Diana's Friends, Lovers and Bodyguards


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Yeah, what stuck out to me when I read the headline is that Oliver Hoare was older than Charles.

well not that much... just that charles' has always tended to go for friends who were his own age or often significantly older. But I suppose because OH was Di's lover one tends to think of him as being around her age. So it was a schok to hear of his death and that he was in his 70s...
 
Talking about Diana's friends, I only know only a few. Jemima Goldsmith was one of her close friends and the Spanish royal family was quite close to her too. In one of her interviews, Diana said that the Spanish royals were the family she never had
 
Talking about Diana's friends, I only know only a few. Jemima Goldsmith was one of her close friends and the Spanish royal family was quite close to her too. In one of her interviews, Diana said that the Spanish royals were the family she never had

I didn't think she met them all tht often. I would have said she was closer at least for a time to the Fayed family.. or the Goldsmiths where she used to visit every Sunday for a bit...
 
Talking about Diana's friends, I only know only a few. Jemima Goldsmith was one of her close friends and the Spanish royal family was quite close to her too. In one of her interviews, Diana said that the Spanish royals were the family she never had

Where did she say that? I didn't get the impression that she liked Juan Carlos at all... and she knew the SRF as Charles's relatives and friends, so I think it unlikely that they were people she had a great affection for....
 
I’m not sure this is the right area to put this question , but who were Princess Diana’s lady’s in waiting ?
 
One of her ladies-in-waiting was her sister Sarah McCorquodale.
 
One of her ladies-in-waiting was her sister Sarah McCorquodale.
Sarah was not an official lady in waiting. She sometimes acted as one later in Diana's life.. accompaniying her to functions etc. But she wasn't a lady in waiting.. Anne Beckwith Smith was Di's chief lady in waiting for many years.. I don't know if she had other
 
Sarah was not an official lady in waiting. She sometimes acted as one later in Diana's life.. accompaniying her to functions etc. But she wasn't a lady in waiting.. Anne Beckwith Smith was Di's chief lady in waiting for many years.. I don't know if she had other


So was Anne with her at The start of her marriage?
 
she must have had other ladies besides Anne..and it doesn't seem to give any names?
According to what I've read Susan Hussey was connected to Diana in the beginning of her marriage but I don't think she had a formal appointment with her.
 
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According to what I've read Susan Hussey was connected to Diana in the beginning of her marriage but I don't think she had a formal appointment with her.
No Susan Hussey was the queen's lady in waiting. Diana must have had other ladies...
 
Where did she say that? I didn't get the impression that she liked Juan Carlos at all... and she knew the SRF as Charles's relatives and friends, so I think it unlikely that they were people she had a great affection for....

I do niot know if it is true or not, but it was rumoured that Diana and Juan Carlos had an affair.
 
I do niot know if it is true or not, but it was rumoured that Diana and Juan Carlos had an affair.
Wasn't the rumour that old JC tried to have it off with Diana but that she refused.
 
I read that she couldn't stand Juan Carlos, and she would certainly have had to have had some chutzpah to sleep with him when her husband and his wife were around, at the time of that visit!

^ There's Alexandra Lloyd, later Byalt who was a school friend of Diana's and became her lady in waiting at the beginning of the 1990s.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/roya...ncess-diana-lady-in-waiting-inquest-son-death
 
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I do niot know if it is true or not, but it was rumoured that Diana and Juan Carlos had an affair.
I doubt it very much...and if she had done so I doubt if she would have felt like the Spanish RF was "warm and friendly" with her...
 
I doubt it very much...and if she had done so I doubt if she would have felt like the Spanish RF was "warm and friendly" with her...

The Spanish royal family is known as a far more welcoming, hugging type of family than the 1980's British royal family. It is easy to interpret this as "warm and friendly with Diana'.
 
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Lavinia Baring and Hazel West were other ladies in waiting appointed three months after Diana's marriage, according to Sarah Bradford.
 
One of the Wales' former royal protection officers is making a claim that the late Diana, Princess of Wales was the first one to have an affair during her marriage to the Prince of Wales.



https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowb...cess-Diana-stray-marriage-Prince-Charles.html



Viewers of Netflix hit The Crown are left in no doubt who was to blame for the collapse of Prince Charles and Diana’s marriage: he’s shown sneaking off to renew his love affair with Camilla Parker Bowles while the Princess is left crying at the Palace.
Now, however, one of the couple’s former royal protection officers has come forward to present a startlingly different version of events.
Allan Peters claims Charles did not start seeing Camilla romantically again (they had first met in their early 20s) until after he discovered Diana had been having a fling with fellow protection officer Barry Mannakee.
And Peters was the one who informed Charles of his wife’s affair.
 
I think Peters told Charles that he suspected an affair.

This debate about who cheated first in the Charles/Diana marriage has been going on for nearly thirty years to my knowledge! Certainly I have no doubts myself that Diana was treating Mannakee as a confidante while her marriage was first going pearshaped while he probably responded sympathetically to an increasingly unhappy and an attractive young woman.

After all she wasn?t the first and no doubt won?t be the last royal woman to become close to a RPO while experiencing a miserable marriage. Princess Anne anyone? Which is why both men were officially moved out of their orbits by superior officers.

However, Diana actually sleeping with Mannakee? I have my doubts, and no solid evidence of adultery between the couple has come out in the decades since including Peters? statements Eden has produced. Plus Peters (and Eden) seem to have forgotten the opportunities for emotional dalliance Charles had with his ex mistress Camilla during hunt meets with the Belvoir right from the first years of his marriage.

What did Pres Carter once say about marital fidelity, something about feeling lust and committing adultery in his heart, I believe?
 
A close friend of Diana's was Jemima Goldsmith, a member of the aristocracy. Diana traveled to Pakistan in 1996 to visit her and her new husband Imran Khan ​
(m. 1995; div. 2004). Imran Khan was a well known cricketer but eventually became the Prime Minister of Pakistan and was a cousin to Dr. Hasnat Khan. (Diana's love interest before her passing). Why bring this to light you ask? Imran has been ousted in a 'no confidence vote' as prime minister.



https://www.npr.org/2022/04/09/1091903165/pakistan-imran-khan-parliament


https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-...he-crown-over-treatment-of-dianas-final-years
 
I don’t think we will ever know the truth about Barry Manakee. Based on interviews/articles I’ve read, it’s about 50/50 whether they had an actual physical relationship. Diana alluded to a relationship with a staff member in her speech therapist tapes, folks assume that she was referring to Barry, but others say she intentionally mixed details of Barry with Hewitt to confuse the details. The world will never know. Hewitt says she told him that she did sleep with Barry. I actually don’t doubt that she told him that, whether true or not.

What was the turning point, to me, is that it really wouldn’t matter if the relationship was physical or not, because Prince Charles and the RF viewed it the same way. Lady C refers to this in her book. It is unforgivable for a non-royal who is married to a royal to have an affair (perceived or real) with the royal staff. That was a mistake that could not be undone because the humiliation was real regardless. It wouldn’t surprise me if this was the point that Charles said ‘ok, I’m not gonna try hard to make this work… I need a spare but after that (and he’s DNA tested), we will lead separate lives’. Unfortunately for Diana who still wanted to make the marriage work, he had Camilla to fall back on. I can’t blame either of them 100% for the marriage breakdown. They both broke it down and one of them had a plan B.
 
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