Diana tapes reveal sex life secrets

Previously-unseen interviews of Princess Diana recalling intimate details of her marriage to Prince Charles are to be aired for the first time on television. Diana's words from beyond the grave describe how she and Charles met only 13 times before they were married, and made love just once every three weeks

The breathtaking moment when Princess Diana claimed her bodyguard was murdered for having an affair with her will be broadcast across America next week.

Her own words about policeman Barry Mannakee, who died in a mysterious motorcycle accident, were: "He was killed... I think he was bumped off."

And she added: "He was the greatest fella I've ever had."

In the same videotaped interview, the princess recalled:

• How she begged the Queen for help after discovering her husband had resumed his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, only to be dismissed with the words: 'Charles is hopeless.'

• How she and Charles had met only 13 times before they were married in July 1981, and how he wanted to make love only every three weeks afterwards.

• Her dismay during the interview they gave on their engagement, when she said they were in love and her husband-to-be added: "Whatever 'in love' means."

Diana's words from beyond the grave are to be broadcast by the NBC channel in two one-hour specials starting on Monday.

Although there are no plans to show the programmes in the UK, extracts will almost certainly feature on news broadcasts, causing deep embarrassment to the Prince of Wales.

NBC is believed to have paid hundreds of thousands of pounds for the 83-minute tape, one of six recovered by police four years ago from the loft of Diana's ex-butler, Paul Burrell.

They were made by her former voice coach and confidant, Peter Settelen, between September 1992 and December 1993, one of the most turbulent periods of the princess's marriage.

The tape to be shown next week was recorded in the lounge of her apartment in Kensington Palace and features a casually-dressed Diana talking candidly about her life within the Royal Family, her determination to win their respect and her relationship with Prince Charles.

The most remarkable - and potentially embarrassing - segment comes when Diana begins to talk in intimate detail about her extra-marital affairs.

Although she does not mention Barry Mannakee by name, it is clear that she is referring to the former royal protection officer with whom it is believed she started an affair in 1985 - several months before Charles re-established contact with Mrs Parker Bowles.

Tragic accident

When rumours about their relationship reached Charles, Mannakee, who was married with two young children, was moved from his duties at Kensington Palace.

In 1987, less than a year later, he was killed as he rode pillion on a motorbike with a fellow officer.

Although it was dismissed at the time as a tragic accident, Scotland Yard detectives are now re-investigating the circumstances as part of a wide-ranging inquiry into conspiracy theories surrounding Diana's death in a Paris car crash ten years later.

Metropolitan Police chief Sir John Stevens will report on the findings at an inquest due to open next year.

In the video, Diana describes Mannakee's death as "the biggest blow of my life", saying: "It was all found out and he was chucked out. And then he was killed. And I think he was bumped off. But, um, there we are. I don't... we'll never know... he was the greatest fella I've ever had."

Critics have long dismissed her claims about Mannakee's death - and subsequent suggestions from Paul Burrell that she believed her own life was in danger - as fanciful nonsense.

But the fact that the public will hear those very accusations from Diana's own lips will be enormously damaging for the Royal Family.

On the tape, the princess recalls how she found in 1986 that Charles was seeing Camilla again, and asked for a word with the Queen.

"I went to the Top Lady, and I'm sobbing. And I said, 'What do I do? I'm coming to you. What do I do?' And she said, 'I don't know what you should do. Charles is hopeless.' And that was it. That was help!

"So I didn't go back to her again for help because... I don't go back again if I don't get it the first time around."

'Are you in love?'

Moving on to her relationship with Charles, Diana recalls the now infamous moment during an interview to mark her engagement in which her husband-to-be was questioned about their romance.

Diana says: "I was brought up in the sense that, you know, when you got engaged to someone, you love them.

"And the most extraordinary thing is, we had this ghastly interview the day we announced our engagement. And this ridiculous ITN man said, 'Are you in love?' Oh, what a thick question! 'So I said, "Yes, of course we are" in this sort of fat Sloane Ranger that I was. And Charles turned round and said, 'Whatever 'in love' means'. That threw me completely. I thought, what a strange question."

Settelen remarks: "And what a strange reply!" to which Diana replies: "Oh God. Absolutely traumatised me."

Settelen: "And did you ask him about it?"

Diana: "No, I didn't dare."

Settelen: "Were you frightened?"

Diana: "Must have been, yeah... we met 13 times before we got married."

'The other lady'

According to sources who have viewed the tape, Diana also talks at length about how Charles dated her sister, now Lady Sarah McCorquodale, before he turned his attentions to her.

She also mentions Mrs Parker Bowles on several occasions, although she never refers to her by name - just 'the other lady'.

Settelen gave the videos to Diana for her watch in private. But after her death they disappeared from her apartment at Kensington Palace.

They were eventually discovered by police officers investigating accusations of theft against Burrell at his Cheshire home.

Settelen claimed ownership of the tapes but was blocked by Diana's family who wanted them destroyed.

A lengthy legal wrangle ensued but in September the Spencer family finally threw in the towel and ordered the Metropolitan Police, which had been holding the videos for 'safe keeping', to hand them back.

Scathing over stepmother

In the NBC tape, Diana is asked to describe her feelings when, at the age of six, she sat on the steps of her ancestral home at Althorp, Northamptonshire, and watched her mother Frances drive away after admitting an extra-marital affair.

The pain Diana felt is still heartbreakingly apparent.

And she is nothing less than scathing about the woman to was to become her stepmother - Raine, Countess Spencer.

"I wanted to throttle that stepmother of mine because she brought such grief," says Diana. "She kept saying to me, 'Oh, but Diana, you're so unhappy in your own marriage, you're just jealous of Daddy's and my relationship'.

"Jealousy was not high on the agenda - it was behaviour I was after."

Destiny

Diana also talks in depth about the 'sense of destiny' she had felt since childhood.

"I knew that something profound was coming my way and I was, just, um, treading water, waiting for it. I didn't know what it was. I didn't know where it was. I didn't know if it was coming next year or next month. But I knew I was different from my friends in where I was going."

According to friends, Settelen, from Osterley, West London, is prepared for accusations that he is 'cashing in' on his relationship with the princess although he deliberately marketed the tapes in America in the hope of avoiding being seen in this country as a Paul Burrell-type figure.

His solicitor Marcus Rutherford, of Reed Smith, declined to say last night precisely how much he had been paid for the footage.

But a close friend told the Mail: "There have been so many attempts to airbrush Diana's life. Peter is glad that her public can hear her speak directly to them."