I miss you, Di

16

diana was making her boldest move yet, she was going to reveal her secret misery to the world. she was trying to make her case first before anyone else did it for her. telling the explosive story that diana had in mind, would break every royal conduct. she would have to remain anonymous, fearing the consequences. the royal family might pronounce her mentally unsound or worse. but, the monarch had control over diana's children. that was something we were acutely aware of. she was extremely concerned that she could then lose the children. so, if diana was going to risk telling her story, it would have to be anonymously. in a book, she could reveal her secrets, but deny that they came from her.

i'd proposed my friend Andrew, he was an author and a freelance royal reporter. his pieces were largely sympathetic to Diana. i said to Andrew "do you want an interview" he chuckled in response, "yes, of course i do".

hardly believing what was happening, Morton took me to his publisher, Michael Omara. he must've been extremely suspicious of me. Michael was convinced that i was some kind of con-man. i was able to convince the author and publisher that i was for real. but, we had to protect Diana, who was watched day and night by photographers and palace staff. so, the three of us hatched a plan.

Morton would write questions for Diana and give them to me as i was already a regular visitor to Diana's palace apartment. no guard would ever suspect what was nestled in the bottom of my bag. i would go into Kensington palace with my tape recorder and the questions, asking her questions about her childhood, her teenage years, the honeymoon, the romance. she took the sheets of questions, clipped the mic on and settled down and answered away. 
"is this all right," Diana asked as she sat down. "yes it's perfect, it's fine," i assured her. she was very relaxed, there was a lot of laughter.

that autumn, i took myself in and out of the palace, taking in blank audio tapes and bringing out stunning new revelations to a wide eyed author and publisher. this was ultimately a very anti-windsor book. 

this had to be right for diana. so i delivered chapters, diana scrutinising every word. and editing the manuscript with distinctive handwriting. it was a shock to her, when she saw it written down on paper. it made it all the more serious. we made sure to use code names, pay phones and even scrap phones, meeting up in the back rooms of restaurants. the publisher had his office swept for months, di had her offices swept for months. were we just paranoid? no. not when andrew's office was broken into.

so for nearly six months, we became more frightened as andrew wrote a new chapter. we'd get on the underground frightened if we were being followed thinking 'is somebody watching me?'

i can remember feeling extremely anxious about what was about to happen. diana sent me a handwritten note saying we should be prepared for the volcano to erupt. i don't think anyone understand how huge this was about to be. diana's story was about to rock the nation.