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Meanwhile, NBC's Monday night Dateline is set to reveal tapes made by Petter Settelen, a publicist and vocal coach hired by Diana to boost her image after her marital split.
The TV special Princess Diana: Secret Videotapes, in which Today news anchor Ann Curry interviews Settelen, promises "a remarkably candid discussion, on camera, of her childhood, her marriage, her struggle with bulimia and her determination to win the respect of the Royal Family," says NBC.
Of her ill-fated marriage to Charles, Diana reportedly says on the tapes that she had met him only 13 times before their wedding and calls their sex life limited. "There was never a requirement for it from him," she is quoted as saying. "Once every three weeks about, and I kept thinking it followed a pattern."
As for the alleged affair and abortion, Diana was so overcome with grief over the loss of what was to have been a daughter that "she wasn't responsible for her actions," says Lady Colin Campbell, the socialite author of The Real Diana, as quoted by The Scotsman newspaper.
Campbell contends that Diana wanted to keep the baby she had conceived was having an affair with Oliver Hoare, 57, a wealthy and married art dealer, but that protecting her sons made her face "what she would have to do."
The Scotsman reports that Lady Campbell's claim first appeared in a book published in America in 1998, though there were no sources to support the contention. In the new book, however, the author quotes the daughter of an earl as saying "How could she have a baby? She wasn't divorced. She couldn't do that to William and Harry. The scandal would have been too much."
Prince Charles's office has refused to comment on the book's abortion claim.
