Andrew morton diana biography diana

I've gone to The Queen, it's like facing a blank wall. And it finally dawned on me that unless I get my side of the story out there, people will never understand how it's really been for me. Published in Julythe book revealed the Princess' unhappiness with her marriage to the unfaithful Prince Charles, her battle with bulimia, and her feelings of isolation and depression.

While Morton denied at the time that Diana had helped him write the book, Diana: Her True Story became a publishing sensation, translated into 29 languages and reportedly selling five million copies around the world. Morton's work effectively signaled the end of the royal marriage, and in December Prime Minister John Major announced that the couple had separated.

So how did Diana come to help Morton with his explosive book? And what has the writer been doing in the years since? Morton began his journalism career in the '80s, working for British tabloid newspaper The Daily Starfirst as a general reporter and then royal correspondent. The writer, who stands at six feet four inches tall, would claim that he was given the latter job because of his ability to see over crowds.

S2CID The Guardian. Toronto Sun. Retrieved 1 September — via PBS. External links [ edit ]. Diana, Princess of Wales. Wedding guest list Squidgygate Panorama interview. People's princess Funeral Operation Paget Conspiracy theories. Her Royal Highness.?

Andrew morton diana biography diana

Diana, Princess of Wales Bryan Organ portrait. In spite of all these handicaps it was clear as the weeks passed that her excitement and involvement with the project was growing, particularly when a title for the book was decided upon. For example, if she knew I was interviewing a trusted friend she would do all she could to help by passing on a further scrap of information, a new anecdote or a correction relating to questions I had submitted earlier.

In fact the Princess was the last one to realize the importance of deniability, but once she knew that she would be kept firmly in the background she became much more enthusiastic. The first line of deniability was her friends, who were used as cover to disguise her participation. In tandem with writing questions for the Princess, I sent out a number of letters to her circle of friends asking for an interview.

They in turn contacted Diana to ask if they should or should not co-operate. It was a patchy process. With some she was encouraging, with others ambivalent, depending on how well she knew them. In this febrile climate, her friends spoke with a frankness and honesty, bravely aware that their actions would bring an unwanted media spotlight upon themselves.

Later on in the process, they were even prepared to sign statements confirming their involvement with the book in order to satisfy the doubts of the editor of the Sunday Times, Andrew Neil, who was due to publish extracts from the book. Yet one of the heartening aspects of the story was how Diana was striving, with mixed success, to come to terms with her life, transforming from a victim to a woman in control of her destiny.

It was a process which the Princess continued until the very end. After that first session with Dr Colthurst, Diana knew that she had crossed a personal Rubicon. She had thrown away the traditional map of royalty and was striking out on her own with only a hazy idea of the route. The reality was that she was talking by remote control to a man she barely knew, about subjects that, if mishandled, could ruin her reputation.

It was by any standards a remarkably reckless and potentially foolhardy exercise. But it worked triumphantly. Everything from handling staff problems, dealing with media crises and even drafting her speeches came under our umbrella. It was an andrew morton diana biography diana where she realized that she could put across her own message.

It gave her a real sense of empowerment and achievement that an audience actually listened to what she had to say rather than just judged her clothes or her hairstyle. She used to ring up very excited if there had been coverage on TV and radio, delighted that she had received praise or even acknowledgement for her thoughts. While it had its lighter moments, this was a high-stakes, winner-take-all game.

I had been warned on two separate occasions by former Fleet Street colleagues that, after a series of accurate articles appeared in the Sunday Times about the war of the Waleses, Buckingham Palace was looking hard for my mole. Shortly after one such warning, my office was burgled and files rifled through, but nothing of consequence, apart from a camera, was stolen.

From then on, a scrambler telephone and local pay phones were the only sure way that Diana felt secure enough to speak openly. She trusted no one andrew morton diana biography diana the royal system. Or for that matter outside the royal world. Even with James Colthurst she was never entirely frank. He was later exposed as the male voice on the notorious Squidgygate tapes, telephone conversations between Gilbey and the Princess illicitly recorded over New Year — Nor did we have the faintest inkling of her infatuation with the married art dealer Oliver Hoare, who was the object of her love and devotion during the research and writing of Diana: Her True Story.

Looking back, her audacity was breathtaking and one is left wondering if Diana wanted to get her side of the story published first so that she would escape blame for the failure of the marriage. It is a question that will never be properly answered. As the project gained momentum, with numerous phone calls between Colthurst and the Princess dealing with the quotidian details of her life, there was little time — or inclination — for considering her motivations.

The priority was to produce a book that reflected her personality accurately, with sympathy and authenticity. My first acid test came when the Princess read the manuscript. It was delivered to her piecemeal at any and every opportunity. As with everything else to do with this book it was an amateur and haphazard operation. Having been given the opportunity to write the story of the best-loved woman in the world I was obviously anxious to know that I had fairly and accurately interpreted her sentiments and her words.

To my great relief she approved; on one occasion Diana was so moved by the poignancy of her own story that she confessed to weeping tears of sorrow. She made a number of alterations, of fact and emphasis, but only one of any significance, a change which gives an insight into her respect for the Queen. During the interviews she had said that when she threw herself down the stairs at Sandringham while pregnant with Prince William, the Queen was the first on the scene.

Other hurdles remained. After some discussion she agreed to supply the Spencer family photograph albums, which contained numerous delightful portraits of the growing Diana, many taken by her late father, Earl Spencer. Shortly before he died, the Princess sent her father a short note explaining why she had co-operated in a book about her life.

I would like to ask you a special favour. In particular I would like you to keep that as a secret between us. Please will you do that. An author who has done me a particular favour is now writing a book on me as Diana, rather than PoW [Princess of Wales]. I trust him completely — and have every reason to do so. He has felt for a long time that the System has rather overshadowed my own life and would like to do a fuller book on me as a person.

It is a chance for my own self to surface a little rather than be lost in the system. I rather see it as a lifebelt against being drowned and it is terribly important to me — and this was brought home to me when I was showing the boys the albums — to remember these things which are me. We Think of Her Every Day. His groundbreaking biography of Diana, Princess of Wales—written with her full, though then secret, cooperation—changed the way the world looked at the British royal family.

The winner of numerous awards, he divides his time between London and Los Angeles. Tell Me Yes.