• Video
  • Shop
  • Culture
  • Family
  • Wellness
  • Food
  • Living
  • Style
  • Travel
  • News
  • Book Club
  • GMA3: WYNTK
  • Newsletter
  • Privacy Policy
  • Your US State Privacy Rights
  • Children's Online Privacy Policy
  • Interest-Based Ads
  • Terms of Use
  • Do Not Sell My Info
  • Contact Us
  • © 2025 ABC News
  • Culture

New Princess Diana documentary includes never-before-heard audio recordings

2:41
New Princess Diana documentary includes never-before-heard audio
Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images, FILE
ByTaylor Behrendt-Rhodes, Katie Kindelan, and Abigail Shalawylo
September 01, 2023, 3:57 PM

Twenty-six years after her death, Princess Diana is speaking out in her own words in a new documentary, in never-before-heard audio recordings.

The documentary, "Diana: The Rest of Her Story," features Diana discussing everything from her struggles with mental health to her two sons, Princes William and Harry, and her troubled relationship with her stepmother, Raine Spencer.

"I said everything I possibly could and Raine said, 'You have no idea how much pain your mother put your father through,'" Diana says in one clip from the documentary. "And I said, "Pain, Raine, it's one word you don't even know how to relate to. In my job and in my role, I see people suffer like you've never seen, and you call that pain.' I said, 'You've got a lot to learn.'"

She continues, "I remember really going for her gullet."

Princess Diana and her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, during a private ride aboard the 'Maid of the Mist' sightseeing boat tour of Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, Oct. 26, 1991.
Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images, FILE

In another clip, Diana reflects on her then-husband Prince Charles -- now King Charles III -- and his troubled relationship with her mother Frances Shand Kydd.

"My husband won't even talk to Mommy, barely, because at Harry's christening, Charles went up to [her] and said, 'You know, we're so disappointed. We thought it'd be a girl,'" Diana recalls in the clip. "And Mommy snapped his head off and said, 'You should realize how lucky you are to have a child that's normal.'"

Diana continues, "And ever since that day, a shutter [has] come down, and that's what he does when he gets somebody answering back at him, so to speak."

Princess Diana Aboard The New P & O Cruise Liner "royal Princess", Named In Honor Of Her, After Giving The Ship Its Name At A Formal Naming Ceremony on Nov. 15, 1984.
Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images, FILE

Diana and Charles were married for 15 years before their divorce was finalized in 1996.

Just one year later, on Aug. 31, 1997, Diana died after a car she was a traveling in crashed in Paris. She was just 36 at the time of her death.

The audio recordings of Diana featured in "Diana: The Rest of Her Story" come from the princess's conversations with her close friend, James Colthurst.

Editor’s Picks

Princess Diana remembered as 'the people's princess' 25 years after her death

  • Aug 31, 2022

Prince William reacts to investigation on BBC interview with Princess Diana

  • Nov 19, 2020

Princess Diana's candid letters reflecting on divorce from Charles up for auction

  • Feb 01, 2023

Related Articles

MORE: Princess Diana's brother Charles Spencer remembers her 26 years after her death

Their seven hours of conversation that were recorded happened while Diana was still married to Charles and living at Kensington Palace.

The secret recordings were later given, with Diana's approval, to Andrew Morton, who used them as the basis for his bestselling book, "Diana: Her True Story."

Morton told "Good Morning America" that he believes people hearing Diana's voice in the newly-released recordings will give them a deeper sense of who she really was.

"It's one thing to read something on a page, but it's quite another to hear the person talking about it, and here we have Diana talking about her ambitions for the future," Morton said. "There's a real poignancy about some of the aspects of the tape and I think people will get a really vivid sense of her personality and her character."

Diana: The life of a princess

Diana: The life of a princess in photos
1 of 46
ABC News looks back on the highlights from the life of the "People’s Princess," as she is affectionately remembered. The future Princess of Wales was born in the village of Sandringham on July 1, 1961, to John Spencer and Frances Roche. A family photo from 1962 shows her in her baby carriage at Park House, Sandringham, Norfolk.
AP

Morton was persuaded by the director and executive producer of the new documentary, Tom Jennings, to let him use the recordings of Diana for both this film and his first one, "Diana: In Her Own Words," which was released in 2017 by National Geographic.

Jennings told "GMA" he convinced Morton to grant him access by proposing a new way of telling Diana's story: by using her words only.

Related Articles

MORE: Princess Diana's iconic red sweater with one black sheep to be auctioned

"I said, 'Andrew, wait. We do this completely different. There's no narrator. There are no modern-day interviews. We only use media from the time. It would be like Diana is narrating her own film,'" Jennings recalled. "And he said, 'No one has ever asked me to do it that way before. When can you come to London?'"

Jennings continued, "I was in London the next morning. [Morton] pushed play on these tapes, and for the next seven hours, we sat in a very small room [and] it was as if Diana was sitting there with us, telling us her life story."

"Diana: The Rest of Her Story" is expected to be released in 2024.

Related Topics

  • Royal Family

Editor’s Picks

Princess Diana remembered as 'the people's princess' 25 years after her death

  • Aug 31, 2022

Prince William reacts to investigation on BBC interview with Princess Diana

  • Nov 19, 2020

Princess Diana's candid letters reflecting on divorce from Charles up for auction

  • Feb 01, 2023

Up Next in Culture—

'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' reboot casts Ryan Kiera Armstrong in lead role

May 15, 2025

Gary Sinise says he's unsure about returning to acting after son's death

May 15, 2025

Smokey Robinson faces criminal investigation after sexual assault allegations

May 15, 2025

Daughtry to replace 3 Doors Down on tour amid Brad Arnold's cancer treatment

May 15, 2025

Shop GMA Favorites

ABC will receive a commission for purchases made through these links.

Sponsored Content by Taboola

The latest lifestyle and entertainment news and inspiration for how to live your best life - all from Good Morning America.
  • Contests
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Do Not Sell My Info
  • Children’s Online Privacy Policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Your US State Privacy Rights
  • Interest-Based Ads
  • About Nielsen Measurement
  • Press
  • Feedback
  • Shop FAQs
  • ABC News
  • ABC
  • All Videos
  • All Topics
  • Sitemap

© 2025 ABC News
  • Privacy Policy— 
  • Your US State Privacy Rights— 
  • Children's Online Privacy Policy— 
  • Interest-Based Ads— 
  • Terms of Use— 
  • Do Not Sell My Info— 
  • Contact Us— 

© 2025 ABC News