(24 Aug 1998) English/Nat The man who wrote the book detailing Princess Diana's suicide attempts, bulimia and isolation within her marriage to Prince Charles is speaking for the first time about how he received her full co-operation in the enterprise. Andrew Morton told APTV that it felt like being part of a spy thriller, receiving tapes from the Princess via an intermediary, which he translated into his explosive book. Written in 1992 and now updated, Diana Her True Story caused a storm within the Royal household and shocked the world. Andrew Morton's book - the world's bestseller last year - was dismissed as pure fantasy when it first came out. Hardly anyone could believe the tales of a Princess in the depths of despair, married to the heir to the throne who had a full time mistress. Princess Diana could not let anyone know of her involvement in Morton's writing because her story would have been prevented coming out. Instead she answered detailed written questions from Morton and replied on tape. She gave the recordings to a friend - James Colthurst - who passed them on to Morton. SOUNDBITE: The whole thing was rather like a spy thriller. It was very much undercover, very secretive and if the Establishment had got any wind of it then the cover would have been blown and the book would never have come out and the story of Diana, the story that the world knows today would not have been revealed. SUPER CAPTION: Andrew Morton, Royal author Morton is now able to speak about why Princess Diana wanted to tell her story in such a graphic manner. SOUNDBITE: I think the intention really was just to try and tell her story so that the world could understand the real Diana. Because remember, before the book came out she was seen as this rather demure and silent clothes horse - this attractive adornment to Prince Charles and she really wanted to tell her side of the story - what was really going on in her life. One of the things that fascinates me is the difference between myth and reality - the reality was that Diana was living an awful life, the myth was that it was this fairytale marriage. And in a way the book exploded the fairytale and people had to look again, look again at the monarchy, look again at Prince Charles, look again at Diana and see a woman who was beautiful, but also flawed, vulnerable and desperately alone. SUPER CAPTION: Andrew Morton, Royal author Intriguingly, Morton also believes it was a last gasp attempt to save, rather than wreck the marriage to Prince Charles. SOUNDBITE: One of the reasons for giving her deniability was that she always had - she wasn't painted into a corner - so that at some point she and Prince Charles could say to each other look, yes we've had a tough ten years, Prince Charles could say yes I have had a mistress and we're going to work together to work something out. That was the whole purpose behind deniability as well - it gave them the chance to come together. Obviously it didn't happen because they realised their differences were irreconcilable. SUPER CAPTION: Andrew Morton, Royal author The book detailed the extent of Prince Charles's involvement with Camilla Parker-Bowles for the first time. It's now an accepted part of recent history, but when the truth was told for the first time it came as a massive shock. SOUNDBITE: SUPER CAPTION: Andrew Morton, Royal author Morton came under heavy fire for his book. He was condemned as indulging in tittle tattle and nonsense. Few believed what he had to say and he could not call upon his main source - Diana - to help him out. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives ​​ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/f0e7ffa950cccba0d54786c645bb242c

• published: 21 Jul 2015
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