Diana 'feared her phone calls were bugged over lovers'

By TOM KELLY
The Daily Mail
Nov. 21, 2007

Princess Diana “clearly” believed her calls were being monitored in the months before her death, her former private secretary revealed today.

Michael Gibbins also said he detected disapproval from within the royal household about Diana’s lovers and said he warned her about the likely ramifications of going on holiday with the Al Fayed family, before her relationship with Dodi began.

The former accountant, who worked for the Princess of Wales for just over a year, also told her inquest today of the atmosphere of grief and shock at Kensington Palace immediately after the crash in Paris in the early hours of 31 August 1997.

He told of calls back and forth to Balmoral, where the Queen was on holiday, and recounted how Diana’s staff turned up in the early hours of the morning.

He revealed that “distraught” butler Paul Burrell insisted on going to Paris immediately to “look after” the princess, even though there appeared to be no obvious reason for him to go.

And he told how Mr Burrell and driver Colin Tebbutt had personally sealed Diana’s apartments at Kensington Palace after her death but said it was Mr Burrell who reopened them later.

He described Diana as an “avid correspondent” but said he did not know where her letters were now.

Mr Gibbins told the hearing at the High Court in London how he spoke to the princess less than two days before her death when she had appeared “her normal bubbly self”.

But he said she had not told him of any engagement to Dodi Fayed.

Asked about his time with Diana, he also revealed that the princess, who was not wearing a seatbelt when her Mercedes crashed, had always insisted on wearing one on journeys and made him do likewise.

Mr Gibbins said he had a good working relationship with Diana and kept in regular contact with her even when she was abroad.

Asked by Michael Mansfield QC, representing Dodi’s father, Mohamed Al Fayed, whether Diana had ever said she feared her calls were being monitored, he replied: “She never expressed that concern but her actions were such, in terms of changing her telephone number, that it was clear that that was a concern to her, yes.”

He agreed that there was disapproval in “some quarters” about Diana’s relationships with men, whom Mr Mansfield listed as including Major James Hewitt, rugby player Will Carling, James Gilbey - associated with the infamous “Squidgygate” tapes - and Barry Mannakee.

He added that some of her causes - such as the landmine campaign - were raising eyebrows in some areas.

Mr Mansfield asked whether disapproval was coming not just from the tabloid press but the royal household itself.

He answered: “I’m not sure that I was directly aware of that but by inference certainly.”

Asked whether the ramifications of her tell-all Panorama interview in November 1995 were still be felt when he went to work for her the next year, he replied: “Oh, yes.”

He told how he raised concerns about the media reaction when she first revealed that she was to take Princes William and Harry on holiday with Mohamed Al Fayed earlier in the summer of 1997.

But he smiled as he recalled her apparent lack of concern.

Asked by Mr Mansfield what her reaction had been, he said: “I don’t think there was much of a reaction.”

Mr Mansfield went on: “I notice you looking down, smiling to yourself. Is that because you do remember a reaction?”

He answered: “No, it’s not. It’s just the way the princess used to behave to that sort of comment.”