Diana's Secret Tapes Recorded in March 1997


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There is plenty to be foul about where Charles Spencer is concerned. He is a rather revolting individual.
 
Mermaid1962 said:
Patrick Jephson, Diana's Private Secretary, called Simmons' claim about the JFK affair "disgraceful." This is a quote from an appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live":

"JEPHSON: I go with the others on this. The one particular example that I knew from my experience was the JFK, junior story. There is no truth in the allegation that Simone Simmons makes. I think it is disgraceful that she made it. I set up the meeting. I was present throughout it and that she should make up a story like that from such an innocent event is -- I think it's disgraceful."

The quote is taken from near the end of this transcript: CNN.com - Transcripts
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Simone Simmons didn't claim that she witnessed the event. She just said Diana told her about this, which Simone Simmons thought was a joke.

About the fling with JFK jr, there is really too little information to speculate here. It couldn't be proved neither to be disproved. As I remembered the only time Diana mentioned JFK jr. was in the lunch with Tina Brown (june 1997 Newyork), in which Diana did show a lot of admiration towards JFK jr.

However in her second book, Simone Simmons actually said she didn't believe Diana had sex with Dodi, because "It's very out of character for Diana to have had a physical relationship with someone with a habit". Of course she didn't had first hand information on this. The only supportive evidence is, till the last day, Dodi still referred Diana as "my friend" in talk with other people. And on the yacht, Dodi's butler said they would retreat to their own rooms after saying "good night".
 
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About Simone Simmon's closeness with Diana. It was Paul Burrell who billed Simone Simmons a very close friend to Diana after his trial.

Paul has refused to be personally drawn over the contents of the notes, but yesterday he moved to confirm Simone's close friendship with Diana.

Saying the two could often spend up to eight hours a day chatting on the phone, he declared: "Simone was the princess's friend and confidante who was entrusted with her personal documentation." [1]
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Reference
[1] "Paul Burrell Revelations: I know the pain Philip's letters caused Diana; WORLD EXCLUSIVE: BUTLER RAPS INSULTS TO PRINCESS.", the mirror, 11 Nov 2002.
 
but the friendship did not last, idd it? And if she fell out iwht Simmons because SS talking to Paul Burrel, it realy makes her sound crazy
 
Denville said:
but the friendship did not last, idd it? And if she fell out iwht Simmons because SS talking to Paul Burrel, it realy makes her sound crazy
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Putting this event in the contexts of the whole background, I see a very practical reason for her to stop Simmons to talk to her other friends, especially Paul Burrell.
 
:previous: I can see your point, Anbrida, particularly since she also didn't trust Paul Burrell. If she thought that he was looking through her mail and so on, she wouldn't have wanted him talking to anyone.;)
 
In the last couple of years she grew quite paranoid and found it hard to totally trust anyone. I think after the Panorama interview was the starting point as she realized that giving that interview was a very, very bad move on her part.
 
Mermaid1962 said:
:previous: I can see your point, Anbrida, particularly since she also didn't trust Paul Burrell. If she thought that he was looking through her mail and so on, she wouldn't have wanted him talking to anyone.;)
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If she didn't trust him why didn't she fire him? And if she didn't trust him why was he almost the only non family person to go tot her interment? I think that Diana comes across as pretty crazy and unpleasantly so, if she was raging at Simmons for talking to one of her own staff..
 
I'm referring to what has been said by people who knew Diana well. Paul Burrell was the one who attended to Diana in Paris, after her death, and he'd been around William and Harry since they were children. For those reasons, it was natural for him to have been at her internment. The Spencers didn't know that he was going to write books about her and give talks and interviews. That was in the future.

Denville said:
If she didn't trust him why didn't she fire him? And if she didn't trust him why was he almost the only non family person to go tot her interment? I think that Diana comes across as pretty crazy and unpleasantly so, if she was raging at Simmons for talking to one of her own staff..
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but it doesn't make sense. If Diana didn't trust him, why keep him on her staff? if she didn't trust him, why was her family so in the dark about this lakc of real trust or affection for someone who was clearly seen by most people as her loyal loved and trusted servant? Surely they knew Diana better than Simone Simmons?
 
Denville said:
but it doesn't make sense. If Diana didn't trust him, why keep him on her staff? if she didn't trust him, why was her family so in the dark about this lakc of real trust or affection for someone who was clearly seen by most people as her loyal loved and trusted servant? Surely they knew Diana better than Simone Simmons?
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Towards the end, I do think Burrell knew her better than most of those around Diana. Even Simmons did. I don't think she was in daily contact with the Spencer family or that any of them were her confidants during those times.

As an example, right now I would state that the people that know me the best on a day to day basis would be my other half and my best friend. I love my brother and my kids but they're not my confidants I share deep stuffs with for the most part.

Burrell was a paid employee and even with sometimes being at odds with each other, Diana knew that Burrell had her best interests at heart. She compartmentalized her relationships. She was friends with Simmons. She relied on Burrell but it didn't cut water that Simmons and Burrell would have anything to do with each other. It just didn't fit the mold of how she saw things.
 
Sounds pretty odd to me. How can you say that Di knew Burrell had her best interests at heart if she didn't trust him and was afraid of other people talking to him?
And she fell out with Simmons but SS minimises this so that she can write her unpleasant book and pretend that she had a long lasting friendship with Diana.
 
She seemed to compartmentalize people. I remember reading something about friends at her funeral, that they weren't aware that other people who were attending were also her friends. She had friends that were unknown to other friends. That seems strange to me, because most people--at least in my experience--occasionally mention family members and other friends. I think that she just didn't want Paul and Simone mixing. For one thing, they might discover that things Diana had said to one or the other of them weren't true.
 
But her objection was ostensibly that Simone should not tlak to him because he was a servant. that makes her sound unpleasant. And in fact Simone was just an employee as well.. I think that she tried ot make a friend of her, but was then dismayed by the demand for payment for SS's services..
 
Even though I had sympathy for Diana and identified with her in some ways, I would NOT liked to have had her for a friend. At all.

Much the same way I feel about another controversial historical figure, the much maligned(unfairly imo) Mary Todd Lincoln.:sad:
 
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Moonmaiden23 said:
Even though I had sympathy for Diana and identified with her in some ways, I would NOT liked to have had her for a friend. At all.
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Yes. I feel for her. I think she was between a rock and a hard place. For as much as she had in money or status, I don't think she was ever given what she needed to feel stable or loved, by her parents or by the family she married into. I see why she made a lot of the decisions she made and I don't fault her for them the way some do. But boy, some of the common threads you find in the descriptions of her friendships, even when the information is conveyed by people who thought quite highly of her and enjoyed her very much...tell me that she must have been exhausting to be around.
 
Denville said:
But her objection was ostensibly that Simone should not tlak to him because he was a servant. that makes her sound unpleasant. And in fact Simone was just an employee as well.. I think that she tried ot make a friend of her, but was then dismayed by the demand for payment for SS's services..
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To the world looking in, it seems irrational that Diana would be upset about both of her friends she had in her employ would interact but as I see it, Diana was the sort of person that could best be described as one in the middle of the circle of friends surrounding her. She, as #1, had interactions with A and interactions with B, C, D through Z in her life but in order to accept that the alphabet would interact amongst themselves, she would have had to been part of the alphabet herself and not a number.

This also describes her relationship with those that interacted closely with Charles.

Hope this makes sense. :)
 
I'm not sure.. I think she did get confused iwht the lines between friends and staff or employees.. and at timses she was friendly iwht people who worked for her and then got nervous that perhaps she had confided in them too much. but my overall feeling is that Simmons was not a friend.. and that she behaved very badly in writing a book about Diana
 
:previous: Yes, bad behaviour indeed. Having an employee write a book is bad enough, but having one done by a so-called "friend" is even worse. :sad:
 
I thnk that Paul B only turned to writing books about Diana in a more personal sense, when he lost his job at the Memorial fund and was snubbed and snobbed by the Spencer family... (not that I admire him but I Feel a ibt sorry for him). I think he is unstable and not very bright, and that when rejected by Di's family he lashed out and became more disloyal not to her but angry at the Spencers..
He has been inappropriate about her but not disloyal.
But Simmons who had a steady job and hadn't worked for Di for years as Burrell had, seesms to have sold stories to the papers and then wrote 2 books in which she didn't care what she said as long as it made a good story. And she wasn't either a friend or an employee for very long.. and she had to admit in her book that she and Diana had had a row and fallen out and that she wasn't in touch with her...
so I'd be dubious at any of her storeis.
I think that Diana wrote indiscreet letters and she did write notes ot herself about things, but I don't believe she kept an actual diary about her personal life nor that she made tapes.
 
Diana reveals she caught Prince Charles sitting on the loo talking dirty to Camilla on the phone and says she would do 'everything possible' to stop him becoming king in newly unearthed interview


  • Princess Diana revealed she used to catch her husband calling his lover in secret
  • Claims Prince of Wales would hide in the toilet to 'talk dirty' to mistress Camilla
  • Revelations made during recording session with cameraman before her death
  • This comes as never-seen-before interview with the Princess is due to air tonight
 
This is a program that I'll definitely go out of my way to miss. Some things in a person's private life should forever remain private. There is absolutely no real reason that these tapes made by Diana at a very low point of her life have any value to the general public or even the historical Diana. It only serves to feed those that love to gnaw on other people's misery and scandals and most likely will hurt and sully the reputation of a man that is still very much alive and destined to be King and dredge up events that are best left to the ancient history folders.

These tapes should have been returned to William and Harry to destroy in my opinion.
 
Queen Claude said:
Diana reveals she caught Prince Charles sitting on the loo talking dirty to Camilla on the phone and says she would do 'everything possible' to stop him becoming king in newly unearthed interview


  • Princess Diana revealed she used to catch her husband calling his lover in secret
  • Claims Prince of Wales would hide in the toilet to 'talk dirty' to mistress Camilla
  • Revelations made during recording session with cameraman before her death
  • This comes as never-seen-before interview with the Princess is due to air tonight
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This is sick, end of the story, and this is the wrong thread. The DM article is about the 1992/93 recordings, this thread is about the alleged 1997 one.
 
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Osipi said:
This is a program that I'll definitely go out of my way to miss. Some things in a person's private life should forever remain private. There is absolutely no real reason that these tapes made by Diana at a very low point of her life have any value to the general public or even the historical Diana. It only serves to feed those that love to gnaw on other people's misery and scandals and most likely will hurt and sully the reputation of a man that is still very much alive and destined to be King and dredge up events that are best left to the ancient history folders.

These tapes should have been returned to William and Harry to destroy in my opinion.
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Is there any reason to return the tapes to Prince William and Prince Henry to destroy? The tapes do not belong to them legally. No one would appreciate the grand gesture.
 
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The monarchy needs the gentle shadow of the crown. (By the way also republican heads of state as well). Exposing all and everything is good for no one. Too sad that Diana did not understand the meaning of discretion. A feature she did expect from others regarding her own affairs...
 
Nico said:
This is sick, end of the story, and this is the wrong thread. The DM article is about the 1992/93 recordings, this thread is about the alleged 1997 one.
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The article is about the 1997 tapes. The 1992 (Settelen) tapes are discussed in the article as well but the content being discussed is from the 1997 tapes.

Her intimate thoughts emerged in 12 hours of unseen footage, filmed by a handpicked cinematographer as she offloaded years of royal secrets in the months before her death.

The new tapes are separate to recordings she made five years earlier with voice coach Peter Settelen which are due to be broadcast tonight for the first time on Channel 4.
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To return them to the boys would be a gesture that its up to them what to do with their mother's words. Theses tapes serve absolutely no purpose in being made public 20 years after Diana's death.
 
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Its rather late for that isn't it? The tapes have been seen in the US, before they are going on TV here, or they pop up on the internet and in transcripts. Its too late to give them to Will and Harry and they dotn belong to them. If it was a set of tapes or letters of Diana's that hadn't reached the public and someone wanted to protect her image, it might make sense to hand them to W and Harry to destroy.
 
And I'm sure that the boys would appreciate the gesture even if it is too late to save their mother's reputation in this instance. They no doubt wish that they could have had the tapes before they got out to the public.
 
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