IN 1992, Princess Diana had some of her most intimate and private thoughts shared with the world through a tape recording.
The publication of the tapes was a high point of media attention which surrounded the marriage, separation and divorce of the Prince and Princess of Wales.
What was Squidgygate and what happened?
Squidgygate refers to the pre-1990 telephone conversations between Diana, Princess of Wales and a close friend, James Gilbey
The two had known each other for a decade, long before Diana had met Prince Charles.
By the end of the 80s, the two were introduced, and Diana’s royal dream had long faded.
Her marriage to Prince Charles was on the rocks and since 1986 she had been having an affair with her riding instructor, James Hewitt.
What happened between James Gilbey and Diana remains a mystery, but their tapes confirmed a definite intimacy between the two.
On New Year’s Eve in 1989, Gilbey had called Diana using the cell phone in his car, according to the Independent.
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Several times during the conversation he called her by his affectionate nickname for her, “Squidgy.”
He also referred to her as “Squidge” or simply “darling.”
Then on August 23, 1992, The Sun published the transcript of the phone call which was the front-page revelation of the existence of the tape recording.
The tape revealed Diana exposing the Royal Family to ridicule and confirming the desperate state of her marriage to Prince Charles.
Still to this day, there are mysteries surrounding how the conversation got into the hands of the media.
One suggestion was that the call had been recorded directly from Diana’s phone and rebroadcast for someone to discover.
When did Diana and King Charles divorce?
The couple famously split in 1992 and finalised their divorce in 1996.
After Prince Harry’s birth in September 1984, the couple were said to be sleeping in separate bedrooms, and by 1986 took separate holidays.
Charles is alleged to have told his friends “how awful incompatibility is”, and by mid-1986, he is said to have rekindled his affair with Camilla.
Caroline Peacock
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