Latest news with #PanoramaInterview
Telegraph
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Princess Diana ‘was not a gay icon'
She has an enduring legacy as a gay icon, celebrated for her campaigning for HIV awareness. But Princess Diana might not have actually been as popular with the gay community as first thought. According to author Edward White, a survey carried out after her death in 1997 found that many gay and lesbian people were 'insulted' by the former Princess of Wales's association with them. Speaking to the History Extra podcast, Mr White said: 'Diana was kind of embraced, I think, by a lot of gay people as being kind of an ally or an icon. 'There's an absolutely fascinating resource that I drew on that's called the National Lesbian and Gay Survey. 'After Diana's death, they asked their respondents to write in and give their take on Diana's death and how they felt and what they felt it meant to gay people.' He added: 'Some people were absolutely horrified that Diana should be considered to be an important person in gay life at all, because she's this ultra-privileged ... She's basically a poster girl for heteronormative couples. 'You can't get straighter than Princess Diana.' Diana advocated for HIV awareness and in 1987 she broke new ground by publicly shaking hands with gay men with Aids. She also opened the first purpose-built unit for HIV and Aids at the London Middlesex Hospital. Talking about his book Dianaworld: An Obsession, Mr White said Diana's 1995 Panorama interview saw her become associated with the gay community He said: 'It kind of has a parallel to other sorts of interviews of the time such as George Michael's one, which is essentially like Diana doing a coming-out interview in the Panorama in 1995 as much as it is a kind of a whistleblowing interview.' Mr White said there were also respondents on the survey that held the positive view of Princess Diana that has continued to this day. He continued: 'Other people at the same time felt like she was, you know, their most important ally and that she took the discrimination that gay people faced as part of their daily lives and she did an awful lot to kind of combat it. 'And not just because of her involvement with the HIV issue, but because she was known to be friends with gay people and she was seen to be a great ally. 'Other people that wrote into this survey, they suggested that what was great about her is that she actually cut across all of these kinds of identities and that everybody could kind of find their own Diana, whether you were gay, straight or anything else.'
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Why Princess Diana Regretted Mentioning One Former Lover in 'Panorama' Interview, Per Royal Expert
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Princess Diana's Panorama interview became instantly famous as the royal opened up about everything from her marriage to King Charles to their alleged affairs. While discussing how Princess Diana might have reacted to Prince Harry's BBC interview, royal expert and author Ingrid Seward also dished on the one aspect of the Panorama interview Princess Diana regretted. During an appearance on Hello!'s "A Right Royal Podcast," Seward discussed Diana's initial thoughts after filming the 1995 interview with Panorama. "I saw her quite shortly after that, so obviously I asked her, and she said, 'No, I don't regret any of it,'" Seward claimed. The royal expert continued, "She said, 'I got thousands of letters about other people who suffered from anorexia and bulimia.'" However, there was one thing the former Princess of Wales allegedly wished she hadn't discussed. According to Seward, Diana told her, "The only thing I felt a bit bad about was talking about James Hewitt." The royal expert continued, "She had said, if you remember, that she was in love with him, or had been in love with him, and she felt bad for William and Harry saying that." Hewitt was Princess Diana's horseback riding instructor, and the pair reportedly had an affair between 1986 and 1991. Aside from discussing her relationship with Hewitt, Diana allegedly "thought [Panorama] was a successful interview." Seward also discussed how she believes Princess Diana would have reacted to Prince Harry giving such a candid interview to the BBC. "I think she might have been proud," Seward said during her appearance on the show. Seward continued, "I think she would, I'm guessing, that she might have been quite proud of him for speaking up and saying what he thought, because that's what she liked. She liked to say exactly what she thought and then deal with the consequences afterwards, which is, of course, what happened to her."
