Diana video reveals desire to elope with lover
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-12-08 09:04

Princess Diana considered fleeing royal life with her palace bodyguard lover Barry Mannakee, according to videotaped interviews broadcast on US television.

Princess Diana, seen here in an undated file photo, considered fleeing royal life with her palace bodyguard lover Barry Mannakee, according to videotaped interviews broadcast on US television. [AFP]

The tapes, aired by the NBC network, were recorded between 1992 and 1993 by Diana's voice coach, Peter Settelen.

At one point, Diana recounted how, with her four-year marriage to Prince Charles all but broken down, she fell in love with Mannakee, who was eventually killed in a motorcycle accident in 1987.

"He was the greatest friend I've ever had," Diana said, adding that she had even considered running away with him.

"I was quite happy to give this all up ... just to go off and live with him. Can you believe it?" she said. "And he kept saying he thought it was a good idea, too."

Diana, who died in a Paris car crash in 1997, was 24 at the time of her romantic involvement with Mannakee -- 14 years her senior and also married.

"I was like a little girl in front of him the whole time, desperate for praise. Desperate," she said.

The late Princess Diana and bodyguard Barry Mannakee who died in a motorcycle accident in 1987 are seen in Windsor, England, in this June 20, 1984 file photo. [AP]

Gossip of the affair spread quickly through the royal household.

"It got so difficult, and people got so jealous, bitchy, in this house," Diana said. "And eventually he had to go. It was all found out and he was chucked out."

Then, on their way to a premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 1987, Diana said Prince Charles turned and casually informed her that Mannakee had been killed in a road accident.

"That was the biggest blow of my life, I must say. That was a real killer," she said.

Later in the tape, Diana goes so far as to suggest that Mannakee was "bumped off," although Settelen said he didn't believe she was serious.

"I didn't get the feeling that she fundamentally believed that he'd been bumped off," Settelen told NBC. "It was more about someone close to her being taken away."

Diana worked with Settelen for 16 months, training for more than 120 hours and writing and rehearsing more than a dozen speeches, including a passionate talk about bulimia that was widely regarded as her most successful public address.

The videotapes were recorded as part of Settelen's method of interviewing his clients.

Settelen fought a long legal battle with Diana's family for control of the tapes before selling them to NBC.

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