Princess Diana was on the ‘best terms she’d ever been’ with Prince Charles before she died – and would have gone back to him ‘in a heartbeat’ if he’d wanted her, a royal biographer has claimed.
The late Princess of Wales, who died in a car accident in Paris in August 1997 at the age of 36, had also ‘accepted’ her ex-husband’s love for Camilla Parker Bowles, according to Tina Brown, who penned The Diana Chronicles.
Speaking to The Daily Telegraph‘s Camilla Tominey, Ex-Vanity Fair editor Ms Brown, 66, told how she and Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of Vogue, met with Diana for lunch at New York’s Four Seasons Restaurant just over a month before she died.
She recalled how Diana, dressed in a mint green Chanel suit, told her she and Charles enjoyed ‘some laughs’ together and discussed their philanthropies at Kensington Palace when he dropped round for tea.
Princess Diana was on the ‘best terms she’d ever been’ with Prince Charles before she died – and would have gone back to him ‘in a heartbeat’ if he’d wanted her, a royal biographer has claimed
‘At the end of Diana’s life, she and Charles were on the best terms they’d been for a very long time,’ Ms Brown claimed, recalling their conversation ‘as if it was yesterday’.
‘Charles got into the habit of dropping in on her at Kensington Palace and they would have tea and a sort of rueful exchange. They even had some laughs together.
‘It was definitely calming down, the boys were older. They talked about their philanthropies. And she had accepted Camilla.
‘One thing she had finally done was really understand that Camilla was the love of his life, and there was just nothing she could do about it. But she said to me at that lunch that she would go back to Charles in a heartbeat if he wanted her.’
The late Princess of Wales, who died in a car accident in Paris in August 1997 at the age of 36, had also ‘accepted’ her ex-husband’s love for Camilla Parker Bowles, according to Tina Brown, who penned The Diana Chronicles. Pictured with Charles in 1982
She added that the princess was ‘desperately lonely’ and told her she wished that her marriage could have survived because she and Charles would have made ‘a great team’.
Ms Brown, who is currently penning a second installment of her Diana Chronicles entitled The Palace Papers, claimed Diana was ‘possessive’ and ‘terribly demanding and needy’ which meant none of her subsequent romances were successful.
Despite being a little ‘delusional’ about what she could achieve, Ms Brown insisted Diana was on the cusp of trying to reinvent herself as a ‘seriously impactful person’ and knew what she wanted.
According to Ms Brown, Diana had aspirations to help solve the Irish peace process and become a female equivalent of Nelson Mandela.
Tina Brown, 66, pictured in 2018, met with Diana for lunch at New York’s Four Seasons Restaurant just over a month before she died
She added that the character of Princess Diana presented in the The Crown lacks her ‘guile’.
Recalling the time plucky Diana danced with Wayne Sleep to Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl at the Royal Opera House in 1985, Ms Brown remarked: ‘Can you honestly imagine Kate doing that, or even Meghan?
‘She had a mixture of understanding that she had a unique star power and natural magnetism which was something that evolved. She came to love that… Having the public love you, when your husband doesn’t, it’s something of a panacea. The more he spurned her, the more she sought public approbation.’
Earlier this week royal correspondent Jennie Bond claimed Diana knew Charles and Camilla ‘were true love’ and spoke with BBC’s Panorama because she ‘wanted her story out there’ as she feared a gagging clause in her divorce.
Appearing on Lorraine to discuss the Princess of Wales’ bombshell interview with Martin Bashir in 1995, Jennie said the princess told her most of the information she revealed in the Panorama interview, five months earlier, including that she believed the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall were a ‘true love match’.
Earlier this week royal correspondent Jennie Bond claimed Diana knew Charles and Camilla ‘were true love’ and spoke with BBC’s Panorama (pictured) because she ‘wanted her story out there’ as she feared a gagging clause in her divorce
The British journalist also asked Diana a year later, why she took part in the meeting, and said the princess admitted she feared a ‘gagging clause in her divorce’ and ‘wanted her story out there’.
The televised tell-all has hit headlines 25 years later over new allegations made by Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, that he was shown false financial documents by then-Panorama reporter Martin Bashir to gain access to her.
The BBC said yesterday it has unearthed a handwritten letter penned by the princess that clears Mr Bashir of any wrongdoing.
Speaking to The Express, Ms Brown claimed the fake evidence used to secure her Panorama interview probably kick-started events that ended in her death. She suggested Martin Bashir’s doctored bank statements saw the royal dismiss her protection which could have stopped her Paris car crash.
‘She had wilfully decided that she did not want any of the royal protection officers with her because she thought they were spying on her – probably thanks to Martin Bashir,’ Ms Brown said.
‘She was at the mercy of a drunken off-duty driver who was working for [Mohamed Al] Fayed. ‘If she had had that one thing, a royal protection officer, she’d still be alive today.
‘He would never ever have driven in that way, in that reckless fashion, it just wouldn’t have happened.’