Eager Brits Get Preview Of Di’s Show Princess Rules Out Divorce During Interview, Paper Says
Expectant Britons on Sunday got a sneak preview of a hotly-anticipated interview with Princess Diana, who reportedly rules out a divorce even though she admits her marriage to Prince Charles is effectively over.
London’s pro-monarchy Sunday Telegraph claimed it had obtained highlights of Diana’s first solo television interview, which BBC producers had gone to extraordinary lengths to keep secret before it airs in Britain on Monday night.
Citing quotes from the taped interview that were supplied by “television insiders associated with the production,” the newspaper said that Diana will deny she is seeking to destroy the royal family by talking publicly about her broken marriage.
“Why should I wish to destroy my children’s future?” she is quoted as saying.
In ruling out a divorce, she reportedly explains: “There are two children involved here.”
According to the newspaper, Diana refuses to take revenge against her estranged husband for his admission, in a television interview 17 months ago, that he had an adulterous affair with the now-divorced Camilla Parker Bowles.
She says she “understands” Charles’s decision to reveal the relationship and refuses to blame him for doing so, the Telegraph reported.
About her future, the newspaper quotes her as saying: “I don’t want pity. I have more dignity than that. I’m strong, here to serve, and happy to do it.”
And, the Sunday Telegraph reported, she rejects suggestions that she might leave England to build a new life in another country.
“I’m not going to let the country down,” she is quoted as saying. “I’m not going to run away … my children’s future is here.”
The Sunday Telegraph’s apparent scoop probably will not dampen public interest in the hour-long interview.
More than 30 million Britons, maybe a record audience, are expected to be wired to their television sets Monday evening to learn what the princess has on her mind, up her sleeve and in her heart.
It is her first one-on-one television interview and has been billed as a frank discussion about her haunted marriage, her estranged husband, their two sons, the besieged royal family, and her future as a frustrated young woman who can’t meet or befriend a man without provoking wild rumors.
The interview will be shown simultaneously in 112 countries on the BBC’s world cable, satellite and subscription service. Americans can view the program next Friday on ABC’s “Turning Point.” According to reports in London, ABC paid $1 million for telecast rights.
In Britain, where there is an insatiable appetite for information about the House of Windsor, the long-awaited airing of the interview has put royal-watchers in a tizzy. Friends of Diana have said her comments will be “upbeat and supportive of the monarchy,” but nervous friends of Charles have labeled Diana’s interview “deceitful” and underhanded.