Dickie Arbiter was the press secretary for Queen Elizabeth II from 1988 until 2000 – and also worked closely with the late Princess Diana, who called him in a state of panic in 1992
Princess Diana’s former press secretary, Dickie Arbiter, has recalled a panicked early morning phone call he received from the royal following the release of a royal biography.
Dickie has a long history with the monarchy. He became a royal correspondent in 1981 before joining the Buckingham Palace press office in 1988 as secretary to The Queen, Prince Charles and Diana. He remained working with the monarch until his retirement in 2000. Now, in a new interview with the Telegraph, he has opened up about an alarmed call from the late Princess.
Asked how he coped with ‘challenging times’ at work, Dickie, 83, replied: “I don’t do stress. Why should I make myself ill because two people are being incredibly stupid? When Andrew Morton’s book on Diana came out in 1992, we had no idea what was in it. I had to go to Charing Cross station to pick up the first edition of the paper, and I was gobsmacked.
“Diana called me at 5am asking what she should do, and I told her it couldn’t be undone now, but just to keep schtum, not answer her phone, and I would accompany her on her next engagement two days later to keep people at bay. I also became acutely aware that everything in my private life was monitored so I could never step out of line, lest it cause any embarrassment. But I enjoyed my time at the Palace; there was always a buzz.”
In Morton’s explosive book, which sold more than five million copies that year, Diana detailed her mental health struggles, suicide attempts, eating disorder and the breakdown of her marriage to the now King Charles. It was written using secret recordings from Diana that she gave to Dr James Colthurst, her friend and middle man, to pass on to Morton. However, this was not known at the time.
Diana publicly denied any involvement: “The princess did not cooperate with the book ‘in any way whatsoever’, a palace official said,” according to The Guardian at the time. Later, however, Morton capitalised on his bestselling work by releasing Diana: Her True Story In Her Own Words just months after her death in 1997. The book featured the transcripts of their conversations, officially revealing her to be the main source. Six months after the book’s original June 1992 publication, Charles and Diana announced their separation. In 1994 Charles admitted to adultery on television, and in 1995, Diana gave an explosive interview to Martin Bashir for the BBC current affairs program Panorama.
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