Jasper Conran believes Princess Diana would have been a “serious” documentary maker if she’d lived longer.
The princess was just 36 years old when she died in a Paris car crash in 1997 and the fashion designer – whose creations were favourites of Diana – believes she would have further highlighted her charity work and anti-landmine campaigning by “using her influence” and creating films about the causes she was passionate about.
He said: “I know exactly what she was planning with her life. After the trip to Angola to support the banning of landmines she knew she could take serious issues and tackle them.
“She was learning how to present and how to speak in front of a camera – all aspects of journalism, in fact. And she would have been making films and documentaries, using them as a platform to support her campaigns. She intended to be a serious person and use her influence.
“Diana went to the gym every day and didn’t drink so she would have aged very gracefully. She’d have taken a good look at those plumped up society faces and probably thought ‘best not’.
“The Princess had accepted that she would never be free of press attention but if that was what she had to live with – then she was going to use it. It’s easy to forget how brave it was of her to sit at bedsides in an AIDS ward without gloves or mask. People were terrified at the time. She knew she could take on the big issues with empathy and humanity. And she was going to really go for it.”
Jasper believes the “glamorous” princess would have taken the global stage by storm if she’d had the opportunity to do so.
He added to the Daily Telegraph newspaper: “And, of course, she would have been unbelievably placed to do this. There would still have been the gala dinners. She couldn’t help but be glamorous. But she wanted to be taken seriously on a global stage and her presentation would have reflected that.
“Think Barbara Walters – turbo charged. It would have been gobsmacking what she was going to get up to.”