'What do I DO?' Princess Diana panicked after Prince Charles bombshell, says Queen ex-aide
PRINCESS DIANA "panicked" when her revelations to journalist Andrew Morton were first published, the Queen's former press secretary has claimed.
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Princess Diana opened up to Mr Morton about her life at the palace in 1992, showing for the first time cracks in her relationship with the rest of the Royal Family. The late Princess of Wales laid bare her unhappiness to the journalist, who in the book 'Diana, Her True Story' made sensational claims about Prince Charles's affair with Camilla, the now-Duchess of Cornwall.
The princess also spoke to him about self-harm and eating disorders, confessions that shook the monarchy to the core when they first came to light.
Now Dickie Arbiter, who was at the time of the publication of the book the press spokesman to the Queen, has revealed the conversation he had with Diana shortly before extracts from Mr Morton's book were serialised in the Sunday Times.
Appearing on Mail+'s Palace Confidential, the royal expert said Princess Diana denied to him she had helped Mr Morton with his book.
Mr Arbiter said: "I was briefing the media as to what was going to be happening in those sort of 24 hours that she was there, and the only question that came out of them is Andrew Morton's book: has Diana contributed to it?
"And I said 'well I don't know, I'll ask her'.
"I said 'ma'am, the media want to know about Andrew Morton's book - have you been helping him?'
"And she sort of gave me a look, if looks could kill I should have slipped through the cracks in the floorboard.
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"She said 'no I have not, that's a ridiculous question to ask'.
"And I sort of looked at her and I thought you are being economical with the truth, but you don't tell a member of the Royal Family that they are lying."
Mr Arbiter then recalled Diana's first reaction to the first extract of Mr Morton's book in the Sunday Times.
He continued: "And then, lo and behold, a few weeks later in June, the serialisation in the Sunday Times ran over two weekends.
"I was living out at Windsor at the time and I dashed through to Charing Cross on the Saturday night at 10 o'clock to pick up the first edition.
"She must have sent somebody out to do exactly the same because at 5 o'clock in the morning I had a phone call from her saying 'what do I do?'
"I said 'well, manner has been done and there's nothing you can do.
"I suggest that you don't answer the telephone, you don't go out, pour yourself a stiff drink, drink it, drink another one if you feel like it, but certainly don't do anything, don't be seen in public until eventually you'll have to be seen on Tuesday when you've got an engagement.
"It was very difficult and she panicked.
"She realised that, yeah, what she had done was wrong but it's all too late."
Mr Morton initially denied Princess Diana had been the main source of information while he was penning his tell-all book.
Only a month after her death, in late September 1997, the journalist disclosed the late Princess of Wales herself was behind the 1992 book.
Mr Morton made this statement in the foreword to a new version of the book quickly republished following the Paris car crash which claimed the life of Diana.
To mark the extent to which Princess Diana had helped him, Mr Morton revised the title of the book, which changed to 'Diana, Her True Story: In Her Own Words'.