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| Diana & Sutton |
Chatting to Marie Sutton at the Darling Point morning event to launch the AGCF cancer charity (see above) brought some new revelations about the late Princess Diana's last visit to Australia in 1996 to launch the Victor Chang Institute. The visit was to be Diana's final charity contribution before retiring to private life. Subsequent events have become history but Mrs Sutton revealed that she is seriously contemplating writing a book on her battle to maintain control over the plan which she conceived after contacting her friend Dr Hasnat Khan who was Diana's secret lover.'My husband Bill kept incredible detailed diaries about the battle I had' says Marie. "Powerful people were desperate to seize control because of Diana's profile but she remained loyal to me". It is no secret that having conceived of the plan, Sutton found herself under intense pressure from figures like the late Nevile Wran who tried to wrestle control from her.
Whispers was lucky to accompany Sutton & Princess Diana on the tour and can confirm that Diana remained steadfastly loyal to her Aussie pal & was fully aware of the political machinations around her visit. When Diana died (and Whispers also had a connection to the late Dodi Fayed having lived in his Park Lane apartment for 3 months during the early 80s) Marie was rewarded by Diana's brother the Earl of Spencer with a personal tour of Diana's resting place on an island in the middle of the Althorp estate. Visitors cannot access the island and trees have been grown to prevent aerial photography of the grave. Marie took some photographs of Diana's resting place which had some extremely touching personal mementos placed upon the grave by her sons William & Harry. Although we have seen the snaps we are sworn to secrecy to never reveal what the items were. Sutton is still offered a small fortune by European publications for the photos.
A book on Sutton's Diana exploits would make fascinating reading.
