It’s only a few weeks until the 20th anniversary of Princess Diana‘s death, and the documentaries and tell-alls are popping up across TV networks.
One documentary in particular — National Geographic’s Diana: In Her Own Words — boasts audio from never-before-heard secret recordings, taped in 1991 at Kensington Palace for a biography about her life.
Diana: In Her Own Words features archival footage of the late royal with her ex-husband, Prince Charles, and her two boys, Princes Harry and William, in various stages of childhood. The visual imagery will be overlaid with Diana’s voice, played directly from the transcriptions.
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She discusses a variety of topics, including how she and Prince Charles met, his relationship with now-wife Camilla Parker Bowles, her personal battle with bulimia and her occasional thoughts of suicide. Of course, she describes at length how the pressure of suddenly becoming a royal was almost unbearable.
After the pair were married, Diana describes an isolation from both her own family and her new royal family; this is when she developed bulimia.
“Everybody knew about the bulimia in the family,” she says in the recordings. “They all blamed the failure of the marriage on the bulimia, and that’s taken some time to get them to think differently.”
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In one of the more jaw-dropping confessions, Diana says she confronted Bowles about the affair she was having with Prince Charles.
“I’m sorry I’m in the way,” she supposedly said to Bowles. “I’m in the way, and it must be hell for both of you. But I do know what’s going on, don’t treat me like an idiot.”
Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, has reportedly reached out to Britain’s Channel 4 and asked them not to air the recordings due to the pain it will cause her sons.
“The excerpts have never been shown before on television and are an important historical source,” said a spokesperson for Channel 4. “We carefully considered all the material used in the documentary and, though the recordings were made in private, the subjects covered are a matter of public record and provide a unique insight into the preparations Diana undertook to gain a public voice and tell her own personal story. This unique portrait of Diana gives her a voice and places it front and centre at a time when the nation will be reflecting on her life and death.”
Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris, France, on Aug. 31, 1997.
(You can watch the trailer and hear snippets of the recordings in the video, above.)
‘Diana: In Her Own Words’ airs on National Geographic on Monday, Aug. 14 at 9 p.m. ET.
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