E-Paper
Diana wanted to move abroad: report
The Princess "frequently" spoke about her desire to move overseas and escape the constant paparazzi attention she received in the UK, a royal correspondent told her inquest.
Princess Diana "frequently" spoke about her desire to move overseas and escape the constant paparazzi attention she received in the UK, stressing people "must be sick of seeing me in the papers".
Princess of Wales "frequently" confided about her desire to give up her royal duties and move abroad and escape the uninterrupted paparazzi attention she received in Britain, a royal correspondent, who spoke to Diana only six hours before her death, told her inquest on Thursday.
"Perhaps my destiny is to go abroad". She felt the British people "must be sick of seeing me in the papers", Richard Kay, a correspondent with the Daily Mail told the jury.
Kay said the Princess of Wales phoned him to discuss her fears, concerns and dreams for the future. In the conversation, which lasted between 20 and 30 minutes, Diana said that she was concerned that the Fayeds were leaking details of her movements to the press. Diana was puzzled at how her and Dodi's every move was being anticipated by the press, Kay told the jury.
Diana feared that the police and security services were monitoring her calls, said Kay. "She used to change her mobile phone number regularly. After she had dispensed with her police protection around late 1993, she was at times concerned that she was being bugged," the correspondent was quoted by the Daily Mail as telling the jury.
The princess also revealed a desire to start a global charity called the Diana Hospices in her last conversation with the correspondent.
Kay, 50, now the Mail's diarist, said their final conversation was on the evening of August 30 1997, when Diana called him on his mobile phone from Paris, where she was staying with Dodi.