Advertisement

Diana: The lonely princess

She was the most famous woman in the world, living a life of luxury and destined to be our Queen, but Diana, Princess of Wales, was desperately lonely.

In an exclusive Sunday Night interview, Diana’s trusted butler, Paul Burrell, tells Melissa Doyle the seemingly confident princess was falling apart in private.

“‘All I ever wanted’, she said, ‘was for somebody to put their arms around me and tell me I was beautiful and they loved me, that is all I wanted’ and that is something which eluded her,” Paul says in the interview to air on Sunday.

Diana was confident in public, but in private she was falling apart.
Diana was confident in public, but in private she was falling apart.

“The most famous woman in the world, trapped inside a palace, lonely.”

Diana’s crumbling marriage to Prince Charles deteriorated further when her affair with her horse-riding instructor, James Hewitt, was exposed in the media.

Princess Diana's marriage to Prince Charles was crumbling even before her affair with James Hewitt was exposed.
Princess Diana's marriage to Prince Charles was crumbling even before her affair with James Hewitt was exposed.

Rumours of Charles also having an affair with his former flame, Camilla Parker Bowles, were publicly confirmed by the prince years later.

Eleven years after they were wed in front of one billion television viewers worldwide, Diana and Charles officially separated with a formal announcement from Buckingham Palace.

During the dramatic and scandalous end to her marriage, Diana’s best friend, Rosa Monckton, became a shoulder to cry on.

Diana, the most famous woman in the world, felt 'unworthy' and lonely, according to her closest friends.
Diana, the most famous woman in the world, felt 'unworthy' and lonely, according to her closest friends.

“I remember her saying to me, you know, ‘I go out into the streets and people wave at me and say they love me then I come home and nobody does’,” Rosa tells Sunday Night.

“She felt not worthy and I think that showed in many ways, in the ways she lived her life.”

Diana: A Sunday Night Royal Event airs this Sunday, 8:30pm.