Yahoo – AFP, James PHEBY, 26 August 2017
London (AFP) - Princess Diana rocked the monarchy when she leaked shocking details of palace life to author Andrew Morton, who told AFP the revelations are still causing damage 20 years after her death.
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| Diana still wreaking revenge on Charles: biographer |
London (AFP) - Princess Diana rocked the monarchy when she leaked shocking details of palace life to author Andrew Morton, who told AFP the revelations are still causing damage 20 years after her death.
His 1992
book "Diana: Her True Story - In Her Own Words" laid bare her
decaying marriage to Prince Charles, her suicide attempts and battles with
bulimia.
But it also
painted a bleak picture of life inside Britain's royal family.
Morton's
book, which became a best-seller, shone an unflattering light on Prince Charles
that still casts a shadow on the heir to the throne, as thoughts turn towards a
post-Elizabeth monarchy.
Morton is
convinced that that is something Diana intended.
"There's
no question in her conversations with me and subsequently on television, when
she talked about (how) Prince Charles wasn't fit to be king, that she always
felt that Prince William should take on the role of the future king," he
said in an interview in his London home.
"Today
we find that a majority of people would rather see the crown go directly to
Prince William rather than Prince Charles.
"Ain't
going to happen, but that's public sentiment -- and it's public sentiment in
part, which has been influenced by Diana's life."
A poll
conducted by YouGov found that the run-up to Thursday's 20th anniversary of
Diana's death in a Paris car crash had hit Charles's popularity.
Only a
third of respondents said he had been beneficial for the royal family ?- down
from nearly two-thirds four years ago.
Just 14
percent want to see his current wife Camilla, Diana's nemesis during their
marriage, as queen.
'Diana
was just desperate'
"The
anniversary has already opened old wounds for Camilla, people are being
reminded of the fact that she was instrumental in ending this marriage that was
described as a fairy tale," said Morton, who has released a revised
version of his book to mark 25 years since its release.
Diana, who
famously said there were "three people" in her marriage, contacted
then-royal reporter Morton through friend James Colthurst in order to make
public her anguish.
"She
gave me the odd story, most notably about Prince Charles sacking his private
secretary, and it gave her a sense of control and power, and she rather liked
it," Morton explained.
"What
I didn't realise at the time was that Diana was just desperate -- nothing
prepared me for the revelation that was to come," he added.
"Her
husband Prince Charles was effectively living with another man's wife."
The author
described the moment of hearing the first taped interview with Colthurst, who
acted as an intermediary so Diana could maintain deniability when asked if she
had met Morton.
"I was
summoned to a working-man's cafe in London, and all around me, people were
eating bacon and eggs and beans and chatting about the football scores, and I
put these headphones on and I was transported into another world where Diana
talked about her eating disorders, about desperate cries for help, about her
loneliness, about her childhood, about her royal life, about Prince Charles.
"I
found myself walking into a parallel universe."
'Worried
about my own safety'
Morton used
six tapes of interviews to write the biography, knowing that he was sitting on
revelations that could tear apart the country's oldest and best-loved
institution.
"I was
very worried about my own safety and what was going to happen, it was
incredibly nerve-wracking," he said.
"It's
almost how you must feel like before you go over the top in the war... There's
that gnawing fear and worry," he said.
Although it
dealt a serious blow to the royal family, Morton believes the book and Diana's
death five years later forced the institution into some much-needed changes.
"You've
got a whole new generation taking the reins, William and Harry, and they
exemplify many of the qualities and characteristics of Diana...they've become more
human, more approachable.
After the
Grenfell Tower fire in June in which some 80 people were killed, Queen
Elizabeth II visited survivors and became "the consoler-in-chief".
It was a
Diana-like public show of empathy.
"In a
way, the royal family has come around to the way that she did business,"
he said.
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Britain's 'Diana-mania' spreads abroad as anniversary of her death looms https://t.co/RXBR1km9HM pic.twitter.com/mLpgv6DvDv— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 26, 2017
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