ORIGINAL POST AUGUST 27th 2006




"I have made a point of saying that on my site I will speak the truth about everything and so it is time for me now to speak about my relationship with the media which was a "Cat n' Mouse Game" actually. I became quite a good spin - doctor in promoting myself with them which was something I had to do as it was important for me to learn the art of manipulation, rather that than continuously be manipulated by them and their victim though invariably with certain articles printed and particularly now when I am no longer physically anyway around to defend myself against them this precisely is what's happening of course but I think it can be seen, indeed is something becoming more and more apparent and particularly here on my personal site that even now I don't miss a trick! That was of course a lot of the problem, people underestimated me in all kinds of ways and no less so the media themselves who more often than not had to bargain with me about certain issues. 


Deliberately I encouraged a friendship with journalists and editors so that I could be kept personally aware of the way things were and they were invaluable contacts and extremely helpful to me, it became known that "Richard Kay" and I were friends and that's as far as our relationship went before suggested by someone otherwise. I also invited journalists and editors to meet with me privately and at one meeting with Wills in attendance as I wanted him to see for himself how the media machine operated and for him to meet some of the people anyway who might eventually prove themselves to be as useful to him as they were proving themselves to be to me because of course and particularly after the divorce I needed very much media support in promoting myself which I have to say they proved extremely instrumental in doing. It has been suggested I was a manipulator and I was but better I thought to be controlling the image I wanted projected of me than allowing that image to be created by other people. Being in the control of it obviously I could then be seen to be illustrating that image as opposed to trying to act a role of another’s imagination and creation and therefore the result being something a lot more credible and believable obviously !  Do I mean by this that my " doing good deeds" as it were was just a ploy to gain media attention and put me in the spotlight and overshadow the royals, well not entirely in the sense that even as an official royal I was always people orientated and welcomed quite naturally a relaxed and informal connection with them and most especially those in less fortunate circumstances as well as the sick and the dying and encouraged this, they actually were extremely supportive of me at a time when they were not aware just how valuable and important and indeed somewhat comforting their personal support of me was ... very difficult times for me albeit behind the scenes and even the extent of which at that time anyway not being something the media themselves had full knowledge of .. So meaning during the marriage though of course gradually the cracks in it became more and more obvious and were headline news long before the eventual official separation and later divorce. That happening to a large extent because the actress in me had tired of her lines and play acting.  



Privately of course it had long been a different story so meaning within the family and friends who knew the reality of everything which is why of course I was encouraged to consult Andrew Morton and to tell my story in secret naturally, threatened actually by them who saw how ill I was becoming and who let me know they were worried and if I didn't tell it as it was they would, so pretty much a case of my having no personal choice in the matter actually! After the divorce I had to ensure that I promoted myself more as I was now pretty much centre stage and certainly star - attraction and particularly when it became apparent to everyone just who my ex husband had chosen over me, it was a complete mystery by so many as to why including I have to say his own father who let this be known publicly but never the less I was pretty much out on a limb and needed therefore to do something constructive and positive with if you like my celebrity.



People were left wondering what I was going to do. To disappear would not have been fair to the public who had already made it so apparent to me that I was loved and so began my re - invention as termed by the media, I was always me but being single allowed me to shine in my own right a lot more predominantly and I knew something was expected from me which is why I involved myself in helping other people in a very real way and promoting certain causes that were of very great importance to me. The media following my every movement were marvellous in assisting me in this as I knew they would be as proven when I'd set - up to be photographed alone outside the Taj Mahal to show the world that I was alone in my marriage but of course promoting me publicly meant also that in their opinion anyway they had the right to intrude in my personal life which they did equally so and which was not always pleasant. I spoke of bargaining powers being used earlier and by example they caught me leaving the hospital where my boyfriend of the time Hasnat Khan was working and I'd been on a late night visit to him and I agreed with them that they could write about my late night visits to the hospital with the twist that it was to see patients there and not him which of course gave them the story they wanted and at the same time protected my privacy and indeed his which was important to him professionally, neither of us wanting patients of his interviewed for the latest scoop, in the précis about him it being noted he is a very private person and so to this day retained a loyalty to me and never spoken publicly about our relationship which is something very honourable of him to do and greatly appreciated by me.



The media also were used by me when I wanted "Out" of certain situations as by example with Will Carling who arriving for a private meeting with me found the press waiting for him instead which naturally gave them a story resulting in his wife consulting solicitors and needless to say he and I had not had a relationship except perhaps in his wild imagination and I'd called them having tired of his personal attention to me and he not having realised this. It is well known by people who knew me that I was always someone who spoke directly and bluntly about things so it's not as if I had not tried to tell him numerous times but he wasn't listening to me! In the summer of 1997 when I was aware that my ex husband was desperately trying to promote his then mistress now wife of course and bring her out of the shadows I deliberately again called upon the media to assist me in making sure that this didn't happen and so numerous photographs of Dodi and I having fun in the sun were taken including the famous " Kiss " photograph which left little doubt in people's minds that this was a very real and passionate romance. I'd found love and wanted to share in this fact with the world who had witnessed the heartbreak and betrayals that I'd experienced before finding it with him.



I have already said that my entertaining my relationship with Dodi was not done deliberately to make Hasnat jealous as some people are choosing to say, not at all as our relationship had ended, our realising it having no chance of survival against such high odds, his religion and his family's non - acceptance of me as a suitable wife for him. It is now still a matter of conjecture as to whether the relationship with Dodi would have survived as some people are quoting my saying that it was just a summer romance ... well it was early days for both of us admittedly but I'd spent three holidays with him, introduced him to the boys, they having initially holidayed with us in fact, so not someone therefore whose company I did not enjoy and what reason would there be for me to suddenly call it off when he was so encouraging to me and accepting of my work which he realised was so important to me and I'd personally encouraged us to be caught on camera intimately with each other so hardly the actions of someone who might then encourage upon herself a negative publicity as by example illustrating herself to be in the words of my ex husbands father, a harlot ? I personally would think this to be highly unlikely as it would provide very powerful ammunition to be used against me by my enemies in both camps, the royals themselves and of course the establishment and that I wouldn't have done as it would naturally have affected my boys opinions of me but as I say that was the problem I was so often misunderstood, misrepresented and underestimated and here on my personal site take the opportunity therefore to set the record straight about a number of issues in ways only I can and hopefully they to be believed in by those taking notice of my site and the need and purpose for it! "



DIANA D