Royal blind item? "The Celebrity Sex Broker – Part One"

Photo credit: Gawker.com

Sex trafficking, money laundering, fake passports and blood diamonds are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this behind the scenes look into the celebrity sex trade. Backed financially by two Middle Eastern royal families the day to day logistics are run by a man I call Bani.  Four months before Cannes and the start of the summer yacht season, Bani is in Hollywood negotiating deals and living up to his reputation as a man who can always find a price where a woman says yes. He is the sex broker between the stars and the men who want to fuck them.

Instead of shaming celebrities as they left swag suites loaded down with goods which will end up under Christmas trees later this year, two days prior to the Golden Globes I found myself roaming the 14th floor of the Beverly Wilshire looking for the correct suite. It was an entire floor of very large, very expensive suites and a  staff member had to assist me with the elevator because it doesn't normally stop on the 14th floor. That always makes rich people feel special. I don’t normally even stop at the Beverly Wilshire. I boycotted the place a couple of years back when I got the bill for an omelet and orange juice and it topped $50. They don’t know I’m actually boycotting. More of a silent thing. Well, they probably do now. Do you think they read this? Probably not, but their buddies over on Doheny do.

I can’t believe I am already digressing. Two weeks before I set off to look at carpet patterns on this hotel floor I received an e-mail. It was from a man who said that he saw me on Secret Societies Of Hollywood and had some information about one of the topics I discussed. I would like to think I was his first choice but apparently my buddy Mark Ebner was busy chain smoking or maybe the e-mail ended up in Mark’s spam. Anyway, I ended up e-mailing the guy and we had a back and forth. He didn't want to go into much detail through e-mail and I didn't really want to expose myself to sunlight. He might have mentioned a meal in one of the conversations and as you know, I will pretty much do anything for a free meal. When he said he was the go to guy for transactions involving models, actresses and reality stars for some of the richest people in the world, of course I was going to say yes.

I had no photo to go by. The night before my visit he confirmed our appointment and over the month he was in town we met several times, almost always in his hotel suite, and always always with a guy named Ravi by his side. Apparently Ravi used to be a Navy Seal. Ravi didn't say it. Ravi didn't say anything. He barely blinked. He was right at six feet tall with a buzz cut that hid his blonde hair. The guy is all muscle. As in bounce a quarter off the guy muscle.  My contact, the guy we will call Bani loved talking about Ravi and would not stop bragging about how he had a Navy Seal guarding him. At that point I wasn't sure why Bani needed security. All I knew was when he opened that door the first time we met, I couldn't help noticing the really nice view. It was just right there. I pointed it out to Bani who was dressed in a royal blue suit that must have cost more than I make in a month. His thick black hair was slicked back with some kind of product that made his hair look wet. It smelled a lot like olive oil. Probably something he found on the GOOP website. He is close to 60 but looked about ten years younger. Must be all the talking. The second I walked in the door Bani started talking about how his suite was the one Piers Morgan lived in while Piers worked at CNN. I think Piers had a different one, but Bani seemed pretty excited about it so I didn't want to make him feel bad. I would wait to see if he came through with a meal first.

I get a lot of e-mails. I get a lot of tips. I get a lot of tips through other people that give me tips. After the television show, the tips got out of control. After doing this for over eight years, you kind of get a sense what is real and when someone is not being completely honest or doesn't know what they are talking about.  There was a lot of that after the show. A whole lot of Illuminati people and how Beyonce and Jay-Z are taking over the world. Then Solange beat the crap out of Jay-Z on an elevator and all that stopped. Anyway, some guy e-mailing me from the Middle East is usually about as reliable as the ones I get from Nigeria.

What made me want to visit the guy? He sent me his photo and name and said if it was not him when I got to the hotel room I could leave. Yes, it sounded like an escort ad, but then again, isn't that what the guy does?

I put his name into the Google machine and there he was. Right there smack in one of the royal families. Upper smack, not lower.  Bani is what he agreed to be called. Kind of gives a clue, but also protects his identity.  So, from my Google search, Bani was definitely in a position to be in the know about the celebrity sex trade, but was he the real deal? At the time, I wasn't sure. But, for a free meal, I have done more stupid things so off I went.

After Ravi thoroughly patted me down to the point I’m pretty sure he knows if I am circumcised or not, the ground rules were set. No recordings and no photographs. Oh, and no notes. That wasn't going to be possible. I agreed to the conditions but the first time I went to the bathroom I saw a hotel pen and I remembered a scene from the book or movie from All The President’s Men and grabbed that pen and wrote notes on toilet paper. Over my interviews with Bani, I must have gone to the bathroom 15 times. I’m pretty sure he thinks I have prostate cancer.

I had so many questions, and unlike the finale of Lost, I actually got some answers. With the amount of information I got from him, I think this will be easier if we at least start from the origins of it all and then bounce back and forth. Bani gave me hundreds of names of celebrities, models, actresses who have all at one time or the other had sex for money. The thing is, he also had proof.  For every single person there was a receipt or photos or some other kind of written record that tied that celebrity to being paid for sex. I’m not sure how many names Bani went through in his books. At some points he would flip through pages like he was speed reading and other times he would slow down and even others completely stop what he was doing so he could elaborate on a person or a point I wanted him to clarify. Conservatively I say he gave me about 500 names. These names go back over four decades. From the last twenty years I probably knew eighty percent of the names. Prior to that, they had to be a big name for me to know. I was shocked by some and not by others. One of them married a friend of mine. Do I tell him?  Out of the 500, there were about a dozen that made my jaw drop. I actually knew about two of the dozen, but it was nice to actually know I had been right. To see that paper in front of you that shows you that the sister of a Duchess manages to finance her life by frequent weekend visits to the Middle East and that the permanent A++ list celebrity who might be the biggest A++ list celebrity of all-time was not above some one on one time. Bani says that the latter person was at one point the highest paid person ever but that she has since been eclipsed by several others who don’t hold a candle to the A++ lister.

How did all of this begin? Bani says it all started with Grace Kelly and Prince Ranier.  When the UAE was formed in the early 1970’s, apparently everyone in power wanted their own Grace Kelly.  They didn’t necessarily want to marry the woman but they wanted their friends and associates to know they had been with someone like Grace Kelly and that it would also be good business. At the time, the Emirates in particular were trying to draw companies to the region and employees for those companies. Even Qatar, who is way more conservative got into this little game, but is just much better at hiding it. At least at home. See, that was one of the original problems. As liberal as the UAE might seem in the Arab world, it is still the Arab world and certain things don’t need to happen at home. Where could they go that they could make things happen? Why not right by where Grace Kelly lived at the time.

Hello Cannes.

Source: Crazy Days and Nights

My best guess
Two Middle Eastern royal families = Al Maktoum royal family (Dubai); House of Thani (Qatar)
Sister of a Duchess = Pippa Middleton
Permanent A++ list celebrity = Princess Diana

Princess Diana visits Damart HQ in Bingley (1991)

In her own words: Princess Diana on why she had to die so young

"I believe there’s a lot of power in the bereavement process. I believe there’s a lot of power in memories. I’ll always be held in the hearts of many. If I had stayed alive, the work I would have done would have been in and out of the media. There would have been years when no one would be interested, and then there’d be a project or scandal that would pique media interest. 

But, since I've left this world, all they have to hold onto now is the memory of who I was and what I've accomplished. That will keep being played back over and over. Often, the memory, the bereavement for a person is much stronger than having that person stand in front of you. It’s that bereavement that will always keep me alive in peoples’ hearts."

Source: channelingerik.com

Princess Diana: The truth about my death is now being revealed

Today marks the sixteenth anniversary of Princess Diana's death. This year's observance has been overshadowed by recent allegations that she was murdered by the British military.

According to Diana, however, the timing of this revelation is no coincidence. Channeling psychic Anne Stewart, she discusses this and the impact on her sons in the below video:

Video pick: Sky Art's "The Book Show: 'Diana - Her True Story' "

"Andrew Morton’s controversial book ‘Diana: Her True Story’ surprised the world when it was first published. Now, in the book’s 20th anniversary year, Sky Arts determines how the publication’s revelations threatened the reputation of the Royal Family and irrevocably altered the relationship between press and monarchy.

In this exclusive Book Show special, Mariella Frostrup narrates the definitive story of Morton, his publisher and key players in the events leading up to the book’s publication in 1992. Through interviews, they look back at the influence this extraordinary book had on UK society, the press and within the Royal Family itself, who failed in their numerous attempts to stop the book from being published.

From press suspicion and character assassination to burglary and death threats, ‘Diana: Her True Story’ turned Andrew Morton’s life upside-down. In this candid interview he reveals how the opponents to his book attempted to discredit and destroy his reputation and how he struggled to cope under the pressure of the public reaction to his work.

Detailing in revealing insight, Morton explains how the Royal Family were suspicious of him from his time as the Daily Mail Royal correspondent and long before the book went into print. Following an investigation by Scotland Yard as to his insider sources, his office was broken into and his contacts documents and working files were ransacked.

The book’s serialisation in June 1992 by a cautious editorial team at The Sunday Times, created public hysteria as Morton was accused of orchestrating an elaborate hoax regarding the books’ revelations about an unhappy Princess Diana: her mental state, eating disorders, the breakdown of her marriage and her attempted suicides. He reveals how fellow journalists were briefed to write against him and leading retailers refused to stock the book. Morton received the protection of armed guards following death threats from an Irish terrorist group.

'Sky Arts has built a reputation for bringing its customers closer to writers, authors and books on television.” comments James Hunt, Sky Arts Channel Director. “Andrew’s story is fascinating and this Book Show Special will reveal in illuminating detail the repercussions this extraordinary book had on society and in shaping how we view the Royal Family today.' "

From the Royal Archives: "A personal loss: A grieving Princess Di flies to the bedside of a friend dying of AIDS"

Source: People Magazine

IT'S NO SECRET THAT PRINCESS DIANA IS less than thrilled by summer vacations at Balmoral in Scotland. But when she interrupted her family holiday there on Aug. 20, it wasn't just the standard royal getaway. Learning that her close friend Adrian Ward-Jackson, 41, was in the terminal stages of AIDS at St. Mary's Hospital in London, Di left Prince Charles and the children behind and anxiously rushed to his bedside.

Over the next three days, Diana visited Ward-Jackson, a successful art dealer, at least twice a day. As the end neared, the Princess settled in for an eight-hour bedside vigil on Aug. 22, during which she stroked her friend's hand and comforted his family. When an aide asked her when she planned to leave, Diana replied, "How could I leave him now, when he needs me most?"

That night she left the hospital at 10 P.M., instructing nurses to call her if Ward-Jackson's condition deteriorated. Sadly, the end was nearer than she imagined—just three hours later he died. When she was notified at Kensington Palace, Diana rushed back to the hospital at 1:30 A.M. and paid her last respects by kissing Ward-Jackson lightly on the forehead. She stayed with his grieving family until 8 A.M. "She proved to be a very, very special friend of Mr. Ward-Jackson," said a nurse. "Those last hours would have been much harder for him but for her support and kindness."

As patron of the National AIDS Trust, Diana has never hesitated to confront prejudices about the disease. In fact, in 1987, when ignorance about AIDS was still rife in Britain, she made the point that the disease was not easily transmissible when she extended her ungloved hand to grasp that of a patient at Middlesex Hospital. "Shaking hands with an AIDS patient is the most important thing a royal's done in 200 years," commented journalist Judy Wade after the event.

But Diana's visits to Ward-Jackson were more than symbolic. Over the past five years, as their interests and social orbits overlapped, they had developed a warm friendship, sharing a passion for ballet. "They were really quite close," says Marguerite Littman, founder of the AIDS Crisis Trust, of which Ward-Jackson was deputy chairman. "Adrian was heavily involved in fund-raising. The Princess came to all the galas."

Ward-Jackson enjoyed a discreetly gay lifestyle, sharing luxurious homes in London and New York City with companion Harry Bailey until Bailey's death from AIDS last year. When Ward-Jackson was diagnosed HIV-positive, he kept his illness secret from all but Diana and his closest friends. As his condition worsened, Di frequently visited him at home, reading to him for hours and holding his hand.

In her grief over Ward-Jackson's death, the Princess's commitment to AIDS patients is expected to deepen. "Diana has long campaigned against the stigma and ignorance faced by AIDS patients. But yesterday [with Ward-Jackson's death] she showed the very real depth of her caring nature," editorialized the Today newspaper. "When we see her hold a hand, it is not from duty but because she really does care.

MARY H.J. FARRELL
TERRY SMITH in London

Source: People Magazine (first published September 9, 1991)

Video: Charles and Diana officially open LOROS Hospice (May 30, 1986)

The fourth person in Diana's marriage (part II): "Diana's secret tapes forced Charles to admit he is at center of royal scandal"

Charles, Diana, and Michael Fawcett. Source: aangirfan.blogspot.com

"Prince Charles' aides panicked him into revealing he is at the centre of a serious allegation - after the aides learned intimate details still exist on one of seven video tapes Princess Diana made before her death six years ago.

The tapes were filmed at her request by a former BBC cameraman. Last week, he was interviewed by a senior MI6 officer at his home in California.

Afterwards, he broke six years of self-imposed silence to disclose all he knows about the tapes in an exclusive interview.

His revelations are guaranteed to escalate the crisis now engulfing the Royal Family.
"I was told by the intelligence officer that the tapes involve important matters for not just Charles, but the entire Royal Family. I cannot therefore say where the tapes are today. But they have definitely not been destroyed," he said.

Sir Michael Peat, the prince's private secretary, learned last Thursday that the tapes still exist.

Charles was immediately informed when he arrived in Oman. Next day, he issued his unprecedented denial to try and end mounting speculation about the incident.

The cameraman said he was told the tapes were stored in a bank vault in the United States.

Diana's former butler, Paul Burrel, has denied "they are anything to do with me".
This week, Royal legal advisers will explore how they can recover the videos that not only contain intimate details of Diana's marriage to Charles - but also deal with his relationship with Michael Fawcett.

Last week, Fawcett failed to keep his own name secret after the High Court in London refused to continue his injunction for privacy.

Prior to the four day court battle, a senior courtier at Clarence House had leaked to a Sunday national newspaper last week that the videos had been destroyed.
It was the opening shot in a desperate effort to avert the now burgeoning Royal scandal - culminating in the prince's extraordinary denial that no British newspaper can legally reveal what the allegation is based on.


Lurid details of the allegation are now widely published on the Internet. European and American media are planning to publish their versions of an allegation that no British newspaper can yet report.

That was the final reason the former BBC cameraman agreed to talk.
"I feel it important people in Britain know the facts. Then they can judge for themselves whether Sir Michael Peat's statement can be the final word," he said.

He requested his name and whereabouts in California should not be identified. His identity is known to this newspaper and his request will be respected.

"I have seen too many media feeding frenzies to be part of this one. I just wish to set the record straight on certain matters.

"There were seven tapes, not twenty as reported. They were shot on a camera Diana provided. My job was to set-up the technical side, framing and lighting.

"She retained the tapes. She told me she was placing them in a bank vault in America. I understand a close friend in New York arranged this.

"I believe the tapes still remain in the vault. I have made a statement about all this to the intelligence officer so that it can be given to the appropriate persons advising Charles."
The cameraman said he had "probably been offered the film job because I was known as a safe pair of hands. I had also worked on several Royal-related films for the Beeb and knew the form."

From time to time, he consulted notes he had made at the time of filming to refresh his memory. He spoke in a soft, modulated accent. It was agreed he would not be recorded.
"This is a one-off. I'm doing no more interviews," he said at the outset.

This is what the cameraman said are on the Diana tapes.
"She describes the incident that is now at the centre of what is happening. She spoke of her concern about Charles relationship with Fawcett. She believed it played an important part in the end of her marriage.

"She was very calm and factual. The only time I sensed her pain was when she spoke of Camilla Parker-Bowles. On one tape, she talks of catching Charles and Camilla de flagrante. She reveals that she had listened in to their phone sex talk. She said that Camilla was the raunchier of the two.

"On another tape she spoke of how she had pleaded with Charles to give up Camilla for the sake of the children.

"Diana said she had asked Princess Anne and Prince Andrew to help. She said they refused to lift a finger.

"But time and again, she came back to Fawcett. She described how she came across he and Charles whispering to each other in Palace corridors (Kensington Palace). Several times, she said she didn't like the way he seemed to dominate Charles, not just in a physical way, but mentally also.

"On one video, she spoke at length about sexual goings on among the Royal Household staff. She claimed Charles tolerated it. I made a note after one video filming that she spoke of one staff party being like something out of Caligula."

The cameraman described how he came to be asked to work on the film.
"In February 1997, I was approached by a former colleague at the BBC. He explained that Diana was not happy with the BBC Panorama interview with Martin Bashir and wished to make her own film. I was asked if I was interested. A fee of £5,000 was mentioned. A few days later, I was in Kensington Palace, in the same room where Bashir had done his famous ëthree in a bed' interview with Diana.

"Diana explained she would not need me to ask any questions to prompt her and she said she had been coached in how to face a camera.

"From the start, she was very professional. All I had to do was supervise the camera. She would talk into it. There would be no "cutaways' or what are known in TV as ëbridging shots'. She said that after each video I would check its quality and hand it to her. There would be no other copy made.

"The first filming took place in early March 1997. I arrived by taxi at Kensington Palace. She was waiting for me in the drawing room. I set up the camera and positioned the chair on which she sat. It was like doing a home movie, a video diary. I used the room lights.
"The first video runs for an hour. The others, I recall, were a little shorter. The last one was about 40 minutes and dealt with her hopes for the children.

"At the end of the final session, she handed me an envelope. It contained my full fee in cash."

The cameraman emphatically denied reports that the tapes were the ones which had been seized from Paul Burrel's home in Cheshire two years ago.

"Whoever was involved in those tapes, it was not me. Burrel was not there when I worked with Diana. Also the report that Diana was emotional when filming is not true. She was very calm and knew exactly what she wanted to say. There were no hesitations or retakes. It was a very professional performance," he said.

"I asked her what she planned to do with the tapes. She smiled and said ëkeep them in a safe place', something like that. I later learned they had been couriered to a close friend in New York to place in a bank vault. I am told the tapes still exist."

The decision to involve the secret intelligence service came after high-level discussions in Whitehall.

"While the tapes are unlikely to have any bearing on national security, their contents have a direct bearing on the Royal Family and it is the duty of the security service to protect the Crown," said a source.

The world's foremost private detective, Julius Kroll, will be asked to help Prince Charles recover the videos.

On returning to Britain, Charles was told by Royal lawyers that they could mount a successful case to reclaim the tapes as they form part of Diana's copyright over which Princes William and Harry could now claim full rights.

Prince William and Camilla Parker-Bowles, key members of the crisis management team Charles set up before he flew home from Oman, will also urge him to have an urgent meeting with Britain's two security chiefs to explore what one Royal insider has called "a plot to destabilise the entire Royal Family".

Both Sir Richard Dearlove, head of MI6, and Eliza Manningham-Buller, director of MI5, have already indicated in briefings to Downing Street that "the sustained campaign of smears" is already having a world wide effect on the Royal Family.

Kroll and his team of high-priced detectives - the firm charges Stg £1,000 an hour upwards - have been employed by governments all over the world to discover the hidden secrets of the powerful and notorious.

The US government used them to uncover the whereabouts of billions of dollars hidden by Philippine's president Ferdinand Marco and his wife, Imelda. The Haitian government asked Kroll to trace even more billions laundered through world banks by the island's former dictator, Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier.

Currently the agency is helping to locate Saddam Hussein's secret fortune.
The 62 year-old super detective has investigated the late newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell who stole his staffs' pensions."

Source: Rense.com (first published November 10, 2003)

Video: "Diana - The Fairytale Princess" (2002)

The fourth person in Diana's marriage: "Diana's secret agony over 'sexless' marriage"

Prince Charles, Princess Diana, and Michael Fawcett (behind Diana) in 1990. Source: Image Collect

"Sensational new details emerged in the press last night about the video diary in which Princess Diana tearfully describes the lonely despair of her loveless marriage.

The video was uncovered by detectives investigating theft allegations against former royal butler Paul Burrell during a raid at his home two years ago. They were looking for evidence for his trial which eventually ended with his aquittal.

In the secret tape, made in the mid-1990s, Diana also attacks the bizarre relationship between Prince Charles and his butler, Michael Fawcett. And she tells of her yearning to run off with 'James' and start a new life with him and her children. Though she doesn't give his surname, the man is believed to be her one-time lover James Hewitt.

The bombshell tape lay hidden for five years in the loft of former butler Paul Burrell. In it, the Princess appears softly spoken and sad one minute, while the next she is sobbing or raging against the treatment she received at the hands of the Royal Family.

Of her marriage she is understood to say: "I am not loved. Charles just loves Charles and his position. I have tried to love Charles but he loves someone else." She revealed that although she and her husband lived together at that time, they had only a "father and daughter" relationship.

Dressed demurely in pink cardigan, white blouse and pearl earrings, she claims Charles once told her that her only purpose was to provide an heir to the throne.

Although she does not name Camilla Parker Bowles, she adds that she is sure Charles is doing "something with someone else" because he is always so "disinterested" in their relationship. After a tirade against the fawning royal servants, she is understood to say: "It's not an equal relationship. It's 100 per cent what Charles says he gets, plus we don't even sleep together".

She attributes much of the blame to Fawcett, who was recently forced to quit his job in the royal gifts-for-sale scandal. She says she can't come between them as there will be "eruptions". And she complains that she and her husband can never talk like a normal married couple because Fawcett is always there "next to Charles".

The two men apparently spent many hours alone in Charle's appartment at Highgrove. Refering to this, Diana adds: "If Fawcett was a woman I could see it, but what are you doing spending so much time with Fawcett and neglecting your family?"

Bemoaning her fate as a "prisoner in the House of Windsor" she yearns for the "freedom and liberty" she enjoyed as a single girl in London. It is here that she thought to refer to Hewitt. She tells of wanting to make a new life in "a loving relationship" with a man who can show he loves her. At one point she says she is feeling more secure now than she has ever felt - this again is thought to be a reference to Hewitt.

She worries frquently about her sons and says Prince William will make a better king than Charles will ever be. Then she says she hopes William and Harry will have better lives than her "drab existance".

Finally she turns her wrath on other members of the Royal Family. She claims the Queen doesn't like her, dismissing her as "dizzy". Then, her anger mounting, she adds: "As for Philip. I am sure he is short of a picnic (sic). I wonder if he doesn't have Alzheimer's, you just can't get through to him. Is this how Charles will turn out?"

At the end of the tape a male voice in the background says "that's enough" and the tape ends."

http://www.marineman.ws/article.php?sid=14

Source: Rense.com (first published October 29, 2003)

Princess Diana: The musical - "There was a time"

Princess Diana: I'm so miserable now (Spitting Image videoclip)

"Spitting Image" was "a British satirical puppet show that aired on the ITV network from 1984 to 1996" (source: Wikipedia). Nobody was off limits, including the Royal Family. Below is a 1992-93 clip in which Princess Diana bemoans her miserable life with Charles:

To put this clip in context, Andrew Morton's explosive biography of the princess had been published earlier that summer, which extensively cataloged her despair over her loveless marriage. In addition, the so-called "Squidgy tapes" had been leaked, in which Diana discussed her miserable Christmas with the royals.

 And yes, that is Jimmy Saville introducing Diana.

Video pick: "Princess Diana: Behind the Panorama interview"

Photo credit: BBC

On November 20, 1995, the BBC aired a secretly recorded interview with Princess Diana during its Panorama programme, in which she openly and unabashedly discussed her despair over her loveless marriage, her insecurities, her hopes for the future, and her dreams with interviewer Martin Bashir. The British Establishment was totally caught by surprise, Prince William was deeply upset, Diana later regretted doing it, and a chain of events began that ended with her death eighteen months later.

Today's video pick, "Princess Diana: Behind the Panorama Interview," takes a look at how this dramatic piece of television history came to be. You can watch the documentary below:


Watch Princess Diana - Behind the Panorama Interview in Educational & How-To  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Royal flashback: Charles and Diana at the 1985 Melbourne Cup

Princess Diana and Prince Charles at the 1985 Melbourne Cup with Australian businessman John Elliott (left).

Prince Charles' and Camilla Parker-Bowles' appearance at this year's Melbourne Cup during their Australian tour has invoked memories of a prior royal visit to the Cup. According to TV NZ:

"The last time Prince Charles was at the Melbourne Cup 27 years ago, so the story goes, he left his wife by herself so he could join the boys at the bar.

And one chivalrous trainer thought it was unbecoming of the Prince of Wales to leave Princess Diana on her own.

John Meagher had just collected the loving cup from Prince Charles and joined the dignitaries upstairs in the VRC committee room after What A Nuisance had saluted in the 1985 race, but rather than join the blokes at the bar, the Queensland trainer played the proper gentleman when he spotted the lonely Princess of Wales.

'Charles went up to the committee room with the men to the bar, he was surrounded by all the committee men,' Meagher says.

'Diana was on her own with her lady in waiting, standing at a table about 20 feet away from the men. All alone.

'So I just went over to her and knew I had to do the right thing, so approached the lady in waiting and asked to be introduced. I had a good long talk to Diana for about 20 minutes.

'She was very friendly and very relaxed.'

The pair shared some champagne and small talk, while the tensions between Charles and Diana soon became apparent."

Reading between the lines, three things immediately stand out: (1) the intense and severe isolation that Diana was already experiencing from her husband and his circle of staff and friends; (2) the beginning of Charles and Diana drifting into two separate courts; and (3) how the public facade (per the above photo) convincingly hid the devastating truth of a royal marriage coming apart at the seams.

From the Royal Archives: The secret of Princess Diana's charm

Royal blind item: Which royal love child story did Princess Diana believe?

Photo credit: Gawker.com

Royal blind item: Which royal love child story did Princess Diana believe?
The existence of royal love children is an interesting subject. Although history is littered with examples, only two children fathered by living royals have been officially acknowledged in recent times: Prince Albert of Monaco has admitted that he is the father of Jazmin Grace Grimaldi and Alexandre Coste.

King Albert II of Belgium is reputed to be the father of artist Delphine Boel, although this has not been confirmed. The late Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands (father of Queen Beatrix) had two illegitimate daughters, Alicia von Bielefeld and Alexia Grinda-Lejeune, recognised after his death, although rumours persist of more children outside marriage. Some also believe the Duchess of Cornwall, formerly Camilla Parker-Bowles, is descended from Edward VII through his mistress, Alice Keppel.

Then there are some disputed claimants. Robert Brown, an accountant from Jersey, came forward to say he was Princess Margaret’s secret son with Group Captain Peter Townsend, but failed to convince a judge. Attempts to prove that Prince Philip fathered two children, Max and Louise Boisot, with his childhood pal, Helene Cordet, have come to nothing.

At one stage, there were several putative offspring of the late Duke of Windsor popping up in the UK press. Fanny Cradock, a wild-eyed television cook, even wrote a novel called The Windsor Secret in which Wallis Simpson gave birth to the Duke’s son. To this day, nobody has produced reliable evidence that he ever had any children.

However, the Duke of Windsor apparently did believe that Michael Canfield, the first husband of Jackie Onassis’s sister, Lee Radziwill, was the secret son of his younger brother, the Duke of Kent, who was killed in 1942. What a film the mysterious Mr. Canfield’s life story would make! The bisexual Duke may also have been the father of Raine Spencer, Princess Diana’s stepmother — at least that’s what Raine’s mother, novelist Barbara Cartland, once told respected writer Michael Thornton.

So what about modern royals? Whispers that Diana’s father might have been the late Sir James Goldsmith have been discounted, but there are two recurring rumours concerning secret paternity that I still wonder about and neither concerns Prince Harry, who is definitely the son of Prince Charles and looks more like him and the Queen every day. Diana believed one of the tales about current royal love children to be true — and she knew the secrets of all the world’s royal families. Diana told a friend, who told someone else, who told someone else …who told me.

Source: The Morton Report

My best guess
Prince Andrew, the rumored son of Henry Porchester, 7th Earl of Carnarvon (Queen Elizabeth II's racing manager)

Video Pick: "Charles and Diana: Unhappily ever after"

Starring Roger Rees and Catherine Oxenberg as the ill-fated Prince and Princess of Wales, "Charles and Diana" offers a compelling and dramatic insight into their marriage breakdown. As with most reenactments, fiction doesn't always match up to reality. For example, Diana's first speech (in Wales) is shown as a daytime affair, when in reality it was an evening event. Also, major characters such as James Hewitt are noticeably absent. These are minor hiccups in an otherwise brilliant portrayal of two royal figures who, in the end, desperately longed to be free to find someone to love and someone to love them, to paraphrase Oxenberg's character.

My intense dream about Princess Diana

I had an interesting dream about Princess Diana yesterday morning. We were sitting in a restaurant enjoying ourselves. However, the atmosphere was ruined by Prince Charles' absence. I put my arms around her and said "It's too bad Daddy (Prince Charles) can't be here." Diana shushed me, agitated by the presence of an eavesdropper at the next table.


 I got up and went to a cooler/fridge to get the both of us something to drink. I barely had time to ask her whether she wanted apple juice or orange juice, when the eavesdropper quietly confronted her. He told her that he was a reporter, and demanded that she give him the information he needed to write a story about her.

Seeing her obvious and palpable distress, I grabbed a pair of black pliers and held them at his throat, shouting at him and making a scene so that he could get thrown out of the restaurant. It was then that I woke up.

Diana, Charles, and Camilla: Love at first sight

Photo credit: Love at First Sight

Prince Charles, so the story goes, chose Lady Diana Spencer to be his wife because of her valuable qualities:  she was a young, pretty, virginal, and sweet tempered Protestant from one of Great Britain's most aristocratic families. However, did their subconscious attraction to each other's facial features and facial proportions help seal the deal?

This is the intriguing angle examined in Love at First Sight, by British portrait painter Suzi Malin. The book was sparked while painting a posthumous portrait of the Princess of Wales, when Malin noticed similar facial features between Charles and Diana. What followed was five years of research. According to the book, there are three types of visual attraction. In the case of Charles and Diana, their attraction was one of the most famous cases of  harmonism. They had similar facial proportions; although their features were different, the spacing between their features were the same.

Malin also states that "when brothers have similar facial proportions and each takes a harmonist partner their wives might well look alike." This may help to explain the striking resemblance between Diana and Sophie, Countess of Essex.

Malin argues that harmonists "like the way the other looks and feel comfortable with them, but because they fall in love with the outside appearance, if the inner beauty doesn't match up, the relationship starts to feel hollow. Such pairings have a high casualty rate." Little wonder, then, that Charles' and Diana's celebrated marriage fell apart in such an appalling manner.

Photo credit: Taman Kanak-Kanak Sanggawinaya Blog

Malin asserts that Camilla Parker-Bowles' resemblance to Charles' nanny Mabel Anderson is more than a coincidence. This is an example of another type of visual attraction, called prima copulism, where one romantic partner "is drawn to the other as they are subconsciously reminded of their first love - their mother or father." The first love can also be a nanny if she was an important figure in that person's life.
At the end of the day, we can't help who we're attracted to, and it seems that royals are no different.





Sources: (1) "Face facts about falling in love", Sunday Sun, February 8, 2004; (2) "Suzi Malin", New London News newsletter, September 2007.

Diana: The coolest princess

In an earlier blog post, I highlighted an International Business Times article that tried to explain why Prince Harry was the coolest royal. Well, no wonder he is so cool...in the September 1990 edition of Royalty magazine:

In my opinion, this emphasizes the point that Diana has influenced her children's values, traits, and mannerisms in so many ways. I hope that Harry continues to infuse Diana's compassion, informality, and courage into his own public life.