intimate confidences, embodied and translated for the first time

Married at 20, mother at 21, divorced at 35 and dead at 36, the life of a woman of Diana was short and intense. M6 devotes a special evening to him in tribute to his disappearance on August 31, 1997 following the terrible accident that occurred under the Alma bridge in Paris. For once, “Forbidden Zone”, presented by Ophelie Meunier, inserts fictionalized passages in her documentary during which the Franco-British actress Camille Lockhart takes up the exact words of the princess with a charming English accent. Selected from the recordings of 6 audio cassettes with tapes, these hours of testimonies presented for the first time on French television, Tuesday August 23 in Diana Confidential, form a unique and explosive testimony to the drama of his life, which served as the basis for the publication of the book ofAndrew Morton, Diana told by herself. Unpublished interventions from his close entourage complete his statements: those of his teenage friend, his bodyguard, his sports coach, his astrologer, his valet or even his chief of staff. The docu-fiction follows like a spy novel as the collection of these confidences resembled a dangerous game.

A sham royal wedding

Diana Confidential reveals the dark side of a fabricated modern fairy tale, where Lady Di, who ticked all the boxes of lineage, upbringing and freshness, appears to be selected by two grandmothers, the queen mother Queen Mum and her lady-in-waiting, Lady Ruth Fermoy, grandmother of Diana. The girl was 16 when she first met Prince Charles. “He looks sad” is his first impression, perhaps the most realistic. At 18, she revises her statement: “He had a crazy charm. He jumped on me, really”.

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Joyful and very good company, Diana was however quickly going to expose her own wounds to Charles’ amorous indifference. As a child, she is marked by the divorce of her parents, her father drinks and the couple is torn apart: “I remember seeing my father slapping my mother in the face. I was hiding behind the door and my mother was crying, crying very often,” she confides. The feeling of abandonment (their mother loses custody of the children) is followed by that of isolation in the face of “Acid Rain”, the nickname given by the Spencer children to their stepmother.

The Bracelet of Discord

As Britain gets excited about the prospect of marriage, Diana discovers three days before her union that Charles has given Camilla Parker-Bowles a bracelet engraved with F & G, Fred and Gladys, affectionate little nicknames that lovers s were given. “I found my sisters and told them I can’t marry her”, but nothing can stop the official fairy tale any longer. The day before her wedding, Lady Di experiences a violent crisis of bulimia. At Balmoral, the wedding night is sinister: “In bed it was very weird, very hard”. For a long time, Diana will hope to retain Charles, who hides two photos of his mistress in his diary. At 3 months pregnant, pregnant with William, she throws herself down the stairs. She then recounts: “We had to induce the delivery on the day that suited Charles, between his polo matches”. Even the charm and charisma of his wife overshadows Prince Charles who goes from indifference to hostility. Lady Di says: “I ended up taking his penknife from the chest of drawers, I started scratching myself, lacerating my chest and both thighs, there was blood everywhere. Even there he remained completely unmoved..

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Marion Mertens, co-director with Alfred de Montesquiou of Diana Confidentialexplains their approach: “There is a dramatic intensity in Diana’s life that speaks to all of us. A summary of a woman’s destiny, which questions the place of all women in our society. And even, behind her facade smiles, a disruptive force that makes the rebellious princess, in her own way, a pioneer of the cause of women. Thanks to editor Michael O’Mara, we had access to the secret recordings..

A global icon

The docu-fiction looks back on the incredible transformation of a bulimic and uncomfortable young woman into a fulfilled and sexy woman. From 1985, the young woman had a relationship with her bodyguard, whom Charles had fired. The Prince will reveal to her his death in a motorcycle accident in Cannes, during their climb of the famous steps. Other lovers will follow, Diana sees an astrologer, struggles against her troubles, surrounds herself. Her only fear is losing her children. When in 1995, she confides without filter to the BBC, the divorce is inevitable. On August 28, 1996, Lady Di is a freewheeling woman who becomes a world icon. Even Donald Trump sent her flowers reveals the docu-fiction! We also learn that her relationship with Dodi Al-Fayed was no longer in good shape and that the princess was eager to find her children. “I’m not going to make old bones” she sometimes said. A brighter comet than the others, Lady Diana has certainly contributed through her personal trajectory to modernizing and making the British monarchy more human.