In the early 1990s, Princess Diana wanted to become a more confident public speaker. She hired a voice coach, Peter Settelen, who had worked as an actor. Between 1992 and 1993, he recorded a series of private video sessions with her at Kensington Palace.
The recordings were meant to help her practise speaking naturally in front of a camera. To relax, Diana talked about her life: her childhood, her shyness, her early years in the royal family and her marriage to Prince Charles.
For years, the tapes were not seen in public. In 2001, police found them during a search of the home of her former butler, Paul Burrell. A long legal dispute followed over who owned them. They were eventually returned to Settelen.
Some extracts were shown on American television in 2004, causing a stir. But in Britain, they had never been broadcast. That changed in August 2017, as the twentieth anniversary of Diana’s death approached. Channel 4 aired a documentary called Diana: In Her Own Words, built around the tapes.
The decision was highly controversial. People close to Diana, including friends and members of her family, argued that the tapes were private and should never have been shown. Some critics said it was disrespectful to broadcast them so close to the anniversary of her death. Channel 4 defended the programme, saying it allowed Diana to tell her story in her own words.
Millions watched. In the footage, Diana spoke with surprising openness. She described how lonely and unprepared she had felt after joining the royal family as a young woman. She talked about the early problems in her marriage, and about Camilla Parker Bowles.
One remark drew particular attention. Diana claimed that Charles had once told her he refused to be the only Prince of Wales who never had a mistress. Whether or not he meant it the way she understood it, the line became one of the most quoted moments of the documentary.
For viewers who had only known Diana through photographs, it was a rare chance to see her relaxed and candid. For others, it felt like an invasion of privacy, a conversation she never chose to share with the world.
Years later, the debate continues. Were the tapes an important part of history, or something that should have stayed private? Either way, they remain one of the most revealing records of Diana’s own voice.