Princess Diana used to be concerned for her safety and worried the brakes on her car wouldn't work after she divorced from Prince Charles, a royal commentator has claimed.
Writing in the Sun, Ingrid Seward recollected a time in the summer of 1997 when she was invited to Kensington Palace for a meeting with the Princess of Wales.
She said the princess had invited her there for a "girlie chat" following a piece she wrote about her hiding someone in the boot of her car to get them into her apartment unnoticed by security.
The first thing the princess sought to explain to Seward was how she had once been worried about her safety after her divorce from the Prince of Wales the year before.
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"'The divorce was hell,' she said. 'I was in pieces. I didn’t feel safe anywhere.' "She had been consumed with paranoia.
'I know it sounds silly now but I really did worry about the brakes on my car . . .' "and her voice trailed off into a giggle," Seward wrote.
But by the summer of 1997 Diana "knew all her fears sounded silly and she was full of life and vivacious, positive and at ease."
Diana tragically died just seven weeks later while being chased by paparazzi in Paris on August 31, 1997.
Seward wrote: "And when I left the palace later that morning, we made plans to meet again and discuss her work in detail. Of course, it never happened as exactly seven weeks later she was tragically killed in a Paris underpass.
"Like everyone else, I was shocked when the phone rang at 2am that morning. But I had work to do and that helped. How strange, I thought, I was probably the last journalist to ever “interview” her.
She was 36 at the time, and would've turned 60 on July 1 this year.
It is hoped Prince William and Prince Harry will come together for the unveiling of their mother's statue at Kensington Palace, despite tensions between the once-close brother.
The event was hatched by William and Harry back in 2017, before Harry and Meghan dramatically announced they would quit their lives as senior royals in March last year.
It was also before the bombshell Oprah interview the Duke and Duchess of Sussex gave in March this year, where they accused the royal family of racism and of being insensitive to mental health issues.
A plinth for the statue has been laid in the palace’s Sunken Garden, said to be Diana’s favourite spot in the grounds.
In 2017, the 20th anniversary of her death, the spot was transformed into a tribute to Diana, with a display of her favourite flowers including white roses and lilies, tulips and daisies.
Sean Harkin, Kensington Palace’s head gardener, said the choice of flowers reflected Diana’s love of cream and white blooms.
