The Crown 5: who was James Colthurst, Diana’s friend who acted as an intermediary to help her in her biography

In the course of her short life, Princess Diana has often been defined alone, even if it was not so, since there were several friends who really cared for her. In the second episode of the fifth season of The Crown, available on Netflix, we know one: it is Dr. James Colthurstwho jumped to the headlines in the early nineties for having acted as an intermediary between Diana and the biographer Andrew Morton who, in 1992, published the book Diana: Her true story using his own words. As we see in the series, the agreement between Morton and Diana was very simple: the princess would record the audio tapes independently, telling her version of her facts and choosing what to share and what to keep for herself. At that point, it was James Colthurst, who had the task of having the tapes delivered to Morton in order to avoid any direct contact with the princess during the writing of the book, since one of the agreements provided that the biography categorically excluded the involvement of Diana herself at the media and public level, appealing to interviews with people who were close to her such as the acupuncturist and the astrologer.

The story thus revived interest in James Colthurst, the Irish doctor who made the book possible – one of the best-selling and most controversial in the history of English publishing, since it was the first in which mention was made of bulimia nervosa Diana suffered from, but also from her suicide attempts – but also one of the princess’s most trusted friends. But where does their relationship come from? Diana and James met before the girl married Prince Charles: their paths had crossed when Diana worked as a nanny in London and they frequented the same circles. James, who had graduated from Eton and came from a wealthy family, was, in fact, known as a “minor aristocrat” whom she immediately felt she could trust. Colthurst later claimed that Diana was “enormously enthusiastic” to tell her storyadding details on the modus operandi that the two used to make the elusive book: it seems, in fact, that Diana and James met before lunch, recording the answers to Morton’s questions.

“While everyone ate bacon and eggs, I put on headphones and listened, through the tape recorder, to Diana talking about her bulimia nervosa – of whom I had never heard of -, of his suicide attempts and of this woman named Camilla Parker Bowles. It was like entering a parallel universe, ”Colthurst said some time ago in an interview with Daily Mail. Diana’s recordings addressed to Morton were, for the doctor, “a way of dealing with the pain and anger” she felt towards the royal family. Colthurst was, in fact, convinced that Diana had chosen to collaborate on the book because he feared that the Windsors would keep her away from her children: “That was her concern, that she would lose the boys.” James Colthurst, who is married and father of two daughters, now lives in Berkshire, where he is the director of a medical research company. He last spoke of his friendship with Diana in a 2017 Channel 4 documentary entitled Diana: In Her Own Words.

On Meghan Marklethe doctor wrote in 2018 a contribution for The Independent Ireland in which he said, “It may seem presumptuous to guess how someone would have felt about a situation if that someone were still here today. But having known Diana well, I find it hard to think that she would not have been happy with Prince Harry’s marriage to Meghan Markle, and that she would not be extremely proud of her younger son. ‘

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