Princess Diana has been gone for more than 27 years, but confessions she made while she was still alive are now coming to life. The former Princess of Wales’ dance teacher, Anne Allan, has written a memoir about the nine years she spent working with Diana, along with all of the personal details she once confided to Anne. It sounds like the princess didn’t hold back, especially when it came to her marriage troubles with then-Prince Charles.
The memoir is called ‘Dancing With Diana.’
As People reported, Diana began secretly taking dance classes from Anne in 1981, shortly after marrying into the royal family, and this went on for nine years. Their one-hour sessions would take place at a dance studio in London, and during that time, the two became close enough that Diana would confide her feelings to Anne.
Diana told Anne she was pregnant before the world knew.
Because Diana would have to stop taking dance classes while she was pregnant with Prince William, she told Anne that she was expecting before the news was made public.
“I wanted to let you know that, once the announcement is made, ‘they’ will not let me take classes anymore, but I would like to keep it going for as long as I can, and I don’t want to be fussed over,” Diana said at the time, via an excerpt from Anne’s book that was shared with People. “After all, lots of ladies have babies.”
Diana resumed her dance lessons after William was born.
She would also share her issues with Charles with an ‘outpouring of emotions.’
During one class, Diana was reduced to tears as she told Anne that she felt like she “just can’t seem to do anything right” in Charles’ eyes.
Anne wrote that Diana told her, “I do love him so much and want him to be proud of me, but I don’t think he feels the same way. I don’t understand why I am not enough for him; I think he prefers an older woman.”
She even opened up about Charles’ affair with Camilla.
“I know he is seeing Camilla again. Am I expected to accept that, like the other Princesses of Wales before, one just turns a blind eye to husbands having a mistress! Why does he not love me? I really don’t understand,” Diana reportedly told Anne in 1986.
“I have tried everything, tried to conform to his wishes even though I don’t always agree. There’s no affection between us, and I am always on my own,” she continued. “I just want to be loved. I can’t keep going on like this. They are really expecting me to just say nothing and keep going. How do I do that?”
Charles’ affair with Camilla didn’t become public until 1993, several years later.
Diana was in ‘pure despair’ as their marriage got worse.
“Diana wanted Charles to be with her and to love her. Even though she was in her own romantic affair, at this point, Charles was still the man she desired and that was why it was so agonizing for her,” Anne wrote in the book.
When Anne moved to Scotland in 1989, she and Diana lost touch, and Diana would die in Paris in 1997. After Diana’s death, Anne wrote that she tried to “cherish the time we had together.”
Now, Anne is sharing her memories in Dancing With Diana, which is set to be released on September 10.
