Tell-All Documentary on Diana Called an 'Outrage'

Some fear William, Harry may have opened the floodgates by speaking in personal terms
By Linda Hervieux,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 31, 2017 5:21 AM CDT
Updated Jul 31, 2017 6:11 AM CDT
'An Outrage': Diana's Team Wants Tell-All Film Scuttled
Diana cuddles Prince Harry in this file photo.   (Associated Press)

Princess Diana's friends and family are lashing out at a British TV station that is set to air a controversial documentary in which Princess Diana discusses intimate details of her life, including her anemic sex life with Prince Charles. Confidante Rosa Monckton tells the Guardian that the tapes made during speech coaching amounted to "therapy" for the troubled princess at the time she and Charles were splitting. It's an "outrage" if they are aired, she says. "This doesn’t belong in the public domain," she adds, calling it "a betrayal of her privacy and of the family’s privacy." She says the tapes should be turned over to Diana's sons. The tapes were recorded in 1993 during sessions with actor Peter Settelen, who was helping Diana master public speaking. Channel 4 plans to broadcast Diana: In Her Own Words, ahead of the 20th anniversary of the princess' death on Aug. 31.

Diana's brother Earl Spencer reportedly pleaded with Channel 4 not to air the documentary, per Sky News, but a station rep calls the tapes "an important historical source" that "provide a unique insight into the preparations Diana undertook to … tell her own personal story." Royal operatives are concerned that recent frank interviews by Prince William and Prince Harry about their suffering after Diana's death opened the door to public scrutiny. The princes "sort of have to take what they get now," a source tells the Guardian. "I don’t believe Diana is being remembered now as the saint she has been painted to be. They will be thinking this is terribly unfortunate and they have been ill advised." (Harry says nobody in the family wants the crown.)

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