Diana's Secret Tapes Recorded in March 1997

[Queen Camilla]

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,

[scooter]

May I ask whom you are quoting? It appears to be a blind 'source'.

[Osipi]

Originally Posted by scooter

May I ask whom you are quoting? It appears to be a blind 'source'.

My guess would be Gordon Thomas who wrote the article. The link to the article is the first thing you see in Queen Camilla's post.

[Dman]

What's the point of the thread?

[LadyGabrielle]

Exactly. Why do we want to bring this up again. Diana is gone. We all know there were issues and that her life ended tragically. But it's been so long since her death and we all need to let go and focus on what lies ahead for her children and grandchildren. We need to move on. Just my opinion of course.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using The Royals Community mobile app

[Mermaid1962]

This story didn't seem to develop "legs" at the time it was published, and so I don't take it seriously. There's an un-named source and an un-named cameraman. Plus, a "gag order" was part of Charles and Diana's divorce agreement. I also don't believe that Diana was short of money in March 1997!

[MarcosFenn]

The polite comment about the existence of the alleged tapes is:

"And the point would be...?"

The more direct comment would be:

"So, what?"

[Osipi]

My sentiments exactly.

[Duc_et_Pair]

I have never believed anything from the story of Diana wanting to skip a generation. She herself was married to the Prince of Wales, she was a future Queen herself. As a born aristocrat and a countryside girl I am convinced she had a notion about the monarchy, an institution she herself was part of.

Plotting against the rightful King is also damaging the position of her own son (and his successors) because then it becomes clear Kings can become toppled by plotting (ex-)spouses, not even mentioning the hurt and the pain Prince William and Prince Harry would feel to see their beloved father bypassed and becoming a second sort Duke of Windsor with his own Court aside the real Royal Court. A most undesirable situation.

Really, this is one of these so typical complot theories based on nothing. It is also damaging the memory of the late Diana, framing her as an evil woman trying to undermine the monarchy. The real Diana would never damage the same instutution to which her very own two boys own everything.

[teeyah]

Really, this is one of these so typical complot theories based on nothing. It is also damaging the memory of the late Diana, framing her as an evil woman trying to undermine the monarchy. The real Diana would never damage the same instutution to which her very own two boys own everything.

She damaged the institution with her behavior in the 1990's by working with the press to destroy her sons father including collaborating to write a book, making unnecessary interviews and many more...i can't write it all..if she was thinking about her sons future then i don't know why she portrayed herself as a victim stating the institution were evil to her. She succeeded though..part of her legacy is the negativity now written about the royals, mostly her sons father and even her own sons and sadly her daughter in law. Hope she is happy where ever she is, she might not have brought down the institution, but she definitely damaged it.

[Nico]

Even if i'm not the biggest fan of the late Princess of Wales, i find all this stuff unnecessary and distasteful at best. We all know that Diana did some pretty nasty things, as Charles, so why bring back AGAIN those old stories. Time to move on people, time to move on !
And to create a special thread for THAT ! C'mon guys, the athmosphere of the forum has been tense enough lately ...

[Duc_et_Pair]

Originally Posted by teeyah

[....] She succeeded though..part of her legacy is the negativity now written about the royals, mostly her sons father and even her own sons and sadly her daughter in law. Hope she is happy where ever she is, she might not have brought down the institution, but she definitely damaged it.

Negativity about the monarchy is of all times. George III, George IV, Victoria, all of them have seen the most grotesque cartoons or mockeries distributed in press. Even the now so great Queen Victoria has had periods of deep discontent and unpopularity. Rotten vegetables, dirt and stones were thrown to the royal carriage when the Queen rode out. So the negativity about royals is nothing new and surely not a legacy from Diana. Before her marriage, in 1977, there was a Silver Jubilee. This was in a time of doom and gloom, economic decline and "winters of discontent". The Queen's Silver Jubilee was carefully portrayed as a great success but there was quite a lot of negaitivity surrrounding it. Only a few years after, the wedding of Charles & Diana, Andrew active role in the Falklands War, the birth of new royal sprouts, the popularity of the royals rose but even then there were poisonous attacks, for an example on poor Sarah.

[US Royal Watcher]

I don't believe the secret tapes in this article ever existed. Anyone with any access to the royal family can claim that Diana said or did things now, especially if the evidence has been "lost."

I believe that we should have access to tapes made by Diana when she knew she was being taped -- such as the Morton tapes and the full Panorama interview. Editing can completely change the whole tenor and meaning of the interviews and I think we should be able to judge for ourselves.

For those who say that we should drop it, I will ask how many books about Diana have you bought? Have you watched or listened to the tapes released so far? It's unreasonable for people who have probed Diana's private life to turn around and chastise others for doing the exact same thing. Like it or not, Diana intended the information she disclosed to Morton and Bashir to be made public and it is part of her legacy.

I feel less strongly about the Settelen tapes. She trusted the wrong person/ I believe there is a lot of information that was probably damaging to Diana's reputation that Settelen held back but, given that she was practicing her public speaking ability, she could have intentionally exaggerated or lied in order to practice.

I draw the line at secretly recorded telephone calls. Even public people have the right to privacy. There is not one person on earth would be able to withstand public scrutiny if all their private actions or words were made public.

[Roslyn]

I'm pleased to see this thread. People who don't see the point of it or who aren't interested don't need to venture in here. It's not compulsory.

I'm very interested in these tapes, for they are important primary sources. 'Sources for what?', you may ask. Well not evidence of the truth of the things said in them, but certainly evidence that they were said, and that, in itself, is of interest to me. From reading transcripts of anything you are at a disadvantage because you can't pick up nuances of speech or facial expressions made at the time the words are spoken. The difference is really noticeable when you compare a reading the transcript of the "Panorama" interview with watching the video of it.

I think these "Secret" tapes are fascinating. We can read so much about Diana and what she did and said but to be able to actually see her doing or saying them or talking about doing them is a treat and an invaluable resource.

NBC produced a show about the Morton & Colthurst audiotapes and videotapes, and it was shown on Larry King Live back in March 2004. I printed the transcript some years ago but I don't think it's still available on the NBC site. There were also the Settelen tapes.

On youtube you can find the 9 part "Princes Diana - The Secret Tapes" and I think it shows some of the film from the Settelen tapes as well as Morton's. I haven't watched it for a while so I can't be sure, but I know I've seen some extracts from the Settelen tapes somewhere though.

[Queen Camilla]

Thanks Roslyn, that was my point. I want to see everything all at once, not bits and pieces here & there.

In these tapes, she reads letters from Prince Philip & wonder if they were the same ones from the inquest. (I was searching for information on the inquest when I stumbled on this webpage.)

I think it is best if everything was out in the open.

[Iluvbertie]

To anyone with an interest in history these tapes, as well as her diaries, letters to and from and about her etc are invaluable sources of primary information about her life (as the same types of sources are about everyone).

It will be fascinating for historians in future generations to read Charles' and Diana's diaries about their lives, especially their life together, as this will shed a lot more information on what happened than the tit for tat interviews they did when they were alive - that is where historians have the advantage over people living at the time - the historian can get a fuller picture but getting all the information, or at least more of the information, than the person reveals during their lifetime.

[cepe]

Originally Posted by Queen Camilla

...I think it is best if everything was out in the open.

Best for whom?

[Al_bina]

Is there any reason the British royal family should be concerned about a possible release of the tapes in question?

[Roslyn]

Originally Posted by cepe

Best for whom?

For people with an interest in history and not just just current events, for the reasons Bertie set out above.

There are plenty of "he said, she said" contemporary accounts floating around, most of which, I venture to say, written by people biased one way or the other because of person feelings about one of the protagonists formed during their lifetime/s. Once the dust settles historians will get a go and I think they should have access to all of these valuable resources.

Originally Posted by Al_bina

Is there any reason the British royal family should be concerned about a possible release of the tapes in question?

Considering what we already know Diana and Charles have said in private and public conversations and interviews, I doubt it. I know of no particular rumour/s.

[Queen Camilla]

Historians have access to diaries and letters and we get their interpretation of these events rather than getting to see the entire diaries, the entire letters, etc ourselves.

I don't want someone's interpretation of Edward VII's diary or the Queen Mother's or Queen Victoria's, I want to read the diary myself and form my own opinion.

Very few people expected their diaries to be read decades or centuries later.
The tapes are the modern equivalent of diaries.