Read Online The Murder of Princess Diana by Noel Botham - Free Book Online
Authors: Noel Botham
Tags: History, England, Politics & Social Sciences, Social Sciences, True Crime, 20th Century, Biographies & Memoirs, Europe, Leaders & Notable People, Royalty, Media Studies, True Accounts, Murder & Mayhem, Princess Diana, Modern (16th-21st Centuries), Communication & Media Studies
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sexiness on display in public. She keeps her excellent figure hidden behind concealing clothes. And an almost obsessive demand for privacy in her off-duty life has kept this part of her personality away from the public.”
Her relationships were carefully conducted in private, and rarely prompted even a mention in the tabloids. The details of her affair with her personal detective Peter Cross were well known to the royal family, including Princess Diana, and the Queen feared at the time that a serious scandal might ensue. Suave, smooth-talking and something of a womanizer, Cross was already married with two daughters when he was transferred to duties with the Royal Protection Squad. “Peter was a bit green and gauche when he first joined the princess’s staff,” said a former servant, “but what he lacked in dress sense and social graces he made up for with his essential, down-to-earth masculinity which the princess simply adored.”
“Even though he was a royal detective,” revealed a former colleague, “he was not the most discreet of men. If he and Anne had been allowed to continue with their relationship, the palace was terrified he would brag about it and plunge the royal family into a major scandal.”
Cross was called to Scotland Yard for a meeting with Wilfred Gibson, the assistant commissioner in charge of royal protection, and sacked. He was accused of being overfamiliar with the princess, and was told he had “misunderstood her friendship.” Mark Phillips claimed that it was he who had Cross transferred to other duties after he discovered Cross’s true feelings for the princess, but the decision was actually made by Establishment figures who chose not to contradict Mark’s claims.
Even after Cross quit the force and joined an insurance company, his relationship with Anne continued. “It started with kisses and hand-holding,” revealed Cross later. But the affair quickly developed and they met once a month, either in an empty cottage on the Gatcombe Estate or at the home of Cross’s friend who loaned the lovers his keys. Mark complained about the embarrassing publicity, but all that earned him was the brunt of Anne’s legendary temper. Mark was told to mind his own business.
Eventually the affair dwindled into nothing and Cross began a new relationship; but for a few years he seemed to be the most important man in Princess Anne’s life.
“An army officer at Buckingham Palace amused the princess for a while,” explained a former aide, “then came her resurrected romance with Brigadier Parker Bowles.”
For a time it suited them both, but Anne was looking for someone new with whom to share her life. In 1986, Commander Timothy Lawrence was detailed to join Buckingham Palace as an equerry to the Queen. Aged just thirty and not very experienced with girls, he had a boyish air of innocence. Anne first saw him there on a visit to her mother: suddenly she was confronted by a new and eligible figure in military uniform, and romance gave way to a more urgent passion. Soon a new joke was making the rounds below stairs that the duties an equerry to the Queen had to fulfill were equivalent to a thirty-mile run—but without the boots, uniform or rucksack.
There is a consensus among Timothy and Anne’s friends that the well-mannered, career officer—known to his naval chums as Tiger Tim—was seduced by the princess. The tiger, they agreed, was no match for the royal tigress.
Tim’s feelings were so intense that he felt the need to commit them to paper. Four intimate letters proclaiming his passionate feelings for his royal mistress were stolen that April—and precipitated an official separation from Mark Phillips. Anne had valued the letters so much—reading and re-reading them over and over again—that she couldn’t bear to have them out of her sight. She carried them everywhere in her briefcase, and it was from there that they were stolen and passed to a tabloid newspaper.
This time, when she
Her relationships were carefully conducted in private, and rarely prompted even a mention in the tabloids. The details of her affair with her personal detective Peter Cross were well known to the royal family, including Princess Diana, and the Queen feared at the time that a serious scandal might ensue. Suave, smooth-talking and something of a womanizer, Cross was already married with two daughters when he was transferred to duties with the Royal Protection Squad. “Peter was a bit green and gauche when he first joined the princess’s staff,” said a former servant, “but what he lacked in dress sense and social graces he made up for with his essential, down-to-earth masculinity which the princess simply adored.”
“Even though he was a royal detective,” revealed a former colleague, “he was not the most discreet of men. If he and Anne had been allowed to continue with their relationship, the palace was terrified he would brag about it and plunge the royal family into a major scandal.”
Cross was called to Scotland Yard for a meeting with Wilfred Gibson, the assistant commissioner in charge of royal protection, and sacked. He was accused of being overfamiliar with the princess, and was told he had “misunderstood her friendship.” Mark Phillips claimed that it was he who had Cross transferred to other duties after he discovered Cross’s true feelings for the princess, but the decision was actually made by Establishment figures who chose not to contradict Mark’s claims.
Even after Cross quit the force and joined an insurance company, his relationship with Anne continued. “It started with kisses and hand-holding,” revealed Cross later. But the affair quickly developed and they met once a month, either in an empty cottage on the Gatcombe Estate or at the home of Cross’s friend who loaned the lovers his keys. Mark complained about the embarrassing publicity, but all that earned him was the brunt of Anne’s legendary temper. Mark was told to mind his own business.
Eventually the affair dwindled into nothing and Cross began a new relationship; but for a few years he seemed to be the most important man in Princess Anne’s life.
“An army officer at Buckingham Palace amused the princess for a while,” explained a former aide, “then came her resurrected romance with Brigadier Parker Bowles.”
For a time it suited them both, but Anne was looking for someone new with whom to share her life. In 1986, Commander Timothy Lawrence was detailed to join Buckingham Palace as an equerry to the Queen. Aged just thirty and not very experienced with girls, he had a boyish air of innocence. Anne first saw him there on a visit to her mother: suddenly she was confronted by a new and eligible figure in military uniform, and romance gave way to a more urgent passion. Soon a new joke was making the rounds below stairs that the duties an equerry to the Queen had to fulfill were equivalent to a thirty-mile run—but without the boots, uniform or rucksack.
There is a consensus among Timothy and Anne’s friends that the well-mannered, career officer—known to his naval chums as Tiger Tim—was seduced by the princess. The tiger, they agreed, was no match for the royal tigress.
Tim’s feelings were so intense that he felt the need to commit them to paper. Four intimate letters proclaiming his passionate feelings for his royal mistress were stolen that April—and precipitated an official separation from Mark Phillips. Anne had valued the letters so much—reading and re-reading them over and over again—that she couldn’t bear to have them out of her sight. She carried them everywhere in her briefcase, and it was from there that they were stolen and passed to a tabloid newspaper.
This time, when she
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