Original subtitles

Is that thing on? Yeah.

Er...

OK?

Princess Diana - once the most famous face in the world.

But there was also a private Diana, known only to a few...

If you come in here, you sit down and be quiet.

You've got to be very quiet. Very quiet.

Don't touch it, William, cos it's all focused on...

...and this Diana had a story to tell.

I was brought up in the sense that, you know,

when you got engaged to someone, you loved them.

In 1992, she began recording a series of video tapes.

...whereupon he leapt upon me, and started kissing me and everything,

and I thought, "" You know...

"This is not what people do!"

And he was all over me.

This was a different Diana. Uninhibited, free-talking, candid...

We met 13 times before we got married.

...with a story that was rocking the foundations of the British monarchy.

So I went to the top lady,

and, sobbing, I said "What do I do, I'm coming to you, what do I do?"

She said, "I don't know what you should do. Charles is hopeless."

And that was it. That was help.

"Ladies and gentlemen..."

There is no other footage that reveals her spirit so intimately.

It has never been seen in Britain before.

Diana knew there were few things more dangerous to the establishment

than a princess with a story.

You're getting to telling the story?

No, I'm not.

You're a storyteller.

If you feel strong about a point, make it very strongly.

See how far you can go.

This is BBC Radio in London.

According to the French news agency,

a French government minister has said within the past few minutes

that Diana, Princess of Wales, has died.

He said she was killed in a car crash in central Paris.

I'll repeat that.

Diana, Princess of Wales,

has been killed in a car crash in the centre of Paris...

This is a story from a green and pleasant land

about a prince and his princess.

According to legend,

it was the birthplace of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.

But that was an ancient story,

about chivalry.

This is a modern story.

People's emotions...

...people's insecurities...

people's distress...

...people's hopes and dreams.

Here was a fairy story that everybody wanted to work.

I knew that something profound was coming my way,

and I was just... treading water, waiting for it.

I didn't know what it was, I didn't know where it was,

I didn't know if it was coming next year or next month,

but I knew I was different from my friends in where I was going.

It is the spring of 1981.

Mrs Thatcher has been Prime Minister for nearly two years.

In London, Brixton is in flames, and after Brixton,

Handsworth, Bristol, Moss Side, Toxteth.

There are more people out of work than at any time since the 1930s.

In 1981, this is what the nation's story had come to.

Perhaps, as the Princess said,

most people were ready for a fairy tale.

The state coach,

surely the most beautiful vehicle in all the world.

A free translation into carved and gilded imagery of all the history

and tradition of Britain and the Empire.

Like all golden coaches...

like Cinderella's...

this one was built to astonish and bewitch.

Only this is a coach for real kings and queens,

whose ancestors reach back 1,000 years

to the beginnings of the nation.

1948...

a royal christening.

Our future Queen and a boy born to be King.

Charles Philip Arthur George.

1953 - a coronation.

In the four corners of the Earth, her subjects acclaim...

Elizabeth is Queen.

The stage is set.

There is a queen - Elizabeth.

There is a prince, Charles.

Among the page boys, there is Andrew Parker Bowles,

who will also have a part to play.

Only the princess is missing.

Diana will not be born for another eight years.

I was a rebel.

I always did the dares.

I always did, erm... the opposite of everybody else.

I wasn't academically interested at all.

I just wanted to be with people, have fun, you know?

Look after people, and things like that.

I got the prize for being the kindest girl in school,

I got the prize for this... This doesn't ring "rebel."

I know, but it was underlying.

It was always there. What, the rebel was going on underneath, but...?

But that didn't come out.

What do you mean, they didn't see it, or...? They didn't see it.

1969 - Diana is eight.

Prince Charles is nearly 21...

and at Caernarfon Castle, he's about to be invested as Prince of Wales.

I, Charles, Prince of Wales, do become your liege man

of life and limb, and of earthly worship.

It was the first Queen Elizabeth

who said that a crown was more pleasant to look at

than to wear.

She knew there was a price to pay for being a queen...

...or a king.

It's a very demanding role,

being Prince of Wales...

...but it's an equally more demanding role being king.

Who knows what fate will produce?

Who knows what circumstances will provoke?

Do you have any thoughts about the lady

that a Prince of Wales should marry?

Erm...

Yes. Well, I suppose...

You see, it's awfully difficult,

because you've got to remember that when you marry, in my position,

you're going to marry somebody who perhaps one day

is going to become Queen,

and you've got to choose somebody very carefully, I think.

And it's got to be somebody pretty special,

because if you choose somebody who isn't used to it, it can,

I should think, probably cause the most awful tension.

Kensington Gardens.

Kensington Palace.

An old admirer returns to pick up the pieces.

James Colthurst - Etonian, doctor, minor aristocrat,

old friend of Diana.

He'd known her since before the story began.

She must have been just about 17.

Yeah, she was pretty young.

Well, she was great fun.

A real breath of joy.

Well, she had a flat in...

Just on the Old Brompton Road.

It was Earls Court - it was Old Brompton Road.

Loved it - so happy there.

All girls, of whom she was the declared chief chick.

And I had three girls living with me.

We had the best time of my life.

And when fate came calling for Diana,

James was in the front row, watching it happen.

Diana invited me round to dinner, and, as I arrived, she said...

A little bit, sort of, excitable,

she said, "I'm afraid I can't be here for dinner."

I heard a good, strong engine of a car outside.

Her flatmates - they mentioned that it was Prince Charles,

and at that stage, I think the die was cast, as it were.

Is there any possibility

of any announcement of your marriage in the near future, can you tell me?

Can you tell me if there's any possibility?

I'm not going to say anything.

Prince Charles did give us a hint himself.

He said we wouldn't have to wait too long.

Careful!

Things really started to get serious when I was, er...

I must have been 18 and a half.

I was asked to stay with some friends in Sussex,

and they said, "The Prince of Wales will stay a night,

"cos he's playing polo." So I thought,

"Well, I haven't seen him for ages.

"He's just broke up with his girlfriend,

"Mountbatten's just been killed." And I said it'd be nice to see him.

I was so unimpressed. Anyway, I sat there, and this man walked in,

and I thought, "Well, I AM quite impressed this time round."

I was different, and everything else, and he chatted me up.

You know, like a bad rash.

He was all over me, and I thought... You know, ""

And we were sitting on this bale of straw at a barbecue that night,

and we talked about Mountbatten and his girlfriend,

and I said, "You must be so lonely."

I said, "It's pathetic watching you walking up the aisle in St Paul's,"

erm... "With Lord Mountbatten's coffin in front."

I said, you know... "Ghastly. You need somebody beside you."

Urgh! Wrong word!

Whereupon, he leapt upon me, started kissing me, and everything,

and I thought, "Urgh!" You know, "This is not what people do!"

And he was all over me for the rest of the evening, followed me around,

everything, puppy.

And, erm... yeah, I was flattered, but I was very puzzled.

The next day, he said, "You must come to Buckingham Palace with me,

"I've got some work to do,

"but you wouldn't mind sitting there while I do my work?" And I thought,

"Well, bugger it, I do mind sitting there while you do your work."

And I said that, and, er... that sort of lit up something in him,

cos someone answered back.

So I was quite a challenge.

And then it started to... gather.

So were you being monitored?

Seriously monitored. At a rate.

But he wasn't consistent with his courting abilities.

He'd ring me up every day for a week,

and then he wouldn't speak to me for three weeks.

Very odd.

And I accepted that. I thought,

"Fine. "Well, he knows where I am if he wants me."

And I was thrilled when he used to ring up.

It was so immense and intense.

Drive the other three girls in my flat crazy.

But, erm...

But it was odd.

I think she had a dream,

and, er... she hoped the dream would come to life.

An older man,

who was in a prominent position...

liked me...

...and wanted to have me around.

I think she had ideas of what she'd like it to be...

...and I think there were other elements

that it would have been difficult to foresee,

even had she been...

older.

At the age of 19...

...although I was daunted at the prospect at the time,

I felt I had the support of my husband-to-be.

I wanted to share everything together.

Balmoral Castle, in the north of Scotland.

Favourite retreat of the royal family.

Now Diana was invited as a guest.

It's like being sucked in.

You know, there's people pushing, and people pulling...

all in the same direction.

But often, as Diana grew closer to the royal circle,

she found that someone else was already there.

Camilla Parker Bowles.

Camilla went to the races.

She was at the polo matches.

Sometimes, even at Balmoral,

Camilla was also a guest.

This is where Charles courted Diana,

and this is where Camilla took a look at her.

"Congratulations" by Cliff Richard

The band of the Coldstream Guards played,

and the spectators glued themselves to the railings

outside Buckingham Palace -

all for a glimpse of any engagement day activity.

Well!

Yeah. Well, what a marvellous day for you.

Lovely day, lovely day. We're all very happy.

I saw Diana last night.

She's looking absolutely radiant.

Radiant and very happy.

I've never seen her look better.

Just delighted and happy.

And, I suppose, in love.

Of course.

Whatever "in love" means... Yes!

You CAN put your own interpretation.

Well, it obviously means two very happy people. Yes.

As you can see. Well, from us, congratulations.

Thank you very much. You're very kind.

And the most extraordinary thing is,

we had this ghastly interview on the day we announced our engagement,

and this ridiculous ITN man said,

"Are you in love?" What a thick question!

So I said, "Yes, of course we are,"

in this sort of flat Sloane Ranger that I was.

And Charles turned round and said, "Whatever in love means."

And that threw me completely.

I thought, "What a strange question."

And a strange reply... Answer. God!

Absolutely traumatised me.

Well, the Commanding Officer,

Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Parker Bowles,

is just starting his inspection.

Andrew Parker Bowles, of course, is an old friend of Prince Charles.

They used to play polo together.

He and his wife, Camilla,

often entertain Prince Charles at their home in Gloucestershire.

It has been rumoured

that Prince Charles proposed to Lady Diana there.

At seven in the morning,

Barbara Daly, make-up artist, arrives at Clarence House,

where Diana is getting ready for the wedding.

I liked her immediately.

She was looking at television.

It's kind of a very strange thing,

because you could see the crowds on the small television

that was just under the window.

And there were all the crowds, that we could see on the television,

right outside the window.

And she said, "This is a lot of fuss for one girl getting married!"

We met 13 times before we got married.

We walked down to the carriage,

and she just sort of gave my hand a little squeeze,

and then hummed me a little ditty, which was from a commercial -

"One Cornetto."

I don't know, do you remember that little commercial?

It was about an ice cream, and it had a big, glitzy carriage in it.

And then off she went!

The beautiful girl...

the handsome prince...

the sunshine, the crowds.

A fairy tale.

It WAS magical.

I desperately wanted it to work.

I desperately loved my husband.

I wanted to share everything together.

Charles Philip Arthur George,

wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded wife?

Wilt thou love her, comfort her,

honour and keep her in sickness and in health,

and, forsaking all other, keep thee only unto her?

I will.

Diana, wilt thou have this man to thy wedded husband?

I will.

Here is the stuff of which fairy tales are made.

The Prince and Princess on their wedding day.

Marriage has both a private face and a public importance.

It must be specially true of this marriage...

...in which are placed so many hopes...

...and stand for the truth that we help to shape this world,

and are not just its victims.

The escort,

under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Parker Bowles.

Prince Charles and Lady Diana stayed with him and his wife, Camilla,

in Wiltshire, on two occasions at the end of the year.

So, they're among friends as they ride along the Mall.

The honeymoon is over.

Diana is no longer on the outside looking in.

Now she's on the inside looking out.

In a space of a year, my whole life had changed.

Turned upside down.

It was isolating.

You had to either sink or swim.

And you had to learn that very fast.

I had to sort myself out.

If I tripped up, which invariably I did, cos I was new at the game,

a tonne of bricks came down on me.

There were lots of tears.

It was a few months after the wedding.

Diana was 20 years old.

In the autumn of 1981,

she came here, to the English National Ballet,

to take lessons from the dance instructor,

Anne Allan.

Lovely. And release.

Lovely, darlings. Great, that's beautiful.

All right, something completely different.

Feet parallel, yes?

Bending, one, stretching, two,

and relax out before we start.

Deep breath.

So, I was her private dancing teacher.

That's it. There you go.

When I first met her...

you could see that there was...

huge shyness.

But over time,

as we went through our dance class...

I realised just how much dance meant to her.

She has dance in her soul.

I realised the pure enjoyment that it gave her.

She loved the freeness of being able to move and dance.

She loved it. She loved it.

I could see it helped to alleviate her emotional life...

...that was hard for her at that time.

Maybe I was the first person ever

to be in this family who ever had a depression...

...or was ever openly tearful.

I was brought up in the sense that,

you know, when you got engaged with someone, you loved them.

She loved Charles, yes.

But Charles loved another woman.

It's very hard when...

for any woman, when you love someone...

...and you realise that perhaps they don't love you.

I think it made her very sad...

...devastated.

She felt she wasn't enough.

BBC News at six o'clock.

The Falkland Islands,

the British colony in the South Atlantic, has fallen.

That's what Argentina is saying.

For the first time for many years,

British sovereign territory has been invaded by a foreign power.

But a large task force will sail

as soon as all preparations are complete.

I couldn't understand the level of interest.

As far as I was concerned, I was a fat, chubby 20-year-old.

My husband and I had to keep everything together,

and yet, there was a lot of anxiety going on

within our four walls.

And I used to get in the car with Charles,

and I used to blub in the car, there'd be crowds everywhere,

and he said, "NOW what's the matter?"

I said, "I can't get out of this car." He said, "Why?"

I said, "I can't get out of this car. I don't feel safe."

I was neurotic, always, but then, when I got out the car...

Buckingham Palace has just announced

that the Princess of Wales is expecting a baby.

The Princess is said to be in excellent health.

The Queen and members of both families are said to be delighted.

I'm not allowed to say how many planes joined the raid,

but I counted them all out, and I counted them all back.

The baby will be second in line to the throne.

She told me that she was pregnant,

and she wanted to give her marriage

absolutely everything that she could.

She really wanted everybody to feel proud, but particularly Charles.

It was very important, because, of course,

he was going to be the future king.

We, the British people,

are proud of what has been done.

Proud of these heroic pages in our island story.

Proud...

to be British.

I felt the whole country was in labour with me.

Everybody was thrilled to bits.

Been quite a difficult pregnancy -

I hadn't been very well throughout it,

so by the time William arrived, it was a great relief...

...because it was all peaceful again.

And I...

was well.

For a time.

You have to understand how hard that was to hear.

We're talking 1982-3.

And she realised that Charles is seeing Camilla, and...

...I just remember being quite horrified

about what she was telling me, and at the same time...

...rather shocked.

She was worried about...

what it was that was going on.

I know that she did...

ask Camilla to leave her husband alone.

I thought that was quite brave of her, actually,

because I know how much that must have taken for her to do that.

And what do you do about it?

What CAN you do about it?

All you can do is to try to make the marriage work, and...

hope in time that things change,

but...

that's not really what happened.

I don't think the concerns about Camilla ever stopped.

She was aware things had been going on.

The staff all knew.

Everybody knew.

Everybody knew where he was going, so she didn't know who to trust.

I noticed that she had lost a little bit of weight.

And...

that's when she told me that she was bulimic.

It was pure pressure, stress.

You could see her fading, physically.

It was clear to all those who knew her that the bulimia was a reaction

to the circumstances she found herself in.

Everybody knew about the bulimia in the family,

and they all blamed the failure of the marriage on the bulimia,

and that's taken some time to get them to think differently.

I said I was rejected, I didn't think I was good enough

for this family, so I took it out on myself.

I said I could gone to alcohol, which would have been obvious,

I could've been anorexic, which would've been even more obvious.

I decided to do more a discreet thing, which ultimately wasn't

discreet, but I chose to hurt myself instead of hurting all of you.

I felt compelled to perform.

Compelled to go out and do my engagements and not let people down.

And in a way, by being out in public, they supported me...

...although they weren't aware

just how much healing THEY were giving me...

and it carried me through.

We'd be going round, and all you could hear was,

"She's on the other side."

Now, if you're a man like my husband, a proud man,

you mind about that if you hear it every day for four weeks.

You look as if you've got tears in your eyes - why?

I've been waiting for so long to see her.

She's beautiful.

With the media attention came a lot of jealousy.

I've come to the conclusion that really it would have been far easier

to have had two wives...

...to have covered both sides of the street.

And I could've walked down the middle directing the operation.

We were a very good team in public, albeit what was going on in private.

Rampant bulimia, a feeling of being no good at anything,

and failed in every direction.

A husband who loved someone else.

I knew it.

You just know.

When I was 24, 25, I fell deeply in love

with somebody who worked in this environment.

And it was all found out, and he was chucked out,

and then he was killed.

And that was the biggest blow of my life, I must say.

Which I... I don't find easy to discuss.

1985.

Diana was now the mother

of two young princes, and he was her royal protection officer,

Barry Mannakee.

I mean, I was quite happy to give all this up,

well, not all this at the moment -

at the time, it was quite something to have all this -

just to go off and live with him. Can you believe it?

SHE CHUCKLES Well, one can.

And he kept saying he thought it was a good idea, too, so...

God! Yeah.

But you needed some adventure.

I just needed to tell... A blast. Someone to tell me I was all right.

And he'd kick me out, in the sense of mentally kick me outside,

and make me go and do my engagements,

cos I used to sort of scream in this room.

And Charles THOUGHT he knew, but he never had any proof.

I should never have played with fire, and I did,

and I got very burnt.

Well, when you say play with fire, you had a... I mean, you had...

You...

You're saying what you were having was sexual?

No.

So, you had an intimacy... Yeah.

...which you weren't getting? Yeah. Erm...

And you think, "Yes."

How old was he?

40.

Did you flirt with your dad?

Yeah, I suppose you could say I did, yes.

I'm sure I did.

I was like a little girl in front of him the whole time.

Desperate for praise. Desperate.

It all got so difficult,

and people got so jealous and bitchy in this house,

and eventually he had to go.

Three weeks after he left, he was killed in a motorbike accident.

And he was the greatest friend I've ever had.

And that was a real killer.

There were two unhappy people in the marriage.

In a letter a year later, Charles told a friend...

"I'm in a kind of cage, pacing up and down and longing to be free.

"How awful incompatibility is...

"...and how dreadfully destructive it can be

"for the players in this extraordinary drama.

"It has all the ingredients of a Greek tragedy."

Friends...

on my husband's side were indicating that I was...

unstable...

...sick, and should be...

...put in a home of some sort in order to get better.

There's no better way to dismantle a personality...

...than to isolate it.

A mysterious brain disease has spread

to more than 50 herds

in 14 counties.

BSE, as the disease is known, kills them.

Scientists don't know what's causing it or where it came from,

but they are worried.

It is the mid-'80s.

A kind of darkness has fallen on the green and pleasant land.

There is division in the ruling House of Windsor.

The countryside is infected by BSE,

and in the cities, there is a new, more sinister illness.

My view of the royal family before I went to work for them,

like most people of my age, I'd go into the monarchist camp.

You know, it was a pretty good institution.

Good for Great Britain.

Then suddenly, you jump inside this box of royal magic...

...and you find out how these tricks work.

And the kudos of who these people are

wears off

pretty damn quick.

In 1986,

Ken Wharfe joined the staff of the Prince of Wales.

He would soon succeed Barry Mannakee

as Princess Diana's royal protection officer.

Diana said, "What do you want to drink?"

It was almost like being at a wine bar in Kensington with a friend.

Immediately, she said, "Do you know about Camilla Parker Bowles?"

Well, I couldn't deny that I knew about it,

because I'd been forewarned about it.

I said, "Yes, of course."

And there was a hesitation there,

and she said, "Well, she features most days,

"most hours and minutes of my life."

I didn't really understand at that point exactly what she meant

but, of course, the days that followed, the weeks that followed,

the months that followed, I knew exactly what she meant by that.

She sort of carried out her own research

and found that previous Prince of Waleses had their own mistresses.

I remembering saying to my husband,

you know, "Why, why is this lady around?"

And he said, "Well, I refuse to be the Prince of Wales

"who never had a mistress."

This was the 20th century, moving into the 21st century,

and she wasn't prepared to accept that.

I think she'd much prefer

that Camilla Parker Bowles would just disappear.

There was a genuine unhappiness here.

My father-in-law said to my husband, "If your marriage doesn't work out,

"you can always go back to her after five years,"

which is exactly... I mean,

for real, I knew that would happen after five,

I knew something was happening before that,

but the fifth year, I had confirmation.

So I went to the top lady, sobbing,

and I said, "What do I do? I'm coming to you, what do I do?"

And she said, "I don't know what you should do.

"Charles is hopeless." And that was it.

That was help.

People were saying that she's mad.

You know, 20 years on, they are still telling her that she's mad,

but the fact of it is that here was a case of a woman trying to come

to terms with the fact that her husband was in a relationship

and having an affair with another woman, it is as simple as that.

It is that simple.

For the first time,

doctors from all over Britain have met to discuss AIDS,

the disease that has already claimed over 600 lives in the United States.

Junior health minister Edwina Currie has said good Christian people

who didn't misbehave wouldn't catch the disease.

She advised businessmen...

Then I found myself being more and more involved with people

who were rejected by society.

I found an affinity there.

I respected very much the honesty I found on that level

with people I met.

When I used to sit on hospital beds and hold people's hands...

...when I saw the reassurance that gave, I did it everywhere.

What she really liked was to sit on the bed.

Very informal.

These were all people who were probably going to die.

Patrick Jephson was Diana's Private Secretary.

Cambridge, the Royal Navy -

off and on, his ancestors had served the royal family

for hundreds of years.

He was a monarchist, eager to please,

perfectly cut out for the royal court.

Just knowing that she was needed,

that what she was doing was worthwhile,

gave her a great sense of fulfilment, I think.

Because a lot of the time she felt excluded - real or imagined -

from the Royal mainstream and from a kind of

happy family life that she had wanted for herself.

When people are dying, they are much more open, more vulnerable,

much more real than other people.

And I appreciated that.

And I love being with people.

So, after a day of working in wards like this,

we'd take her back to the Palace,

where I knew there was nobody waiting to welcome her

or say, "How did it go?" or, "Well done."

So, increasingly, this sort of work

became more and more important to her.

It was the summer of 1986.

With one fairy-tale marriage falling apart,

another one was about to begin.

It had all the necessary ingredients.

A young prince,

a carriage,

a bride,

a dress...

...a familiar voice from the BBC.

This wonderful day here in London,

all the marvellous pageantry and ceremonial...

Once again, the Royal show was well and truly on the road.

But very few of those present understood

what was happening before their eyes.

I'm joined now by Captain James Hewitt -

he's the right-hand man to the Brigadier

who's organised this entire procession,

and I think your very presence here this very morning means

you're confident, you're relaxed,

that everything is going to plan behind the scenes.

Is that right? Well, I hope so.

Last time I left the scene,

everything was running quite smoothly.

The same crowds,

the same waves from the balcony.

The same kiss.

It's hard now not to think that when Sarah Ferguson married HER Prince,

the House of Windsor was not tempting fate.

No-one knew then what we know now.

Charles was with Camilla.

Now, Diana was involved with a Captain of the Guard.

For the Royal House of Windsor, the royal family,

this was not the direction

the golden coaches were supposed to be headed.

Going to work for the Prince and the Princess in the late 1980s

meant becoming part of an organisation

that had as its number one priority...

...keeping quiet about the fact that this was a marriage in name only.

There were virtually no sexual relations with you and Charles?

Sort of once every three weeks.

And then it fizzled out about seven years ago, six years ago.

The number-one priority was to maintain

what turned out to be a lie.

She was saying, "Why aren't you with us?

"Why don't you want to be with us?"

Clearly, there was something amiss.

She actually loved her husband and I think even despite Camilla,

she was prepared to play this double act,

being dishonest with her husband.

But the trouble was, being asked to maintain that facade distanced us

from the true principles of decent behaviour,

of monarchy.

The cover-up had to be damaging for the Crown itself.

Camilla's sister's birthday.

I could hear Diana shouting my name.

She said, "Ken, I can't find my husband,

"and I can't see Camilla, either."

Anyway, it was a nursery, I remember.

And there was Charles and Camilla, sat on this small sofa, talking.

And I don't know where Diana just managed to conjure up

this confidence...

but literally walked across, and just...

...calmly said to Camilla,

who I dare say was completely shocked by this, although...

...thinking about it, must have expected

that she would have noticed they weren't in this room.

And she said,

"Look... I know what's going on."

You know, "I understand that,

"so don't, sort of, treat me like an idiot."

And Camilla said something really unusual,

and said, "Well, it's all right for you, Diana -

"you've got two wonderful boys."

Now, you can make of that what you like.

I've never understood it.

But suddenly, this was an awakening, because Diana knew at this point,

there was no hope or any chance of a reconciliation.

So, this had taken nearly...

eight, nine years to reach this point,

but, in her eyes, had proved that this meeting, this liaison...

...was never going to break up, and was never going to bring about

a satisfactory relationship in her eyes.

This was the beginning of the end.

I'm trying to cut my... My own... path.

And so Diana cut her own path.

Gone now was the chubby Sloane Ranger.

This was a new Diana.

The People's Princess in the making.

Independent, modern...

...even flirtatious.

Not everyone was pleased.

There was a great deal of jealousy...

...from the grey men who sat behind Prince Charles,

not wanting him to be living in her shadow.

Her character was being written down...

...as she saw it, as a campaign to sideline her...

...and remove her from the boys.

That was her worry, was that she was going to lose the boys.

Overriding, above everything else, that was the concern,

and that they were using a character run-down

as a means of enabling that to happen, or even making it

the absolutely logical and understandable next step.

And she told you this? Yes.

1992, November.

Windsor Castle is engulfed in flames.

To some, it seemed like a kind of divine judgment.

The home of the Windsor dynasty, its most potent symbol,

like so much else about the monarchy,

was crumbling into dust.

"God Save The Queen"

1992 was the 40th anniversary of the Queen's accession to the throne.

It had not been a happy year...

...and in a speech she gave to the Guildhall in the City of London,

there was a note in her voice that we'd never heard before.

1992...

is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure.

In the words of one of my more sympathetic correspondents,

"It has turned out to be an annus horribilis."

In the aftermath of Friday's tragic fire at Windsor,

it is especially so.

They're the pictures they didn't want you to see.

Looking at today's pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 13,

20 and 21, it's easy to see why.

I, like Queen Victoria, have always been a believer in that old maxim -

moderation in all things.

The pictures show them in a clearly affectionate mood.

It is possible to have too much of a good thing.

There have been rumours, there have been denials.

Now I'll tell you what I know.

A book due to go on sale tomorrow

claims she made several attempts on her life.

We do face a crisis in the House of Windsor.

It's obvious to everyone.

I sometimes wonder how future generations

will judge the events of this tumultuous year.

There is chronic instability inside the royal family.

Her body language suggesting a marriage in deep trouble.

She does one thing on her own, he does another,

and they just don't meet physically, mentally,

or emotionally.

"How much longer can this tragedy go on?",

howled the Daily Mirror this morning.

The number of BSE cases still rising.

And, really, the only thing you can do is,

the beast must go for slaughter.

December, 1992.

Two weeks after the Queen's speech,

it was officially announced

that Diana and Prince Charles had decided to separate.

I remember at the time...

there was a mixture of relief...

...because we no longer had to pretend,

and we no longer had to maintain that fiction.

But, at the same time...

...we were always conscious that there was a big, silent,

rather threatening presence...

...that told us, certainly told me...

...that the Princess wasn't really wanted any more.

Everything changed after we separated.

Life became very difficult then for me.

People's agendas changed overnight.

I was a problem. I was a liability.

"How are we going to deal with her?"

It became a condition of your patriotism

that you must therefore support the Prince of Wales.

The belief that, if we were loyal monarchists,

we HAD to be on his side.

Well, I'm sorry, as a loyal monarchist,

my loyalty was to the principles of the British Crown,

and I saw royal virtues embodied in her more than in him.

But I think the real damage was done

by those who tried to marginalise her,

or, in more recent years, airbrush Diana out of royal history.

They saw...

that their man's path to the crown would be a great deal easier

if he were not competing for popularity with his ex-wife.

Every strong woman in history has had to walk down a similar path.

It's the strength that causes the fear.

"Why is she strong?"

"Where does she get it from?"

"Where is she taking it?"

"Where is she going to use it?"

I'll fight till the end.

1993.

The lines of battle have become clearer.

There is a Charles camp.

There is a Diana camp.

Behind Charles, all the ancient power of the royal court.

But, for Diana, power lay in the court of public opinion.

To strengthen her advantage, she was taking lessons with a speech coach.

Can I watch?

If you come in here, you sit down and be quiet.

You've got to be very quiet. Very quiet.

Don't touch it, William, cos it's all focused on me.

OK, let's pretend, right?

OK, so, your Royal Highness,

you're currently concentrating very much on your charity work.

Would you like to tell us why you feel it's so important to you?

I've got nothing else to do!

She's awful! It's still recording. Sorry.

Take two! Just record the lot.

Go back. Go back to the top now. Cos this is...

Number one? "She had been abandoned by her family,

"having become a huge embarrassment and disgrace.

"Each person is born with individual qualities and potential."

Slightly faster now.

Let's move on. Yes.

Only slightly.

Get a little angry now, with that.

I can't be angry and speak like that.

Yes, you can! I can't get my words out. I'm so tired.

When am I going to see you when you're not tired?

In the mornings.

"Ladies and gentlemen."

More energy.

There's a lovely chunk in there.

You were pushing the thing out...

...and it started to come from you.

That's what...

...connects you. And see who we're after.

I'm not manufacturing you,

I'm just bringing out that bit of you that wants a voice,

which is the 30-year-old woman...

31. 31-year-old woman

who has something important to say.

You've got a voice that people want to hear,

and you're telling the story.

You're a storyteller.

And the quality you have, which they haven't got,

is that you talk to them from the guts.

You know, a person of the people.

They're scared of that,

so let's not lose it.

Diana had no intention of losing that special quality

that her husband's camp was scared of.

The British people need someone in public life to give affection.

I can give love...

for half an hour, for a day, or a month.

But I can give.

I know I can.

Everything is so vivid.

Stunningly beautiful.

I just remember her walking in...

...in a striking orange outfit.

This beautiful lady.

I just remember feeling...

...that day that I could have achieved anything.

I know that that day changed my life.

This was where we were, wasn't it,

when we were waiting for her?

We were in that room over there. Yeah. Went in with her.

And then she came round that corner,

when we were least expecting it.

She was just so warm and...

...it was like

just having a chat with a friend.

She related myself and my sister to William and Harry,

which was quite surreal.

It was as if you'd known her for a long time.

Press were not allowed into the room where Gemma met Diana.

Only one photograph exists -

a paralysed 11-year-old from Liverpool

and a princess who had now become the most famous woman in the world.

She was the most genuine person I've ever met.

She just oozed it.

You could tell straightaway that she was genuinely interested,

she genuinely cared.

Even now, I still can look back on that meeting

and it helps me get through.

I don't think there's another human being who could have such an impact

in such a short space of time.

She understood personal struggle

and she'd been through her own trials and tests in life,

and I think she could relate to

people going through their own personal battles.

The establishment that I'm married into,

they see me as a threat of some kind...

...because I lead from the heart, not the head...

...because I do things differently, because I don't go by a rule book.

For Charles, the threat was real.

People were beginning to ask whether he'd become king after all.

In 1994, in a documentary with Jonathan Dimbleby...

...he decided to go on the offensive.

The most damaging charge that is made in relation to your marriage

is that you were,

because of your relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles,

from the beginning, persistently unfaithful to your wife

and thus caused the breakdown.

What is your response to that persistent criticism?

That's the persistent criticism, is it?

Erm...

Erm...

Mrs Parker Bowles is...

...a great friend of mine.

I have a large number of friends that I'm terribly lucky to have.

So many friends.

She has been a friend for a very long time

and will continue to be a friend for a very long time.

That's what friends are for.

Were you faithful and honourable to your wife

when you took on the vow of marriage?

Yes. Absolutely.

And you were? Yes...

...until it became irretrievably broken down...

...us both having tried.

Diana saw Charles' interview and the book that followed

as hurtful and damaging.

She was on the receiving end of a whispering campaign

in which everything from her competence as a princess,

to her suitability as a mother,

and indeed her very sanity, were being questioned.

She was faced with a choice of either meekly turning a deaf ear

to what was being said about her,

to falling in with the plans of people

who wanted to see her excluded, marginalised,

or doing something about it.

Whenever she'd felt threatened,

Diana had always followed the same idea.

She believed that if only people could hear her real story,

she would always have their support.

In 1992, she had sent for her old friend James Colthurst,

who secretly smuggled out the recorded interviews

used by Andrew Morton for his book, Diana: The True Story.

She was in a corner and she felt it.

And she wanted to explode.

Yes, it was explicit about the state of the relationship,

but it wasn't nearly as fierce as we now know it could have been.

Later, there were long nights, also in secret,

improving her storytelling skills

with her speech coach, Peter Settelen.

No, listen, listen, you're just having a bad day.

In 1995,

Diana felt her back against the wall once more.

And on the 5th of November, Bonfire Night,

she prepared to tell her story again.

This time to BBC's Panorama.

Do you really believe that a campaign

was being waged against you? Yes, I did, absolutely.

Yeah. Why?

I was a separated wife of the Prince of Wales.

I was a problem, full stop.

Never happened before - what do we do with her?

Can't we pack her off to somewhere quietly,

rather than campaign against her?

She won't go quietly, that's the problem.

I'll fight to the end, because I believe

that I have a role to fulfil.

And I've got two children to bring up.

Listen to yourself...

It was not only what Diana said on Panorama that surprised people,

but the way she said it.

That was the real revelation.

All right. No.

She chose to fight back in some pretty unconventional ways.

She actually was an extraordinarily strong person.

We must recognise...

The people who criticised her always underestimated her.

And not least they underestimated her anger.

She was a proud, aristocratic woman

who'd been very badly treated.

Do you think you'll ever be Queen?

No, I don't. No.

Why do you think that?

I'd like to be a queen of people's hearts, in people's hearts...

but I don't see myself being queen of this country.

The story of the prince and his princess was coming to an end.

22 million viewers of Panorama

watched it happening before their eyes.

There was a sense of no going back.

A sense of bridges being burned.

Do you think the Prince of Wales will ever be King?

I don't think any of us know the answer to that.

And obviously it's a question that's in everybody's head.

But who knows? Who knows what fate will produce?

Who knows what circumstances will provoke?

Summer, 1997.

Ma'am! Ma'am!

The Prince and his Princess are divorced.

Diana will no longer be the future Queen of England.

On the 3rd of June, she arrived at the Albert Hall

for the English National Ballet's performance of Swan Lake.

She would always tell people who asked her

that if she hadn't been a princess,

she would have liked to have been a dancer.

Now, she'd come to the ballet for the last time.

This is BBC Radio in London.

According to the French news agency,

a French government minister has said within the past few minutes

that Diana, Princess of Wales, has died.

He said she was killed in a car crash in central Paris.

I'll repeat that. Diana, Princess of Wales, has been killed

in a car crash in the centre of Paris.

I remember it coming on breaking news...

...and it-it was just too much to even absorb.

The idea of what had happened.

I couldn't stop thinking...

that if only I had still been protecting her...

...something like this would never have happened.

Her last few months...

...didn't give me the impression that she knew where she was going...

...or how she was going to get there...

...or who she was going to go with.

The crash came through on the news in Paris...

...and, strangely enough, I expected her to call.

Of course, when she had a crisis, that's when she'd sometimes call.

Of course, she wasn't going to call.

It was an odd feeling.

The sense of the fate.

Dekalog V Part One by Zbigniew Preisner

Diana sadly dies in a tragic road accident in Paris...

...and then what happens?

The Prince of Wales did marry Camilla Parker Bowles.

Now, if only Diana could've been around...

...she would've said to me, "You see, Ken?

"I wasn't wrong, was I?"

It just felt like such an honour to be invited to the funeral.

To lose a person like that...

...it just makes it even more precious, the time we had.

A lot of the things that I...

...admired about the monarchy...

...for me, died with the Princess of Wales.

And, more than that, with the way in which

she was treated before she died.

That idea of the monarchy has died for me.

The idea that respect should be given unthinkingly,

or out of blind loyalty...

...has gone.

People's emotions...

...people's hopes and dreams.

A fairy story...

...had come to an end.