exclusive: Marie's revelation about the Princess Diana momento

Princess Diana & the late Marie Sutton in Sydney

Marie Sutton was the ex-nurse who conceived of a plan in 1995 to bring the late Princess Diana to Sydney to launch a new charity and medical research facility, the Victor Chang Institute. Victor Chang was a world renowned heart surgeon who was gunned down in a Sydney street by two thugs in a failed kidnap and ransom plot.

Much to Sutton's surprise, and the establishment figures behind her plan, Princess Diana phoned Sutton and said she would be happy to launch the institute and it would be her very last charity appearance before retiring to private life.
And the rest is history.

The Shuttle has written extensively about Marie Sutton over the years- she was fairly good pal having met her at various events in Sydney during Diana's visit.
You can read those tales here : 'Princess Diana broke up my marriage' 

and :  'Marie turns down a $1.6M for the "Diana Diaries'.
But there is one piece of information Marie Sutton told Whispers which we have never revealed before and promised not to while Sutton was alive. Marie passed away at age 73 in September from lung disease.
Only half a dozen people have ever been onto the island at Althorp, the family seat, which is where Diana's grave is. On a visit to Althorp Marie was escorted to the island by Diana's brother Earl Charles Spencer in 1997. And there she found a small memento placed on Diana's grave by her two sons.
It was a small silver box inside which was a locket containing a photo of Diana and her two sons William and Harry. It was to be buried with her coffin and had been placed there in a private ceremony by the boys.

Only a handful of people have ever been to the island where Princess Diana is buried. Marie Sutton was one of them.

Princess Diana broke up My Marriage

The charity worker who brought the late Princess Diana to Australia, Marie Sutton has told Whispers how the experience ended up wrecking her marriage.
When Sutton raised the idea of inviting Diana to Sydney to help launch the Victor Change cardiac unit at St Vincent's Hospital to the charity committee organizing the event, no-one thought it could possibly happen. But one week later Marie was astonished to receive a late night phone call from Diana herself who confirmed that not only would she launch the charity, it would be her last public appearance before retiring from the public eye.

The dramas that followed have been well documented as then NSW premier Nevile Wran and a number of society figures tried to wrestle control of the project from Marie. But Diana remained loyal to Sutton and Marie eventually accompanied the Princess during her 4 day visit.
But Sutton now says the stress she suffered as vested powerful interests continually tried to take over the event eventually led to she and husband splitting.
Marie has given an interview to Channel Ten's Studio Ten show with show-biz editor Craig Bennett which you can view below.

Marie to tell All about Princess Diana

2017 will be the 20th anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales who died in Paris after a car accident with Dodi Fayed, the heir to the owner of Harrods, Mohamed Fayed.

Now the Australian charity worker Marie Sutton who engineered the very last public function attended by Diana in Sydney is to author a book on the tumultuous visit to Australia that marked Diana's retreat from public life. A few months later Diana was dead after a world-wind supposed affair with the tempestuous Dodi in the South of France.

Whispers knew Dodi well and lived in his Park Lane apartment for 3 months. Dodi's cocaine habit was legendary and Whispers, a non drug user, once saved the life of the secretary of a famous movie star in Dodi's apartment while Fayed and the movie star were literally, off their heads on cocaine.
                                                                         
Marie conceived of the project to get Diana to launch the Victor Chang Institute on the strength of being a pal of Dr Hasnat Khan who reputedly Diana was obsessed with. Once Diana agreed to come to Australia Sutton found the reins of the visit were snatched from her by then NSW premier Nevile Wran and a coterie of Eastern Suburb's society figures. But Diana remained loyal to Sutton and ensured Marie was by her side at every event during the visit. And we should know. We were there at the same time, once hiding under a rug in the back of a limo with Diana as she was whisked out of the Double Bay Ritz Carlton, avoiding the world's assembled media. It was on that occasion that Diana leaned out of the window of the car as we passed St Mary's Cathedral and she spotted a wedding party ascending the stairs and shouted "Don't do it !". Did the happy couple realize their heckler was the World's Most Famous Woman? . Marie also has the only known photos of Diana's grave on an island at the family property Althorp with some very touching mementos from her sons Princes William & Harry. Having seen them, Whispers has been sworn to secrecy but perhaps they will appear in Marie's expose.

A new women's cancer charity is launched

Marie Sutton*Tim Gilbert*Merle Finkel*Julie Singleton

 Charity Ambassadors and supporters gathered at a private home in Darling Point to hear Ovarian Cancer survivor Merle Finkel describe her battle with the deadly disease. Mrs Finkel is the Director of the newly formed Australian Gynaecological Cancer Foundation (AGCF) which hopes to raise awareness and funds needed to fight ovarian cancer which is often referred to as "the silent killer" due to the difficulty diagnosing symptoms.

Ms Finkel was diagnosed 4 years ago has been through a series of chemotherapy sessions. She became determined to inform other women about the importance of regular pap smears and sees the launch of the AGCF as a fitting tribute to her friend Senator Jeannie Ferris who passed away earlier this year from the disease.

Among the Ambassadors who hope to raise awareness and donations are Marie Sutton , Channel 9 'Today' reporter Tim Gilbert, Julie Singleton, actress Carmen Duncan who is appearing in the new musical Anything Goes, fashion designer Camilla Freeman-Topper and comedienne Jean Kitson.

                         right : Jean Kitson & Carmen Duncan


For more information go to the AGCF website here

Princess Diana's Aussie pal may write a book

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.

Intercontinental bash

It was the first of what is expected to be many parties and promotions at the new Double Bay Intercontinental.
Local jeweler Jan Logan one of Australia's top purveyors of fine pearls and other gems celebrated 25 years of being in the Bay with the first official party at the Intercon. Jan also introduced the new 'face' of her range beautiful Perth born actress Courtney Eaton and premiered a film produced, directed by and starring the actress Rachael Taylor, a tribute to Logan.

Among the guests, Marie Sutton, Carla Zampati,Marta Dusseldorp and Georgie Gardner.


above : Marie Sutton
Right : Jan Logan and Courtney Eaton.

Good Reads

Dean Dudley & Marie Sutton

DIANA-SURVIVOR. This book was brought to out attention by Princess Diana's Aussie pal Marie Sutton who organised Diana's last official function before she was to retire- the Victor Chang Institute fundraiser in Sydney in 1996. It's the debut book by British writer Dean Dudley and is available in paperback or Kindle version.                         
Diana-Survivor tells the story of Diana surviving the car crash and giving birth to Dodi Fayed's Muslim son. Some years later, in the wake of 9/11, her child is kidnapped.
 "I can almost imagine this happening " says Marie. "it's a completely believable tale with twists and turns.I loved it". Along with Marie's endorsement it also gets a seal of approval from the Scottish Herald. Buy it here

Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay: The dodgy business of popular music  by music figure Simon Napier Bell is a complete history of popular music from the late  1700s- when composers first obtained legal copyright - to the present day. Simon is the best selling author of Black Vinyl White Powder which is described as the definitive history of pop and was included in the UK school curriculum in 2013. 

Simon's books are never boring. His I'm Coming To Take You To Lunch which charts his successful endeavours to get the band he managed WHAM ! as the first Western pop music band to give a concert in China is fascinating. Napier-Bell is also a writer of huge hits for Dusty Springfield & Elvis Presley. Buy it here.

 As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by actor Cary Elwes who starred in the Princess Bride and Robin Hood Men in Tights, Glory, Days of Thunder, Twister, and Saw and dozens of movies since. Elwes is to direct his first film about the late Kit Lambert the discoverer of The Who & Jimi Hendrix who died in mysterious circumstances in 1983. Cary's book takes you behind the scenes of the making of a Hollywood film and has received rave reviews from the New York Times and US Weekly. Buy it here.

 

Lifesurfing : Your Horoscope Forecast Guide 2015 by noted Astrologer Victor Olliver is an invaluable guide for the coming year. We at the Shuttle still consult our 2014 guide and swear by Olliver's accuracy. Buy it here.

In The Dreamtime With Diana & Freddie

The Hollywood actress Shelley Winters was once lunching with an actress pal who wanted to pick her brains- she was penning her autobiography and was worried that she had led a fairly tame love life. "I 've had few affairs with stars" she said.
Winter's responded :"look, if they are gay or dead, just say you screwed them. None will complain"
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The Shuttle's eye was drawn to a tale that swept the world yesterday. No-one yet has clocked it as an April Fool's Joke. Such fine publications as the Sydney Morning Herald and the Daily Telegraph have faithfully repeated the tale verbatim.
Cleo Rocos who worked with the late British DJ Kenny Everett says that one night in 1988, she, Kenny and the late Freddie Mercury dressed Princess Diana in military jacket and sun shades and they all went of to the South London gay pub the Vauxhall Tavern where Diana was able to buy drinks with nary a punter spotting that the Most Famous Woman On The Planet was in their midst :
“When we walked in . . . we felt she was obviously Princess Diana and would be discovered at any minute. But people just seemed to blank her. The venue was packed, but the presence of Mercury, Everett and Rocos helped divert attention and Diana was able to order drinks at the bar before the group left,"
Such a  sweet tale from Cleo's new tome : ' The Power of Positive Drinking".

In 1996 the Shuttle spent a few days with Diana on her last trip to Australia for the Victor Chang Institute, accompanying her to various events to document the visit, commissioned by her Aussie pal Marie Sutton who had talked Diana into her last charity event before retiring from public life.

One night we were smuggled out of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Double Bay, all 3 of us crouched in the back seat of a car, to avoid the press. Diana was visiting the St Vincent's Hospice to meet HIV patients. We were sworn to secrecy. She wanted no publicity. Diana sat and chatted to patients for over 5 hours. We took snaps of each patient with Diana as memento's.

Marie Sutton

Driving back to the Ritz Carlton the driver took us via Oxford Street to show Diana the Golden Mile of gay clubs. Diana commented that she visited gay AIDS patients around the world but had never been to a gay bar. Whilst she was still a Royal she said "my detectives would have never let me enter one without it being searched for days beforehand. In fact going to any bar was out of the question".
Freddie Mercury died in 1991 from AIDS. From about 1987 he had become a recluse and was never seen again in public again . Kenny Everett was a regular at the Vauxhall Tavern but usually went unnoticed mainly as all the patrons more or less looked just like him. It was 'clones' pub.

Diana was finally divorced from Prince Charles in 1996 and lost her Royal title and the privileges that came with it including 2 permanent detectives from the Royal Protection Squad - the ones who "would have never let me enter one (gay bar) ".  In the year leading up to her Australian visit she spoke to Marie Sutton almost daily. She would relate the extraordinary lengths she would go to meet her lovers- the private houses of the Aristocracy where she could arrange a discreet visit for a weekend  in privacy which she knew the Protection Squad would always vet. Perhaps they slipped up in the Vauxhall Tavern incident.
What a shame Diana's great pal Sir Elton John hadn't joined this little pub crawl to confirm the tale.

Kelly & Belly Secretly Wed

Kelly & Belly

He looks after the finances of a host of celebrities like Russell Crowe and Elle McPherson and some of Australia's top business people. She is the gorgeous host of the travel show Getaway

Anthony Bell and Kelly Landry wed in secret in Queenstown , New Zealand 2 weeks ago.

On Friday evening they threw a bash at the exclusive Rose Bay water-side restaurant Catalina for 200 pals, amongst them actress Holly Brisley, TV host Larry Emdur , boxer Danny Green and society maven Marie Sutton.

Known as Kelly & Belly to friends, Anthony Bell's firm Bell Partners  regularly tops the list of the Business Review Weekly (BRW) magazine's most productive performing companies.

 He also owns the enormous gin palace Ghost which is often used for celebrity harbour cruises including by Bono last year and Prince Frederick & Princess Mary of Denmark.

Will the Shuttle Prove Lucky for Collette Dinnigan & Kate Middleton?

In 1979 the Shuttle's resident psychic adviser Mandy Miami was looking for a new British designer to showcase at the New York nite spot she was managing-the Mudd Club. She chose an up and coming young couple David and Elizabeth Emanuel for her British Invasion Fashion Show that scored the Emanuels a front page story in the prestige Woman's Wear Daily.



The Emanuel wedding dress

 And she predicted an amazing success for the 2 designers and that one shining moment was in store for them very soon- one of their designs  "will be seen throughout the entire world like no other has ever before".

In 1981 Princess Diana wed HRH Prince Charles in a now famous Emanuel wedding dress, watched on live TV by billions of people around the world.



Miranda Kerr in Collette Dinnigan



On Tuesday evening the Shuttle attended the opening of Collette Dinnigan's new Woollahra boutique. The news had just broken of the engagement of Kate Middleton and Prince William. Collette is one of Kate's favourite designers and Kate is a regular at her London store. Today Ms Dinnigan fielded phone calls from media outlets around the world asking for her advice on Kate's wedding dress.

In Vogue UK she is running at odds 16/1 along with Alice Temperley another favourite, that the future Queen will wear one of her designs on her wedding day.

However the chances of Kate choosing a non-British wedding dress designer are pretty slim. The British media would rip her to shreds if she wore a foreign design-even a colonial one. But Collette does a nice line in beautiful Christening gowns for that inevitable Royal baby that will be with us in a year or so !

                                                      ******************************

Society maven Marie Sutton , the woman who managed to gazump the entire world by getting Princess Diana to attend the Victor Chang dinner in Sydney in 1995 as her last official charity function tells the Shuttle her phone began ringing at 5am this morning and hasn't stopped.

"They're calling from all over the world" she says "radio stations and newspapers in London and America. I even had a TV station in South Africa wanting to send a film crew to interview me".

"There's not much I can tell them" she says. " I've never met Kate and last spoke to William on the telephone 3 years ago".

In the meantime she is busy filling a table for the Black & White Committee charity lunch at the Four Seasons Hotel on the 30th November.

The special guest is John Rendall of 'Christian The Lion' fame. He's  just returned from hosting a safari in Kenya and will be giving a talk at the lunch on life in an antique shop on the Kings Road, Chelsea with the lion cub he purchased at Harrods in the 1970s.

And there's a slide show. The pictures were recently exhibited at the prestige Saatchi Gallery in London.

To purchase tickets to the Black & White lunch contact them on (02) 9327 5698 or email susan.diver@rbs.org.au.

Ask to sit on Marie's table and she'll tell you all about Princess Diana !

For those who have forgotten about the Christian saga-here is the youtube video that went viral worldwide. Get the Kleenex out.....

Hollywood appointment

                                                                                                Marie Sutton & Gordy Willesee

Jetting out to LA today is Gordana Willesee, wife of former TV presenter turned media mogul and more recently, re-confirmed Catholic Mike Willesee.

Gordana, a make-up artist who fell for Willesee while working at the Channel Nine studios, will be checking out the latest make-up techniques at various Hollywood studios and hopes to put them into practical use back in Sydney.

Gordana's the top favourite to touch-up major celebrities before they walk the red carpet at film premieres and has worked with some of the world's major movie stars.

  She took time off for a quick lunch at Ottos at Woolloomooloo Wharf with tSS and society maven Marie Sutton and brought us up to date on some of her husband's latest projects. Following the success of his Signs From God documentary in the USA in which Willesee explores various incidents of stigmata around the world, he is busy writing a book on the same subject.

Willesee is also pushing for further research on the Shroud of Turin and is backing a scientific analysis to see if  the artifact contains the blood of Jesus Christ. The Shroud goes on public display next year for six weeks at Chapel of the Shroud in the Turin Cathedral.

The Willesee's have impecable Catholic credentials with Mike re-discovering his faith in recent years. Gordana showed us the tiny Rosary beads that bear the Papal seal given to her when she and her husband had a private audience with Pope Benedict on his recent Australian visit. Recently at an exhibition opened by Cardinal Pell, Mike snapped up all 12 life size decorated statues of Christ which now decorate the large garden of his Centenniel Park's mansion, forming a pathway to his private chapel.

And when Gordana returns with her new skills she has her first client lined up-Hugh Grant when he attends the premiere of his latest flick Did You Hear About the Morgans?. But not before she is joined by Mike in LA who intends to whisk her off for a week at the Waldorf Astoria for Gordana's first visit to New York. 

The French are devouring the Social Shuttle

Within days of the Social Shuttle announcing society maven Marie Sutton had turned down a huge offer she had received from a US publisher for her 'Diana Diaries' , comes news of former 83 year old French president Valery Giscard d'Estaing soon to be published novel of a French leader's affair with a Welsh Princess.
To be published next month, Giscard's The Princess and the President recounts the secret and passionate love of two characters clearly modeled closely on both himself and the late Diana, Princess of Wales.

Sutton's collection of personal letters from the late Princess Diana are now locked in a bank vault, so paranoid is she they may be stolen. But the Shuttle has read the collection of letters in which Diana reveals intimate details of her life and affairs that have never been discovered by the media.

In particular we mentioned how Diana had an affair with a politician-we described him as a US politician in order to muddy the waters as we have promised not to reveal the details. (well sort off-the right offer may change things). Diana had varied tastes-from cads and bounders like James Hewitt to rugger types like Will Carling.

Would an older garlic loving Frenchmen be able to sweep her off her feet ?. We aren't saying anything.
 But how clever of Giscard d'Estaing's publishers to seize the moment.
                                                 **********************
Gal Of The Week Prize must go to 25 year old Brynne Gordon who describes herself as a fitness instructor from Las Vegas and who arrived at the Brownlow Medal football awards at James Packer's Melbourne Crown Casino in an outfit so shockingly bad-well she just looks sensational. 

Talk about Footballer's Wives !

Brynne is engaged to 66 year old struck-off doctor and former football club owner Geoffrey Edelsten who ran a string of 24 hour medical centres famed for their grand pink pianos, sickly crushed pink carpet and crystal chandeliers,.He lived in a pink ranch-style mansion, flew a pink helicopter and once crashed his pink Ferrari when hearing on the car radio he was about to be investigated by authorities.

The Shuttle once visited one of these medical centres (you could spot them for miles-pink) driving home late one night with a crushing migraine and decided to seek relief in the garish doctor's room. A man in a pink coat, presumably an MD who appeared to be inebriated said "you won't get any drugs out of me !". When I protested that surely that was the idea of being there he said"go on -buzz off you old junkie".

And so I did only to find the now wild haired medico banging on my car window outside the centre minutes later. Terrified I wound it down slightly and he said "you didn't sign your f***ing medicare certificate-you think I talk to idiots like you for free"

 10 minutes later I realised my migraine had miraculously disappeared in the drama of it all !

Marie turns down a $1.6M for the "Diana Diaries"

In 1996 Marie Sutton (left), an ex-nurse turned charity fundraiser conceived of an idea to raise funds for the Victor Chang Institute based at Sydney's inner city St Vincent's Hospital where Marie had once nursed patients.

Victor Chang was the brilliant Chinese born heart surgeon considered a world pioneer and had once saved the life of Kerry Packer, the late Australian media mogul. Highly respected around the world, Chang was brutally gunned down in a kidnap scheme gone wrong one sunny day in the leafy suburb of Mosman.

Princess Diana in Sydney with Olympic swimmer Sam Riley

One morning in 1991 as Chang set off for work his car was forced over to the curb by 2 men who attempted to kidnap the surgeon. They shot him dead instead.

In his honor The Victor Chang Institute was set up and Marie Sutton became a committee member trying to hash around ideas for a major fundraiser to get the charity off the ground.

As a friend of surgeon Hasnat Khan, long rumoured to be a lover of Diana, The Princess of Wales, Sutton contacted Khan who had also worked at St Vincents and requested that he ask the Princess if she would consider being the guest at the inaugural Victor Chang Institute dinner. Not only did Diana reply in a personal note to Marie, she confirmed that it would be the ideal charity event to announce her retirement from public life.

Marie had pulled off the almost impossible coup-the most famous woman in the world was coming to Sydney as the guest at the personal invitation from the former nurse from the country town of Mooree.

What followed was a year of negotiations as the complicated process of ensuring correct protocols were followed, government departments consulted , guest lists compiled -basically a bureaucratic nightmare ensured that was necessary in order to pave the way for a visit from Princess Diana and the expected 100's of members of the worldwide media that flocked wherever Diana went.

As negotiations wore on, Marie found herself beginning to be side-lined. People realised that this was the event of the decade and as Diana's last official event, everyone wanted a piece of the action. Politicians, society figures. British establishment figures, diplomats, Buckingham and Kensington Palaces and so on. Letters and faxes flew back and forth but throughout the year long negotiations Diana stood her ground and lent her support behind Marie Sutton.

It was Marie's idea and Diana-never having met her, remained loyal and built up a friendly relationship via letters, emails and regular phone calls.

For the Princess it was a normal run of the mill year. For Sutton it was whirlwind and she began to compile the correspondence in a book that became known as the Diana Files.

And so on October 31, 1996 Diana, The Princess of Wales, was the Guest-of-Honour at a Gala Fundraising Dinner for the Chang Institute at Sydney's Entertainment Centre. As she arrived looking sensational in a stunning blue silk gown a 1000 media representatives shouted questions and thousands of flashbulbs blinded everyone. The Shuttle was a guest at the dinner and then the following day at a lunch where Diana greeted children who were suffering from Aids.

Later that night, Diana under the cloak of darkness visited a hospice unannounced and spent over 4 hours chatting to patients.

Sutton became Diana's companion and confidante and relished the Princess's quirky sense of humour.

One insider says : "once as Diana driving through the city one day they passed St Mary's Cathedral as a bride ascended the stairs. Diana rolled down the window in her car and yelled out "don't do it !" to the startled wedding party "

10 months later Diana was dead in the infamous Paris car crash along with Dodi Fayed.

In 1998 as a guest of Diana's brother Viscount Althorp, Marie Sutton was invited to visit the island that was to become Diana's last resting place.Unusually she was allowed to take photographs of Diana's grave and the surroundings. Sutton's snaps show the beautiful black swans that glide around the small island like elegant guards for the Princess .

The beginnings of landscaped gardens are shown along with a monument in the shape of a tall plinth topped by an urn, both designed by Edward Bulmer and carved by Dick Reid, which was to stand among the greenery at the north end but had not yet been erected.

And finally there it is-a small mound of earth where the most famous woman in the world lies. Only one person outside the immediate family has ever been to that island. It is Marie Sutton and only 6 people have ever been shown the photos of the island Sutton took that day.

Earlier this year the infamous British blogger Madame Arcati revealed the story of Sutton's Diana Diaries. They read like a thriller as the letters start of as a friendly exchange between Diana, Sutton and Kensington Palace secretaries and Royal aides. And then various politicians enter the frame as they try to wrestle the project from Marie. Everyone wanted to claim the kudos for Diana's visit. But Diana stands firm and repeatedly re-assures Marie she will not abandon her as the originator of the project and sends letters to various officials stating that Sutton will be her official escort during her visit.

At times Diana discusses the most personal of family details with Sutton in letters. The problems she is having with the courtiers of the Royal Family, her former husband and touching and amusing tales of her sons antics.

There are intimate stories of her various lovers and even details of some the world had never known about. The identity of these alone would shock many.

As a document it would surely be a best seller as the story unfolds with dozens of private letters from Diana discussing the most private moments of her life.

In some ways Diana was very much like Jackie Kennedy and felt she would have to marry someone rich enough to shield her from the world but didn't think she would ever find the right person as she would only re-marry first for love . She was rumoured to have a deep affection for one man-an American politician who she had a brief affair with but he was married although soon to divorce.

The Madame Arcati blog conintiues : "Diana swas wary whether the British public would even accept her marrying an American. She often said that she would have to devote the rest of her life to ensuring she didn't embarrass her children, aware of Prince William's future role". At times Diana was treating freinds like a therapist, as though she needed to pour her heart out to someone. She seemed to be the happiest when talking about her children but could easily become quite depressed about the future. But then she would brighten up and begin to talk of how she could help so many others less fortunate than herself-that seemed to be the only role she could see as her future."

Diana was also denied a Royal title :"not because I'm grand" she would laugh." let's face it, my background is fairly grand" Diana would giggle. But it was the protection that came with a Royal title that she was now denied that hurt her. "I feel like they have abandoned me and don't give a damn what happens.
But Diana also always expressed how impressed she was with the ruling monarch Queen Elizabeth saying she was not just a rock for Great Britain but a kind and warm women which didn't always come across that way to the public.
 She described Her Majesty as a mother with a sharp intellect and an amazing down-to-earth realization about her role not just for the public at large but for her own family and how the Queen had to negotiate the trials and tribulations of daily family life which in the end, demonstrated not just her humanity but how the Royals really were like just any other family.

" I only ever received great kindness form her" said Diana.

In one note Diana says to a freind "I found myself in this role but the Palace courtiers did not prepare me for it. It would have been the same for any girl who had married Charles except if he had married the one who never left him alone" referring to Camilla."

Within days of the Madame Arcati story Sutton was fielding offers from publishers around the world. The final was just weeks ago-a staggering $1.6M advance from an American publisher. One British newspaper offered hundreds of thousands of pounds just for the grave site photos.

Sutton is adamant. "These diaries will never see the light of day while Princess Diana's sons are alive.'" she says. "They are an important historical document and Diana talks intimately of her past, present and her future hopes-dashed on the 31st August 2007. . Sutton says she has them now locked in a bank for safe-keeping.

# Marie Sutton is now the national ambassador for St John Ambulance.

## The Shuttle has been contacted by several readers to inform us that many pictures that are reputed to be the late Diana's grave appear on the internet. The photographs that can easily by googled do indeed show the plinth and urn as described above. These however are at the beginning of a small path that leads to the very centre of the island where Diana lies in a small grave completely shielded by the deliberately designed garden to shroud the actual grave from the visitors who flock to the estate and from the media. No photographs of the actual grave have ever been printed or are likely to be.

The island has the most secure electric security system that is monitored by guards. The garden is designed in such a way that trees overhang the actual spot to form an umbrella of foliage to completely shield the grave from overhead photographs taken from a helicopter.