Gossip or social history? Either way there's nothing new.
It’s all about money, of course: the books, the articles, the films and television programmes. Between now and the tenth anniversary of the tragedy in Paris that took my dear son from his family and deprived two sons of their good, kind and loving mother, people who never knew Dodi or Diana, Princess of Wales, and cannot hope to understand the love they had for had for each other, will be out there in the market place, shouting their wares like rag-pickers seeking to sell stolen and second hand goods in a flea market.
The writers and programme makers deal in fact or fiction, opinion and prejudice. Some will be making a sincere effort to tell the truth; others will be out to pursue private agendas and settle scores.
They are united only by their desire to make money out of the memory of a truly exceptional woman who in her life never stooped to use her worldwide fame except to help the needy, the disadvantaged and those without hope.
I find it all terribly sad. But when I see people who should know better lending their names to the blackening of Princess Diana’s name and reputation, I despair for the fate of the human race.
A very wealthy woman called Tina Brown has written a book that by turns depicts the Princess as ruthless, manipulative and “media savvy”. I think it is Ms Brown who is “media savvy”. As the former editor of the American magazine Vanity Fair, she knows that no one wants to read about virtue. It’s the nasty stuff that sells. Newspapers pay to serialise biographies only if they contain something new – which Ms Brown’s book does not – or if the book undermines the reputation of someone who was good, great or much loved.
Princess Diana was all of those. That is why my son adored her. I believe he was the first man to give her the unqualified love she deserved and his love was returned. By now, they should have been looking forward to celebrating the tenth anniversary of the marriage, instead of the world commemorating the elapse of a decade since their deaths.
Tina Brown says her book is social history. I say it is gossip, speculation, unattributable quotes and conclusions that could never have been reached by a writer who actually knew her subject. The critic Andrew Wilson called the book “Gutter Journalism” and he liked it! He was trying to be kind to the celebrity queen Ms Brown. I could refute with facts her sillier and wilder postulations but to do so would simply dignify such rubbish, all of it seen through the prism of celebrity journalism that is her stock-in-trade.
Ms Brown says she didn’t write her book for money, but that did not stop her taking a publisher’s advance payment of £1 million.
She says she interviewed 240 people for the book. Well she didn’t interview me and I am one of the very few people who knew Dodi and Diana almost as well as I know myself.
Ms Brown came to see me before she started the book. She batted her big eyes and said that she really, really wanted to write the true story.
She hasn’t. She said she would return to interview me. She didn’t.
All the books and programmes will not change anything. They cannot fill the empty space at the centre of my family’s life.
The truth? If you want to know the truth, remember how you felt when you learned that the Princess and Dodi had been killed. Remember what you thought then about the wonderful Diana, Princess of Wales.
That is the truth.
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