GOSH! Is that the time already? It has been more than 35 years since the late Diana, Princess of Wales, agreed to be interviewed by me for her biography. I spent more than a year talking to her, her family and friends about her life story. It was an incredible experience and one that I will treasure forever.
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Now the UK production company Love Monday are making a documentary about the drama behind the making of my biography, Diana, Her True Story, which was first published in 1992 to a firestorm of controversy.
Diana’s voice will be heard as she talks candidly about the ups and downs of life inside and outside the royal family, and a marriage that went wrong almost from the start. It will be compulsive viewing, giving a new generation of royal fans an insight into the life and times of the most charismatic royal of her era.
What makes this documentary so extraordinary is that the vast majority of the recordings have never been heard. In all these years, barely an hour of the tapes has ever been made public. There are five hours of previously unheard material, and what Diana says in those conversations will genuinely surprise you. She was funny, sharp and far more clear-eyed about her situation than anyone gave her credit for at the time.
The story of how those tapes came to exist is remarkable in itself. Diana recorded her answers to my questions with her close friend Dr. James Colthurst, who then smuggled the cassettes out of Kensington Palace and delivered them to me. The risks they both took were considerable, and the documentary tells that story too.
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Alongside Diana’s own voice, the series features a remarkable cast of people who were there. Delissa Needham, a prep schoolmate who has never spoken on camera before. Sam McKnight, the hairdresser who was with Diana throughout the nineties and trusted even to cut her sons’ hair. Penny Thornton, the astrologer Diana turned to for guidance, confiding her deepest hopes and fears. Wayne Sleep, the ballet dancer who became one of the closest people in her life. Ken Wharfe, the bodyguard who went wherever Diana did for five years. Dickie Arbiter, the press secretary caught in the crossfire as the marriage imploded. Kent Gavin, the photographer who was there from the wedding and William’s christening right through to the summer of 1997. And Richard Kay of the Daily Mail, who became Diana’s confidante as she fought to shape her own freedom and Andrew Neil, the former editor of the Sunday Times who first serialised the controversial extracts from my book.
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I have spent three decades being asked what she was really like. The honest answer is that the recordings tell you better than I ever could. This is Diana in her own words, unedited and unguarded, talking about Charles, Camilla, William, Harry, Fergie and Andrew, and the life she was determined to build for herself.
Coming your way summer 2027 to mark the thirtieth anniversary of her death.
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