smitten by his predecessor, Sergeant Barry Mannakee, a married man to whom she turned as a source of emotional comfort when she realised that her husband had resumed his affair with Mrs Parker Bowles. Always a lover of soft toys, Diana gave pride of place on her bed to a brown bear Mannakee had given her. Charles never asked where it came from and she kept it there for a number of years.
Even when the servants were around, Harry’s mother made no attempt to hide her warm feelings for the policeman. Once, as she was leaving for a dinner date, Diana wiggledher skintight-miniskirt-clad bottom at him and asked: ‘Do I look all right?’ Mannakee replied: ‘Sensational, as you know you do,’ adding, ‘I could quite fancy you myself.’ Diana giggled and said: ‘But you already do, don’t you?’ A former palace aide confides: ‘Everyone noticed that they just clicked. Whenever she had a problem she would go to Barry, always Barry.’ The balding policeman had been an unlikely companion on Diana’s endless shopping trips. They built up a bond on the Friday night drives from Kensington to Highgrove. ‘They called them their M4 chats, after the motorway,’ says the aide.
She used to like his candid conversations. She found it and him very refreshing. Charles was away all the time. William was a toddler, Harry was a baby and she felt she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. She’d look at Barry being brilliant with her children and wonder why Charles couldn’t be like that.
Soon Mannakee found himself coping with all Diana’s emotional turmoil. On one engagement she threw herself into his arms and sobbed: ‘I just can’t go on any more. I just can’t.’ Rumours about the couple quickly spread around royal staff. ‘It wasn’t just talk, it was a forest fire of gossip about Diana and Mannakee,’ said a family friend. ‘Prince Charles couldn’t just ignore it.’ Mannakee was suddenly moved to duties well away from Diana and from that moment they never saw each other again.
Wharfe is certain that Mannakee’s departure from Diana’s service was brought about by the below-stairs telegraph.
Butlers, staff in general, had ownership of her, inside control. If they wanted to get rid of someone they could. And that’s what happened to Barry. She adored him and she would invite him into her drawing room for afternoon tea – an unheard of practice for a senior royal. One servant would tell another and so on and sooner or later it reached [Superintendent] Trimming who, I believe, mentioned it to the Prince and Barry was out before his feet could touch the ground.
Wharfe is convinced, however, that the couple never had a sexual relationship: ‘I asked her, “Did you fuck him, Ma’am?” “No,” she replied, “you know I would tell you if I had, Ken. Charles got the wrong end of the stick.”’ That’s not what she was later to tell James Hewitt when he asked her where the brown bear on her bed had come from and without hesitation she told him it had been a gift from Mannakee: in
Love And War,
one of the books he penned subsequently, Hewitt writes, ‘I said it was a bit of a personal present to get from a bodyguard. She replied very simply, “He was my lover.”’
Mannakee was killed in a horrendous accident on 22 May 1987, just eight months after his enforced departure from Kensington Palace. He was riding pillion on a motor-cycle driven by another police officer in Woodford, Essex. Their Suzuki GS400 was struck by a Ford Fiesta driven by seventeen-year-old Nicola Chopp who had pulled out of a sideroad into their path. Mannakee, a father of two, died instantly. Diana could not control her grief. ‘Charles broke the news to her – albeit unemotionally – as they were on their way to France for the Cannes Film Festival,’ adds the talkative family friend.
The Princess, in worrying screaming fits, immediately began trying to slash her chest and wrists with her jewellery. Charles did nothing to
Even when the servants were around, Harry’s mother made no attempt to hide her warm feelings for the policeman. Once, as she was leaving for a dinner date, Diana wiggledher skintight-miniskirt-clad bottom at him and asked: ‘Do I look all right?’ Mannakee replied: ‘Sensational, as you know you do,’ adding, ‘I could quite fancy you myself.’ Diana giggled and said: ‘But you already do, don’t you?’ A former palace aide confides: ‘Everyone noticed that they just clicked. Whenever she had a problem she would go to Barry, always Barry.’ The balding policeman had been an unlikely companion on Diana’s endless shopping trips. They built up a bond on the Friday night drives from Kensington to Highgrove. ‘They called them their M4 chats, after the motorway,’ says the aide.
She used to like his candid conversations. She found it and him very refreshing. Charles was away all the time. William was a toddler, Harry was a baby and she felt she had the weight of the world on her shoulders. She’d look at Barry being brilliant with her children and wonder why Charles couldn’t be like that.
Soon Mannakee found himself coping with all Diana’s emotional turmoil. On one engagement she threw herself into his arms and sobbed: ‘I just can’t go on any more. I just can’t.’ Rumours about the couple quickly spread around royal staff. ‘It wasn’t just talk, it was a forest fire of gossip about Diana and Mannakee,’ said a family friend. ‘Prince Charles couldn’t just ignore it.’ Mannakee was suddenly moved to duties well away from Diana and from that moment they never saw each other again.
Wharfe is certain that Mannakee’s departure from Diana’s service was brought about by the below-stairs telegraph.
Butlers, staff in general, had ownership of her, inside control. If they wanted to get rid of someone they could. And that’s what happened to Barry. She adored him and she would invite him into her drawing room for afternoon tea – an unheard of practice for a senior royal. One servant would tell another and so on and sooner or later it reached [Superintendent] Trimming who, I believe, mentioned it to the Prince and Barry was out before his feet could touch the ground.
Wharfe is convinced, however, that the couple never had a sexual relationship: ‘I asked her, “Did you fuck him, Ma’am?” “No,” she replied, “you know I would tell you if I had, Ken. Charles got the wrong end of the stick.”’ That’s not what she was later to tell James Hewitt when he asked her where the brown bear on her bed had come from and without hesitation she told him it had been a gift from Mannakee: in
Love And War,
one of the books he penned subsequently, Hewitt writes, ‘I said it was a bit of a personal present to get from a bodyguard. She replied very simply, “He was my lover.”’
Mannakee was killed in a horrendous accident on 22 May 1987, just eight months after his enforced departure from Kensington Palace. He was riding pillion on a motor-cycle driven by another police officer in Woodford, Essex. Their Suzuki GS400 was struck by a Ford Fiesta driven by seventeen-year-old Nicola Chopp who had pulled out of a sideroad into their path. Mannakee, a father of two, died instantly. Diana could not control her grief. ‘Charles broke the news to her – albeit unemotionally – as they were on their way to France for the Cannes Film Festival,’ adds the talkative family friend.
The Princess, in worrying screaming fits, immediately began trying to slash her chest and wrists with her jewellery. Charles did nothing to
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