Diana's Secret Tapes Recorded in March 1997

[M. Payton]

Okay people, I just read this entire thread and have one question:

Why does it matter *Today*, she is gone, she can not come back and make amends............why are some to hot under the collar to bad mouth this woman, so you don't like her..........fine, no big deal. Some worship her.....fine, no big deal.

Can we think of the damage this is doing to both William and Harry, shouldn't they be first in our thoughts........so the creep is making money, he has the morals of a lowly skunk ...and he smells like one also.......

Nothing is going to change for her or anyone..........

 

[Al_bina]

It does not work that way in our enlightened Western regime as you like to call it. People do not "manage" other people nor is the husband of any more importance in a marriage than the wife. That is why your statement of Prince Charles "managing" his family so preposterous to us lowly beings that disregard human decency.

Perhaps its different in your neck of the woods where women are still treated as inferior beings? Just guessing.

In our neck of the woods ... there is an adequate system to protect women's rights.
As for the rest ... you have a right to your opinion.

 

[Pranter]

Oh so they don't stone women to death or have honor killings in Kazakhstan?


LaRae

 

[Al_bina]

Veering off the topic ...

Oh so they don't stone women to death or have honor killings in Kazakhstan?


LaRae

The Republic of Kazakhstan was one of 15 USSR republics. Roles of women were similar to men for 70 years. It is illegal to stone women to death or have honour killings.

The questions are odd though.

 

[Denville]

So all in all, I think from reading all the responses here about these tapes is that, in the long run, they didn't do Diana any favors nor were they in any way something that really needed to be put out there to the public.

well of course they weren't. I don't know why anyone except ardent Diana lovers who think everthing she does is right, or people who hate Diana and wanted to abuse her for making a mistake, would watch them being broadcast.
It was stupid of her to make the tapes, she should nt have trusted Settelen, and it seems to have given a chance for people like Jephson to talk and make money again. I don't know who else was involved. I gather Colthurst whom I thought was a genuine friened of Dianas was involved

 

[Denville]

I believe that Diana felt close to Mannakee solely for the reason that being her PPO, it was his job to be by her side at all times. He kind of became a port in storm for a Diana that found herself to be unhappy in many ways with her marriage.

I
Just my take on it.

I think that you don't talk about running off iwht someone even in a jokey way unless there's something physical. I don't know if they did go to bed, but clearly there was a sexual attraction and maybe there was something happening.. but Diana or Barry M took fright and didn't take it to the next level.. and he was then transferred. At the time I think she was perhaps still a bit nervous about the RF and may have feared that while she was lonely and depended on BM for a friend and someone to tlak to and perhaps give her a lilte physical affection, that if she became his lover there would be a major fuss In the RF. Then BM was transferred because someone, the staff, or Charles didn't think he was acting appropriately.. and Diana romanticised his memory. Saw him as a "great guy" that would have been very speiclal had they been able to be togheter.

 

[Mirabel]

Could have very well been the mindset of someone with Barbara Cartland ideas of "happily ever after". She was also deeply and totally in love with Hewitt too until that went sour. A lot of the indications of Diana's mindset with men, to me, wasn't based in reality. She was conniving marriage plans with Dr. Khan too and trying to finagle him work in South Africa, I believe it was, for their "happily ever after" until she got the message that Khan wasn't interested in marriage to her. Seems like every man she admired was the "love of her life" in some form or the other. They all become some kind of an obsession with her until, for some reason or the other, life enters into the picture and the "happily ever after" gets tainted with reality.

I agree!
I think that what Diana called love was just infatuation, and infatuation usually fades quickly.

 

[wyevale]

It astounds me that people simply assume the words she said are the truth ? A woman SO practiced in the dark arts of self publicism and so motivated by hatred is simply not to be trusted..

 

[Pranter]

The Republic of Kazakhstan was one of 15 USSR republics. Roles of women were similar to men for 70 years. It is illegal to stone women to death or have honour killings.

That is good to hear! So women have full rights there?


LaRae

 

[Osipi]

I'd like to issue an apology for a post that I made which, at the most, was actually sarcasm but that seems to have been lost somewhere along the lines here.

My aim was to point out sarcastically that I take offense to the denigration and the deriding comments made towards the Western culture and countries that are constantly popping up in Al_bina's posts here at TRF. I find it offensive. We may live in different parts of the world and have different methods of government and traditions and in the way we do things but I do also believe that respect for each other is the foundation for healthy, intelligent discussion of the things we all have an interest in.

Once again, my apologies.

 

[O-H Anglophile]

It astounds me that people simply assume the words she said are the truth ? A woman SO practiced in the dark arts of self publicism and so motivated by hatred is simply not to be trusted..

I don't think most of the people here think what she said is the truth--that is not what I'm reading. There is a difference between what the truth is/was and how Diana was perceiving things or the way she wanted to make things be.

 

[Denville]

I agree!
I think that what Diana called love was just infatuation, and infatuation usually fades quickly.

How on earth can you possibly know what is "infatuation" nad what's love with someone else? and if Infatuation ended quickly, how come her affair with Hoare lasted some time and so did her relationship with Khan?

 

[Denville]

It astounds me that people simply assume the words she said are the truth ? A woman SO practiced in the dark arts of self publicism and so motivated by hatred is simply not to be trusted..

Motivated by hatred??? Against whom? Dark arts?????

 

[Denville]

I don't think most of the people here think what she said is the truth--that is not what I'm reading. There is a difference between what the truth is/was and how Diana was perceiving things or the way she wanted to make things be.

well it depends what we're talking about. Diana talked about a lot of things on these tapes, which bits "are not the truth?"
That she had a thing about Barry Manakee? That she and Charles didn't have sex very often? that she wasn't happy in the RF?
I don't tend to believe most people, I am always sceptical of what they say unless general observaitaiton has convinced me that they are people who rarely lie. I agree that Diana often had a loose relationship with the truth but I don't think she deliberately lied a lot fo the time. I think that she tended to see things and remember things erratically...

 

[Jacknch]

Please note that several recent posts have been edited/deleted. This Forum is not a debating ground between Eastern and Western cultures - further posts criticising or being negative against one culture in favour of another will similarly be deleted.

 

[Mirabel]

How on earth can you possibly know what is "infatuation" nad what's love with someone else? and if Infatuation ended quickly, how come her affair with Hoare lasted some time and so did her relationship with Khan?

I can't know beyond a doubt, but then none of us can.
I'm going by perception, and it seems to me Diana had a romantic fantasy about love that didn't stand up to everyday life.

As for those affairs lasting some time, how much time did Diana truly spend with either man?

Khan had a demanding job (Diana supposedly resented that it kept him away frequently.)

And of course, Hoare was married, which also involved much time spent elsewhere.

 

[Osipi]

Lets not forget too that in many biographies of Diana, its been stated that she felt a sense of abandonment when Hewitt was deployed in the Gulf War. The relationship went downhill after that.

 

[Denville]

no, she fell out with Hewitt because he waned to go and work in Germany, and their affair ended. but I cant blame her for not being happy that her lover, who was one of the few things she had to comfort her in a difficult life, was going to be away for months.
Her affair with JH renewed when he went to the Gulf and continued for a while after that.
As for the points that she didn't spent a lot of time with various men, I'm sure she spent as much time as many couples do, in busy lives. people who are in busy jobs, with a lot of travelling, working long hours, don't always spend every evening and weekend together...

 

[Osipi]

Thanks for the correction on Germany, Denville. I had it kind of mixed up. Now that I think about it, Diana wanted to intercede so he wouldn't go to Germany but Hewitt said "no" to that.

 

[Denville]

yes but their affair lasted a few years, as did her relationship with Khan. of course it wasn't the same as a marriage, but given the difficulties for her HAVING romantic relationships, at all, finding a man who was discreet (not at ALL easy when she was so famous), the problems of keeping it from the press, the RF, etc she certainly seems to have had relationships that did last a couple of years....

 

[aigulminimalist]

Diana's secret tapes

These are 7 tapes about 12 hours.
(These are not the Settelen which are 20 tapes about 21 hours.)

The most damaging:

"She makes it clear that she would do everything possible to make sure Charles never became King. She wanted William to succeed to the Throne when the Queen died. Diana clearly saw her role as the power behind William. She had this somewhat romantic idea of being a king-maker -- the mother behind the monarch", said the source.

And these are her opinion from 1997.

IMO, they should release all the tapes to the public.
Including these, the Settelen tape, the unedited Panorama interview, the Morton tapes and all secret recorded telephone calls.

We can all listen to them, in order of recording, to see how her story changes,

Agree. why did Diana want to destroy Charles? why she could not calm down after the divorce?

 

[Missjersey]

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned

 

[AdmirerUS]

Agree. why did Diana want to destroy Charles? why she could not calm down after the divorce?

It's a great question. I'd ask why the press at the time and why so many people today still cannot calm down after the divorce? Because that's the answer.

 

[Missjersey]

It's a great question. I'd ask why the press at the time and why so many people today still cannot calm down after the divorce? Because that's the answer.

Yup. A lot of people have a hard time admitting Diana was vindictive JMO.

 

[Lady Nimue]

Agree. why did Diana want to destroy Charles? why she could not calm down after the divorce?

For lots of reasons: she could not control him, she lost her status, lost her entre to society and her nested royal world. There was nothing logical taking place. Diana was driven by passion, albeit she was clever and canny. Look at the Panorama interview in which she admits to having been 'madly in love' with a man she engaged across years, where she impugns Charles' fitness (or willingness) to be king, and then talks about what a good team she and Charles made. What? Not logical. Consequence: she forced a divorced, without fully comprehending what that would mean to her daily life, and she must have reeled from it (imo). Reason enough for a passionate person to 'not calm down'. It's a very sad story. I take no pleasure in how it ended.

Diana always seemed to act impulsively and then suffered when the consequences came thundering down on her head. I believe Diana did not think she would ever suffer the indignity of a divorce. She later admitted to regret regarding the Panorama interview but I think that regret was because she realized it cost her the marriage and her social status. Life was suddenly very drab with all aristocratic and royal doors shut to her. In the end she was a very alone figure. I am haunted by the image of her weeping quietly in the restaurant of the hotel she and Dodi were staying at, either the evening of her death or one of the evenings before.

 

[Leopoldine]

Agree. why did Diana want to destroy Charles? why she could not calm down after the divorce?

Both of your questions are assuming the worst of Diana.

It was not a compatible marriage, but that doesn't mean Diana wanted to destroy the father of her children, nor does it entail 18th century notions of women "calming down."

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

The tapes have been revealed. Despite all the hullabaloo made about it, the impact has been zero. The royals live on. The tapes merely revealed a quite monotonous, self-pitying and by moments annoying lady. Even the DM did not manage to stir things up. The whipped cream has become flat and is not whipped up again. That is what Diana's tapes learned.

 

[Denville]

Both of your questions are assuming the worst of Diana.

It was not a compatible marriage, but that doesn't mean Diana wanted to destroy the father of her children, nor does it entail 18th century notions of women "calming down."

I agree. I don't think she wanted to destroy him, she was angry still though because she felt hurt that the marriage had not worked.. and that she was "pushed out" by the RF.
But a lot of people are still angry at their exes when divorced. For some the bitterness may never go away, but it doesn't mean they "want to destroy" their ex partners.. just that theyre unable to let go.
I don't think that Diana was that bad, she did try to find a new husband, she did try to make a new life.. and I think that some of the time at least, she hoped to work out some kind of friendly relationship with Charles, wehre they could be parenets to the children, and get on in a civilised way..

 

[aigulminimalist]

Both of your questions are assuming the worst of Diana.

It was not a compatible marriage, but that doesn't mean Diana wanted to destroy the father of her children, nor does it entail 18th century notions of women "calming down."

Having said that, I'm of the opinion that Diana should have got a grip of her emotions. By the time she passed she was no longer a 19 year old virgin. She'd had several affairs, she should have gotten over Charles and focused on being a future King Mother. That is a very powerful. Instead she was fighting Charles to her dying day. Everything she did was calculated to reel him in or to rile him up. She wanted him to abdicate while she raised William to be the next heir
As a woman, in life, you have to choose your battles. Diana had some pretty good cards but she played the game poorly! she kept on banging her head against the wall. When they divorced, she literally cleaned out Charles, she got £17,000,000 in cash, she got to keep her apartment at Kensington Palace and Charles was to pay for her private office. Diana should have taken her white woman privilege and chilled out instead she took to running around with unsavoury men. Dodi Fayed's dad- Mohammed Al Fayed was/is end of! And dabbling in explosive charities- landmines. That chick played herself!

Yes, Diana did some good- her work with unfashionable causes- HIV, cancer, leprosy and landmines but to her detriment she also acted as if she was the first and last woman ever scorned. 20 years later, The Institution is still standing, which is less than you can say for her.

 

[Osipi]

One thing to remember too is that at the time of her death, Diana had only been legally divorced from Charles for a year. That's a relatively short time in which she, according to you, would move on and get a grip on her emotions.

The cold, hard reality of a divorce takes time to sink in after the final decree. Up until then, there is always the odd chance that things will work out and the divorce canceled and its like being in limbo. Not really married yet not really single either.

One thing I have read many places is that by the time of Diana's death though, Diana and Charles were able to have a somewhat amicable relationship with each other and they were both moving forward in their lives.