A close friend of Princess Diana believes she would have stopped Prince Harry from sitting down for his interview with Oprah Winfrey if she were still alive.
Dr. James Colthurst had a 20-year friendship with the Princess of Wales and he is sure that she would have prevented her son and his wife, Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, from ever getting to the stage where they felt they needed to sit down on TV with Oprah, 67, and publicly air their grievances with the British royal family.
Speaking to the new issue of Radio Times, the 64-year-old medical professional said: “I’m not sure he would have got to the interview stage.
“I believe she might have cautioned him beforehand to solve things in some other way.”
Harry, 36, and his 39-year-old former actress spouse – who was previously known as Meghan Markle – relocated to the US in 2020 after making the decision to step down as senior members of the royal family.
The couple – who have two-year-old son Archie and newborn daughter Lilibet Diana – gave a tell-all interview Oprah Winfrey in which they damned the lack of support they received from the family when Meghan was struggling to adjust to her new life, so much so that she felt suicidal.
Harry then also teamed up with Oprah, 67, for the Apple TV+ docuseries ‘The Me You Don’t See’ in which he bravely spoke about his own mental health issues and how the tragic death of his mother n 1997 at the age of 36 has affected his entire life.
And Colthurst – who will feature in upcoming ITV documentary ‘Diana’ – agrees with her eldest son Prince William, 38, that the controversial 1995 Panorama documentary, when Martin Bashir used forged documents to get Diana to agree to a one-on-one TV interview, should never be shown again.
He said: “It was created in a devious fashion, and I don’t think it needed to be that way. So yes, it should be put away.”