her hand, wake up, come on, wake up,
and I realized that she wasn't going to wake up.
And then the floodgates opened because I realized that I
(37:28):
lost my friend.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Within hours, the loss of Diana was felt around the world.
The response was on a level never seen before.
Speaker 12 (37:41):
She could have had no idea what an impact she
had on people. I found that really profoundly moving.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Me.
Speaker 10 (37:52):
Those who died rest in peace, and may we each
and every one of us thank God for someone who
may many many people happy.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
More than two billion people watched Diana's funeral on television.
The most poignant image of all her sons, fifteen year
old William and twelve year old Harry marching stomically behind
their mother's coffin.
Speaker 12 (38:27):
Nothing else mattered but those two boys without their mother. No,
that was my abiding memory really of that day.
Speaker 4 (38:37):
It's the envelope, Yes, Mummy, Yeah, we.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Should have looked at her a better. It's shame shame
on us for not appreciating what we had. Diana was
the jewel in the crown. We didn't appreciate. Yo, are we, Hannah?
And at thirty six, there's no age to die.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Diana's life was filled with drama and controversy. As it
turns out, so was her death.
Speaker 6 (39:27):
Princess Diana, at the age of thirty six, has died
of massive internal injuries.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
There have been so many conspiracy theories. It's as though
none of us believed a princess could die the way
she did, None more so than Dodie's father, Mohammed al Fayette.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
He was convinced it was murder.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
The murder is definitely a murder, the whole plot being
executed from the head of the royal households.
Speaker 9 (40:00):
That's Philip.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
The most extraordinary suggestion of foul play came from Diana herself.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
I do have a lot of letters, and I've never
shown them. Before you know, I'm a bit reluctant to
show them. You know, this particular letter is rather poignant
because it's rather spooky thinking that she sat and prophesied
her own death.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Diana wrote this letter to Paul Burrell months before the
fatal accident.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous.
My husband is planning an accident in my car, break failure,
and serious head injury in order to make the path
clear for him to marry.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
With These thoughts that she had come up with, or
were they ideas that had been put into her mind
from psychics and mystics.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
Yes, you're right, some of these thoughts did come from
mestics and psychics. But you can't get away from the
fact that she actually wrote it. She actually took time
and bothered to write down what her fears and feeling
as were.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
In the end, the most investigated car crash in history
came down to a speeding, drunk driver and passengers not
wearing seat belts.
Speaker 12 (41:36):
It was as simple as that, and as stark as that,
and as final as that. And people find it very
hard to accept that this star in the firmament should
suddenly be wiped out in such an ordinary thing as
a car crash.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Twenty years on, our fascination with Diana remains as strong
as ever.
Now on Sunday Night, it was if you like the
stuff of fairy tales, Ah, that's what everybody's been waiting for.
She seemed to fulfill all our romantic notions of what
a princess should.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Be behind the palace walls.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
You can't do that, I don't What are we going
to tell the police?
Speaker 2 (00:24):
The Insiders reveal Princess Diana's most intimate secrets.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
They were always man ten. I think he was at
the time ten.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
She was hunted. She said, I'm being hunted and she
was the conspiracy.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
My husband is planning an accident in my car.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
A chilling letter never seen before.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
That is part that she should think that nine months before.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
She died, And the question everyone wants to answer, are
you Harry's father?
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Diana was the jewel in the crown. Thirty six has
no age to die.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
A sea of flowers and tributes covered Kensington Gardens, a
spontaneous expression of love for the people's princess. It's been
twenty years since Diana's death, and on this anniversary, the
central people in Diana's life have agreed to step back
(01:31):
into the spotlight. Her lover James Hewitt, her bodyguard Ken Wharf,
the Fleet Street Journal Richard Kay, her trusted butler Paul Burrell,
and her best friend Rosamunpton. The man who was by
her side the longest was her trusted butler, Paul Burrell.
(01:55):
During the eighties and nineties. He was never far from
the drama that surrounded the Princess.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Diana has been a blessing and it's a double edged sword.
You can't have one without the other. You have to
weather the storm knowing that the good bits are worth it.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Today Paul runs a quite flourish shop in the north
of England, still surrounded by memories of the most exciting
times of his life. Might start at the very beginning
and ask you about when you first met Diana.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
You will be nineteen eighty And the Queen said to me,
a young lady's arrived in this afternoon as a house guest.
And the car arrived and this very shy, innocent girl
stepped out, and I said, can I take your bag?
And she said yes. I said, one small bag. How
are you going to survive the weekend? And she said, oh,
my goodness matter, very good impression have I.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
During the early days of her courtship with Prince Charles.
She kept working at a local kindergarten even as the
media interest intensified.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
She certainly ticked all the boxes. I mean, she was beautiful,
right background a virgin were led to believe, you know,
all the things that were absolute requirements for an heir
to the throne.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
For Fleet Street correspondence, like Richard Kay, Diana added spice
to the royal round. He reported extensively on Diana and
eventually became a trusted friend. I remember that photo of
her at the kindergarten. She had her long skirt on
and the sun shining behind it.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Do you remember that picture.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
I remember that picture extremely well because that's the day
that everybody said, oh wow, and she's got legs too.
She had fantastic legs. The royal family didn't do glamour.
Suddenly that all changed. Diana was glamour on sticks. I
mean she really was. And she sprinkled this sort of
(04:07):
ferry dust over the stuffy old house of Windsor and
transformed it almost overnight.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
Colhoune Court is very famous.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Where did Diana live?
Speaker 1 (04:20):
This is where it all began. Diana's apartment was up
there on the first floor. She shared it with three friends.
She was dating Charles while she lived here.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
So we were in the Diana dashing out the front,
hopping into the.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Mini, running around the corner into the Mini Metro, all
the photographers crowding around, some tripping over themselves. She's got
her head down. That's where the shy died story began.
She sort of hid her eyes below her fringe. I
mean she was faintly embarrassed by it all.
Speaker 4 (04:51):
She was nineteen.
Speaker 5 (04:52):
That's so young.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
I know she was barely out of school herself.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
How will you coping with all the press attention?
Speaker 6 (05:00):
Can you see? You can tell?
Speaker 7 (05:02):
Are you bearing up with it quite well?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
Because it must be quite a strain with all of ourselves.
Speaker 7 (05:06):
Well, it is naturally the out of the throne presented
his beautiful ride de Bee.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
On February twenty fourth, nineteen eighty one, Prince Charles announced
Diana would be his queen. The pair looked anything but comfortable.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
Just delighted, unhappy, and I'm amazed that she's been brave
enough to take me on.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
And I suppose in love.
Speaker 8 (05:34):
In love.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
It was really doomed from the outset in many ways,
and Diana was not the pliant, conventional daughter of an
Earl that one might have expected. She had an independent thought.
But she was great cunning, She was very smart. She
was witty and fast.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
On the twenty ninth of July, a crowd of more
than six hundred thousand lined the streets for the royal wedding.
Speaker 8 (06:08):
Hi Diana Francis, Hi, Diana Francis, take the Charles Philip
Arthur George to my wedded husband, husband, to have them
to hold top, to hold from this day forward, this
day forward.
Speaker 3 (06:31):
So happy, She was so happy on that day, something
I'll never forget. How are you enjoying married life?
Speaker 9 (06:41):
I recommend how have you cooked a breakfast? Shirt?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
A year later, Diana gave birth to Prince William and
soon after brought him here to Australia.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
I'll never forget, the Prince of Wales later complaining whenever
he got out of the car on his side, there'd
be sizhe and oohs and asks from the crowd, and
he would apologize, I'm sorry, my wife's on the other side,
and that side of the road would get Diana and
there'd be lots of shrieks and crying with happiness.
Speaker 5 (07:33):
See jealous, I think he was. I think he was
jealous of popularity. I'm about to be eclipsed by somebody.
Well there somebody was his wife.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Less than a day old.
Speaker 10 (07:46):
He already sports four highly traditional names, but he'll be
known to say his parents as Harry.
Speaker 4 (07:52):
What was their love and happiness in the marriage and the.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Early Yes, I think there was love there. I think
those two boys are born out of love.
Speaker 9 (08:00):
I do.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
Royal bodyguard Ken Wharf had the role of keeping Diana
and her boys safe. Ken sheared special family moments, including
William's first day at school.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Prince William is in form one read with nineteen other boys.
Speaker 7 (08:18):
We arrived at the school. It was sixty to seventy photographers.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
One wave and he was gone.
Speaker 7 (08:25):
There's all these new boys there waiting to get into
the school. And eventually one sort of tiptoe across this
floor sort of appeared straight into William's face and said
to him, says, excuse.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
Me, He said, is it true that you know the Queen?
And William so coolly said.
Speaker 7 (08:41):
Don't be silly, don't you mean granny. And that's how
it was from that moment on right through to what
eight nine years working within that household. It wasn't actually
a bad place to be, I have to say that.
Speaker 2 (08:56):
But it wasn't long before cracks started to appear in
the royal marriage.
Speaker 7 (09:02):
I firmly believe that Dianah did love the Prince of
Wor was actually told me on a number of occasions.
Whether he did is another matter.
Speaker 2 (09:11):
Rumors were building that Charles was secretly seeing his former
flame Camilla Parker Bowls, and Diana was falling in love
with her riding instructor, Captain James Hewitt.
Speaker 9 (09:24):
I think she was quite easy to fall in love with.
It's really so. I think it can be forgiven for that.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
In just a few years, Diana had become more famous
than any other royal in history, with John Travalda on
VIP lists at the most glamorous events, and for the
most part, she seemed to enjoy the trappings of her celebrity.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
She sold magazines and their millions newspapers too. She knew
the pulling power she had, and every.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
Time she appeared in public, the princess made a fashion statement.
Her dressers now sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars,
and I'm about to get a personal fitting from her
(10:29):
former butler.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Now, I thought you'd like to see this beautiful. This
is one of the princess's favorite dresses that she gave
my wife, Maria. And actually you're about the same high. Well,
I was going to ask how tall was she about you?
Speaker 4 (10:45):
So I think it was tall.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Yes, boy, did she carry it as well?
Speaker 4 (10:52):
She was very glamorous.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
She was.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
In public, Diana was confident, but in private she was
falling apart. Her marriage was crumbling. Years later, she would
admit to being in the group of a devastating eating disorder.
Speaker 11 (11:09):
I had BLIMA for a number of years, and that's
like a secret disease you inflicted upon yourself because your
self esteem as to loweer and you don't think you're
worthy or valuable.
Speaker 4 (11:21):
How badly did the Bolimia group her life.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
She never escaped from it ever. Never. There's not a
pill for bolimia. It's a mental condition. It's about lots
of talking. It's about being supportive, being there for someone.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
The private Diana was a lot lonelier than I had imagined.
Speaker 3 (11:48):
All I ever wanted, she said, was to somebody put
their arms around me and tell me I was beautiful
and they loved me. That's all I wanted, And that's
something which eluded her, the most famous woman in the world.
Trapped inside a palace.
Speaker 2 (12:09):
Lovely Diana's own words, she talks about Blimia a lot.
You came into her life when she was clearly very unhappy.
Did you give her the confidence to blossom?
Speaker 9 (12:30):
I hope, sir. Whenever she was at my home in
Devon or with me, she said she didn't suffer from that.
So I late to think I helped just above freezing
(12:52):
a bit chillier than Australia.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Just a little in Devon, in the southwest of England,
I meet Captain James Hewitt, the man Diana turned to
for comfort and love.
Speaker 9 (13:04):
I suppose I was a good listener. I suppose that's
how it started, not really intentional.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
James Hewitt was twenty eight tall, handsome and charming. They
met at Buckingham Palace, where James was an army officer
in the Queen's Lifeguards Regiment. Diana asked him for writing lessons.
Speaker 9 (13:29):
She had an aura of the something special around her.
Speaker 4 (13:33):
Do you remember when you realized you were falling in
love for this gorgeous young woman?
Speaker 9 (13:42):
Yes, because it's ever a gradual period and then you
know suddenly you can't you get enough for each other
or such other as much as you want.
Speaker 4 (13:56):
Did you want to whisker away from it all?
Speaker 9 (13:59):
Yes? Yes, and she wanted that too.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
What did you guys do together?
Speaker 2 (14:11):
What did the two of you do in your time
away from London?
Speaker 4 (14:17):
From paparazzi, from spying eyes, frivolity?
Speaker 9 (14:22):
Really an escapism? Walk amazingly not far from where we're
sitting there along the beach or on the moor. A
bit of cooking, well, I'd cook and she'd wash up,
and just dinner and relaxing and laughing.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Protecting Diana on these secret rendezvous with James was her bodyguard?
Ken Wolf, You're sleeping on a camp bed in a
hallway while Princess Diana's behind closed doors with James Hewitt.
Speaker 4 (15:04):
Were you embarrassed?
Speaker 9 (15:05):
I know, I didn't.
Speaker 7 (15:06):
I wasn't embarrassed. I didn't have a problem with it.
I mean, it's pretty obvious you know what was happening.
But again, it wasn't for me to moralize on this.
I was there for one specific reason. I would never
let her down.
Speaker 4 (15:19):
As the affair became more serious, James got to know
William and Harry, even visiting them at their country home
High grove.
Speaker 9 (15:29):
The love and affection. Their help for their mother was tangible.
I had little uniforms made for them and shared around
some vehicles at windsor military vehicles. I suppared a lot
of boys at that age quite keen. But they followed
it through and joined up and served their country, which
(15:52):
is commendable. I mean it really is.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
At the height of their affair, James was called up
to serve in the Gulf War. The time of part
put pressure on their relationship, but the end came when
it was exposed in the media.
Speaker 4 (16:10):
Did you, in your heart think that you would be
able to hold onto.
Speaker 9 (16:13):
It well for a short period, yes.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
As someone who loved her. What did you hope would
happen with the two of you?
Speaker 9 (16:22):
It's a very good question and it's quite difficult to
answer because there wasn't really any hope and I was
torn between duty and love. Really, I mean, it sounds
a bit corny, but it's true.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
James returned to England, forced out of the army, and
was maligned in the media for selling his story. He's
lived in virtual seclusion ever since. What were the biggest
misconceptions about you?
Speaker 9 (17:06):
Well, you know, love, rat kiss and tell all These
headlines and accusations are the most damaging I think, and
I wouldn't wish on anyone because they're not true.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
Perhaps most hurtful of all the claims made about their
affair was that James is Prince Harry's father. Of you,
some even still believe today.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
Are you Harry's father?
Speaker 9 (17:40):
No, I'm not.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Why does that keep being repeated?
Speaker 9 (17:45):
It sells papers.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
That's heartbreaking for you.
Speaker 9 (17:50):
For him, it's worse for him, probably poor Chap.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
So many people say to me, do you think that
Harry was James Hewett's child? No, not possible, because that
affair didn't start until Harry was born.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
It had become apparent to all that the marriage was over,
and publicly Diana made no effort to hide it. I
think of that image of her sitting on the seat outside.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
The taj Mahal.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
That was such a public declaration of there's really no
going back from here.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
It spoke volumes about the state of their marriage.
Speaker 8 (18:42):
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.
Speaker 2 (18:44):
Ten months after that picture came this.
Speaker 9 (18:48):
It is announced from Buckingham Palace that, with regret, the
Prince and Princess of Wales have decided to separate.
Speaker 12 (18:56):
She was nineteen when she became engaged, incredibly, and at
that age, you romance is a fairy tale, and when
it turns out that actually life isn't like that, I
think that is difficult and it was very difficult for her.
Speaker 2 (19:16):
Rosa Monkton was Diana's best friend and became a shoulder
to cry on as the royal marriage was coming to
a dramatic end.
Speaker 12 (19:25):
I remember her saying to me, you know, I go
out into the streets and people wave at me and
say they love me.
Speaker 4 (19:31):
Then I come home and nobody does.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
In nineteen ninety four, in an extraordinary television interview, Prince
Charles admitted to his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.
Speaker 9 (19:44):
Did you try to be faithful and honorable to your
wife when you took on the vow of marriage? Is absolutely.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
And you were, yes.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Until came irretrievably broken down.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
The princess was devastated that the Prince should actually come
out with this information and really pridicule her.
Speaker 4 (20:15):
What was Camilla like? Diana called her the rottweiler.
Speaker 7 (20:19):
Yeah, it's not exactly an encouraging phrase to be called,
but you know, I can understand that because Camilla didn't
go away.
Speaker 9 (20:30):
Do you think missus Parker Bowles was a factor in
the breakdown of your marriage?
Speaker 11 (20:35):
Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so
it was a bit crowded.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
In a candid nineteen ninety five interview, Diana also detailed
her affair with James Hewitt.
Speaker 9 (20:50):
Did your relationship go beyond a close friendship?
Speaker 3 (20:54):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (20:55):
It did.
Speaker 9 (20:56):
Yes? Were you unfaithful?
Speaker 11 (21:00):
I told him yes, I was in alone with him.
Speaker 4 (21:03):
But I was very let down. Did you love her
very much?
Speaker 9 (21:09):
Yes?
Speaker 4 (21:10):
I did.
Speaker 9 (21:12):
Yeah. That's why it's difficult to talk about it really,
but I did.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (21:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (21:24):
Do you regret meeting Diana?
Speaker 9 (21:26):
No, I don't regret that.
Speaker 8 (21:29):
No.
Speaker 9 (21:31):
I regret some of the things that have been caused
by that, but not that at all. No way.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
There had been years of scandals and sordid headlines, but
for the Queen, Diana's public sledging of Charles was the
final straw.
Speaker 9 (21:54):
Do you think he would wish to be king?
Speaker 11 (21:56):
There was always conflict on that subject with him when
we discussed it, And because I know the character, I
would think that the top job, as I call it,
would bring enormous limitations to him. And I don't know
whether he could adapt to that.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
She told me herself that she realized she shouldn't have
questioned Charles's suitability to be king, because that was the
critical thing as far as the monarchy was concerned. As
far as the Queen was concerned, That's where she overstepped
the line when she started saying chilv basically wasn't up
to it.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
The Queen ordered a divorce and stripped Diana of her
royal title, making her an outcast. She was thirty five,
more famous than ever, and now searching for her place
in the world. The royal marriage over Diana began the
(23:14):
new chapter in her life, immersing herself in the job
of being among.
Speaker 6 (23:21):
My first priority will continue to be our children, William
and Harry, who deserve as much love and care and
attention as I am able to give.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Diana wanted the boys to have as close to a
normal upbringing as possible. She encouraged them to do commonplace
activities like going to a theme park.
Speaker 7 (23:50):
These were great days because you could see the kids
enjoy themselves. It was something difficult. The objectors were, as so,
why would Dinah, why do you want to take your
kids to a theme park? I mean, the prince of world.
I think what Harry had left would rip it up.
Why do you want to go to the theme park,
(24:12):
because that's what kids want. They were great fun. Of course,
what a kids want to do. They want to drench
the security. So you have to live with that because
Diana found that highly entertaining.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Diana was also using her popularity to highlight causes that
were close to her heart. The carnage caused by abandoned
land mines.
Speaker 11 (24:37):
Yeah, I'm only trying to highlight a problem that's going
on all around the world.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
Changing the way the world viewed AIDS.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
We thought there was a new plague and merely touching
the hands of an AID sufferer would pass this disease on.
So this one day in early nineteen eighty seven, she
went to an age unit and Diana shook hands with
these people, and she shook hands without gloves, and immediately
it sort of broke the taboo, broke down a barrier,
(25:11):
and suddenly it made a huge difference to the way
people engaged with AIDS and a notion of what it meant.
Speaker 12 (25:21):
Her humanity was absolutely extraordinary. Her way of cutting through
race language. You know, she didn't need words very often
it was a local a touch.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
Diana's humanity was felt in a very personal way by
her close friend Rosa Monkton. When Rosa gave birth to
a steelborn baby, Diana made a surprising offer.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
Was that she who suggested burying your baby at Kensington Palace? Yes,
yes it was. It was, and again you know what
an extra thing to do.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
I said, well, what are we going to tell the police?
How are we going to get it through security? She said, well,
I'm going to tell the Chief Inspector that we're going
to bury a pet in the garden. She's only you,
I and Rosa will know it's a baby.
Speaker 12 (26:24):
We had a very very moving ceremony and she gave
me a key to the garden. She said, you come
in whenever you want. Policeman the gate will know. I
still have the key.
Speaker 4 (26:41):
Do you miss so very much?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
The following year, Rosa had another daughter, Domenica, who has
down syndrome. Diana once again offered her support.
Speaker 12 (26:57):
She just gave me the biggest hug and picked Domenica
up and said, I'm going to be her godmother. She's
going to need all the help she can get.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Like Rosa, those closest to Diana got to see there
were many sides to this intriguing woman.
Speaker 12 (27:16):
She was a very complicated person and very emotionally insecure.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
Volatile, moody, petulant, all of those things. Dressed up in
a beautiful way, she.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Had some real depth. She was amusing, She did great impressions.
She looked quite different away when she wasn't on show.
For example, her hair was much flatter, and she would
deliberately try and dress down. She would always inevitably wear
a baseball cap to cover her head, and she had
(27:56):
a very good line at sort of disarming people who
would come up to us, as they often did, here
are you Diana? She said no, but I'm told I
look like her, Oh yeah you do, and we would
walk on. She craved an ordinariness, That's what I would
say about her.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
She also craved love, and there was no shortage of
potential suitors.
Speaker 3 (28:19):
There were always men. They were like flies. The Boss
and I had this system of like a horse race.
We put everybody into a trap, into a pen with
all their names one to ten I think it was
at the time ten, and they were all vying for
(28:44):
the Princess's attention, and they'd ring constantly. There was a
famous movie star. There was a politician in the United
States who promised her, if you marry me, I will
make you the first lady of the United States of America.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Most were kept secret, a few were scandalous. The leaked
phone calls with James Gilby known as Squidgey Gait.
Speaker 7 (29:16):
It's a wonderful.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
It was just a very short fling.
Speaker 7 (29:25):
I think, well, let's say that it was a friendship.
There's no doubt about that. In terms of a fling.
That that that there was some throwing around, for certain,
but it was not on the scale that the hue
it was.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Ken Wolfe had the unenviable task of keeping her private
life private, which led to a few tricky situations.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Oliver Whare tell me about him.
Speaker 7 (29:50):
He was a friend of the Prince of the Prince
of Wales, so this was playing pretty close at home.
Speaker 4 (29:57):
I heard about the famous cigar scene hallway in.
Speaker 7 (30:00):
The fire Well that happened. I mean he was rather
keen on his uh, his Goheba cigars. But unforse he
set the alarm off one night in his departure, semi naked,
trying to get out of the front of Kensing Palace.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
In nineteen ninety five, Diana met a man she called
mister Wonderful, the Pakistani heart surgeon, doctor Hasnat Khan.
Speaker 12 (30:26):
Did you meet him? I did, yes, and I just
ask you if he was a nice man. He was lovely,
really lovely man. Yes, And did he love her?
Speaker 9 (30:37):
He did.
Speaker 2 (30:40):
The secret relationship with the conservative doctor ended after two years,
and her next boyfriend couldn't have been more different. Dodi
Fayed was the womanizing playboy son of Egyptian billionaire and
Harold's owner Mohammad al Fayed.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
Off of Dirty Fired very quickly, totally head over heels
in a very short space of time.
Speaker 2 (31:12):
Diana and Dodi's Mediterranean romance in the summer of nineteen
ninety seven played out in front of the long lenses
of the world's paparazzi. Among the media pack covering the
sensational story was French photographer PS two.
Speaker 4 (31:29):
Was there big money in it? Were people making a
lot from them?
Speaker 3 (31:32):
Yes?
Speaker 13 (31:33):
The money was flying, bucket loads of money. Fleet Street
were signing blank checks to everybody, no limit. It was
absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2 (31:47):
Diana's butler, Paul, spoke on the phone to her about
the holiday she was having with her reportedly recreational drug
taking boyfriend Dody.
Speaker 3 (31:57):
She said, I just want to come home. I mess
my boys so much, she said, And do you know what,
he doesn't spend any time with me. He's constantly locking
himself in the bathroom. What he doing in there? I said, Oh,
come on, you know what he's doing in there. Well,
it's so frustrating. I don't like it. She would not
(32:21):
have married Dordy alfhae It.
Speaker 2 (32:25):
The unlikely couple had been together for seven weeks when
Diana traveled to Paris with Dody on August thirty, nineteen
ninety seven, with the paparazzi in hot pursuit.
Speaker 11 (32:38):
I still do this day find the interest daunting and phenomenal,
because I actually don't like being the center for tension.
A normal day would be followed by four cars, A
normal day would come back to my car and find
six freelance photographers jumping around me.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Would you get that other whole time?
Speaker 4 (33:01):
It's quite difficult. She was hunted, she said, I'm being hunted,
and she was.
Speaker 8 (33:08):
About you.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
It was a hot August night in Paris. Diana and
Dodi had dinner here at the Ritz, the hotel owned
by his billionaire father Muhammad al Fayette, and just like
everywhere the couple went, crowds of paparazzi followed. French photographer
PS two had been pursuing the couple since their arrival
(33:48):
in Paris that afternoon.
Speaker 13 (33:51):
So these are upon the arrival at the Ritz Hotel.
So we'll just ready to get getting ready to come out.
Speaker 4 (34:01):
We can't even see Diana's.
Speaker 13 (34:04):
Fare no, but you can recognize her for sure. That's
how famous she was. Even from the back of her head,
you could tell.
Speaker 7 (34:10):
Who it was.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Diana no longer had Scotland Yard protection. Her safety was
in the hands of Dodie's security team.
Speaker 7 (34:20):
All the CCTV shows one man running this show, a
man called On Repaul. He's not a policeman, he's a
civilian that works in the hotel. He just so happens
to have been an employer of fired for many, many years.
On Repaul is seen talking to Dodie, talking to the princess.
Speaker 2 (34:35):
He gets into the car they were leaving in a
car parked at the back of the hotel. Most of
the paparazzi were waiting at the front. On Repaul, who
was driving, had been drinking all afternoon.
Speaker 13 (34:49):
Just after midnight and I learned that they had left.
They left through the back door.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
They were heading towards Dodie's apartment. Parazzi in hot pursuit
on motorbikes up ahead the Alma Tunnel, their Mercedes, traveling
at nearly three times the speed limit. I've got to say,
(35:18):
it's giving me chills knowing this is exactly where I at.
Just nine minutes after leaving the Ritz Hotel, Henri Paul
lost control of the car and crashed into the thirteenth
(35:39):
pillar in the tunnel. Both he and Dody Fayette died instantly.
Security officer Trevorice Jones survived, but Diana suffered devastating internal injuries.
Three and a half hours after the accident came the
news the world feared.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
The Queen and the Prince of Wales and the Prime
Minister have been informed of the accident and of the.
Speaker 4 (36:06):
Death of the Princess of walth.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
No, that's not true, that's not happened. Why are you
telling me this? And he took literally three four minutes
for the truth to actually sink in.
Speaker 9 (36:23):
Picked up a message to voicemail on my mobile and
I was told about it. Yeah, so it's quite a shock.
Speaker 2 (36:38):
Paul Barrel flew immediately to Paris to be with Diana
and make the arrangements to bring her back to London.
Speaker 3 (36:45):
The princess was lying on her bed. She was covered
by a white sheet to the neck and to the ankles.
And I approached the bed with and held her hand,
and she was warm. So I thought, she's sleeping. She's
(37:07):
not dead. This isn't a dead person in front of me.
So I kept telling her to wake up, and I
started to shake her hand, wake up, come on, wake up,
and I realized that she wasn't going to wake up.
And then the floodgates opened because I realized that I
(37:28):
lost my friend.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Within hours, the loss of Diana was felt around the world.
The response was on a level never seen before.
Speaker 12 (37:41):
She could have had no idea what an impact she
had on people. I found that really profoundly moving.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Me.
Speaker 10 (37:52):
Those who died rest in peace, and may we each
and every one of us thank God for someone who
may many many people happy.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
More than two billion people watched Diana's funeral on television.
The most poignant image of all her sons, fifteen year
old William and twelve year old Harry marching stomically behind
their mother's coffin.
Speaker 12 (38:27):
Nothing else mattered but those two boys without their mother. No,
that was my abiding memory really of that day.
Speaker 4 (38:37):
It's the envelope, Yes, Mummy, Yeah, we.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
Should have looked at her a better. It's shame shame
on us for not appreciating what we had. Diana was
the jewel in the crown. We didn't appreciate. Yo, are we, Hannah?
And at thirty six, there's no age to die.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Diana's life was filled with drama and controversy. As it
turns out, so was her death.
Speaker 6 (39:27):
Princess Diana, at the age of thirty six, has died
of massive internal injuries.
Speaker 2 (39:35):
There have been so many conspiracy theories. It's as though
none of us believed a princess could die the way
she did, None more so than Dodie's father, Mohammed al Fayette.
Speaker 4 (39:46):
He was convinced it was murder.
Speaker 3 (39:50):
The murder is definitely a murder, the whole plot being
executed from the head of the royal households.
Speaker 9 (40:00):
That's Philip.
Speaker 4 (40:03):
The most extraordinary suggestion of foul play came from Diana herself.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
I do have a lot of letters, and I've never
shown them. Before you know, I'm a bit reluctant to
show them. You know, this particular letter is rather poignant
because it's rather spooky thinking that she sat and prophesied
her own death.
Speaker 2 (40:31):
Diana wrote this letter to Paul Burrell months before the
fatal accident.
Speaker 3 (40:37):
This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous.
My husband is planning an accident in my car, break failure,
and serious head injury in order to make the path
clear for him to marry.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
With These thoughts that she had come up with, or
were they ideas that had been put into her mind
from psychics and mystics.
Speaker 3 (41:07):
Yes, you're right, some of these thoughts did come from
mestics and psychics. But you can't get away from the
fact that she actually wrote it. She actually took time
and bothered to write down what her fears and feeling
as were.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
In the end, the most investigated car crash in history
came down to a speeding, drunk driver and passengers not
wearing seat belts.
Speaker 12 (41:36):
It was as simple as that, and as stark as that,
and as final as that. And people find it very
hard to accept that this star in the firmament should
suddenly be wiped out in such an ordinary thing as
a car crash.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Twenty years on, our fascination with Diana remains as strong
as ever.
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