Princess Diana’s former personal trainer, who worked with the royal for the last six years of her life, has opened up about their relationship – and why she used to beg the Princess not to tell her secrets
Diana’s former personal trainer used to plead with her not to share her secrets – for a heartbreaking reason.
Jenni Rivett, 65, worked with Princess Diana during what was likely the most tumultuous period of the royal’s life, as her marriage publicly broke down.
Diana and King Charles – then Prince of Wales – were engulfed in a PR battle often dubbed the ‘War of the Waleses’ as they tried to get their side of things across to the public during their acrimonious separation.
The personal trainer was a first-hand witness to Diana’s life during this difficult period, as she worked with her for six years between 1991 and 1997 – right up until the royal’s untimely and tragic death, with the pair booked in to continue their workout sessions after Diana was due to return.
Diana died in a car crash in Paris in August 1997 while holidaying with her then boyfriend Dodi Fayed. Her driver was drunk and crashed the vehicle while trying to get away from paparazzi who were chasing the car. All but one passenger died in the accident.
Jenni and Diana were due to have some training sessions just days later – but they never came. The South African trainer received the heartbreaking news that her long-time client had died through a pal – and it’s taken her nearly three decades to feel like she can discuss Diana and the wonderful memories they shared.
The pair shared a close relationship, Jenni told the Mail Online, but on occasion, she would plead with Diana not to tell her private details of her life, for a seriously devastating reason.
“Sometimes Diana would tell me things so personal I would ask her: ‘Please don’t say any more because if it ends up in the papers tomorrow, you will think it was me.’
“I would give her the very best advice I could, yet I’d pinch myself – here I am, consultant to the Royal Family! But saying that, I knew my place. I never brought up subjects myself, I never overstepped the line, and I think she appreciated that,” Jenni said.
She also revealed that Diana never wanted to end up on the path she ended up walking and that all that had really mattered to the Princess was her husband and sons – Prince William and Prince Harry, who were “everything to her”.
“Diana loved her boys; they were everything to her. She would have been devastated at what is going on between them today,” the personal trainer added.
Jenni first got the call that the most famous woman in the world wanted to work through her from Diana’s butler, Paul Burrell, and she admitted that she was more than a bit intimidated when she heard the news.
Working three hours a week with Diana to get her fitness to the best it could be, she watched the Princess transform through her heartbreak, and step into a new, confident chapter.
