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.
Showing posts with label park lane. Show all posts
Showing posts with label park lane. Show all posts
Monday, June 20, 2016
Marie to tell All about Princess Diana
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Thursday, October 1, 2015
Princess Diana's Aussie pal may write a book
Diana & Sutton |
'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.
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