Inspector Ken Wharfe - Diana--Closely Guarded Secret--New and Updated Edition

T he Queens landmark ninetieth birthday this year (2016) has led to a predictable wave of public support for the institution of monarchy. Indeed, the institution, often criticised for being out of touch in the past, has rarely been more popular in its long history. This is largely due to the emergence on the public stage of Princess Dianas sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. They have acquitted themselves well at home and abroad. Harrys work with injured service men and his other charity work has been excellent and comes from the heart. Prince William, now Duke of Cambridge, along with his wife Catherine, has proved a worthy ambassador on the world stage. Dianas boys as they are so often dubbed, remain a focus of global media attention just as their mother the Princess was. Like her they are certainly precious assets in the Family Firm and, more importantly, in promoting Great Britain Plc worldwide.

Next year (2017) marks another royal milestone the twentieth anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Almost two decades after her tragic and untimely death, Diana remains an object of fascination, her death a source of all manner of speculation. Her story is one of a heroine who broke free of the royal bonds and changed the monarchy forever. Sadly, her life ended far too soon in a tragic car accident in 1997 in a Paris tunnel. It should and could have been avoided, but more of that later.

Well before that, as a member of Scotland Yards elite Royalty Protection Department, I had been selected as her Personal Protection Officer (PPO) in charge of her round-the-clock security at home and abroad. This book, first published in 2002 to a media storm is my first-hand account of life inside and outside of the Palace working alongside the Princess, at the time the most famous woman in the world. Together we experienced, in public and in private, an intense, dramatic, scrutinised, and tumultuous journey.

The so-called Diana years were a stellar time, a time of sometimes unhelpful media attention. It was fast and furious. But Diana was not only a media phenomenon, brilliant at bolstering newspaper and magazine sales; she was a real, passionate human being able to capture imagination and hearts of a global audience. Those heady days have long gone, consigned to history. The excesses of the media covering royal affairs have been inevitably and in my view rightly curbed. Dianas death, in a sad irony, gave her two sons, William and Harry, the freedom to grow up in relatively carefree way as she would have wished, mostly away from prying eyes and media excess, so they were able to develop into the honest and open young men they are today. Ultimately, it has also meant there will be much more privacy for the grandchildren Prince George and Princess Charlotte whom she sadly did not live to see.

Her legacy is strong thanks to her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.

They are the living embodiment of her legacy. Prince Harry opened up publicly about Diana this year (2016). He revealed he thinks about his late mother every day and hopes to fill the void she left. He founded the charity Sentebale meaning Forget Me Not in her memory supporting orphans and vulnerable children in Lesotho, many of whom are affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It was a cause Diana was passionate about. Forget-me-nots were one of Dianas favourite flowers, too.

Earlier on in life you try to find your own route, Prince Harry told the broadcaster Susanna Reid in an interview for Good Morning Britain about the Invictus Games for injured servicemen and women he had established. But if theres even a small void I can fill then thats mission success for me. I literally couldnt imagine being in this position and no one caring what I do. When asked if he realised his mother would be proud of him, he flushed a little and responded, Its a great shame shes not here but every day I wonder what it would be like if she was here, what she would say and how shed be making everyone laugh. Theres all sorts of emotions as Im back here trying to make her proud.

William, for years preferring to keep his thoughts about his mother private, has also spoken for the first time about the devastating effect of losing his mother as a teenager. The Prince, who was just fifteen when Princess Diana died, said in 2014, Never being able to say the word Mummy again in your life sounds like a small thing. However, for many, including me, its now really just a word hollow and evoking only memories. With remarkable candour, Prince William also revealed how difficult he found dealing with his mothers death, Initially, there is a sense of profound shock and disbelief that this could ever happen to you. Real grief often does not hit home until much later. For many it is a grief never entirely lost. Life is altered as you know it, and not a day goes past without you thinking about the one you have lost. I know that over time it is possible to learn to live with what has happened and, with the passing of years, to retain or rediscover cherished memories.

Both her sons believe there are not currently any monuments on the right scale in the UK in honour of Dianas memory. Prince Harry said he and Prince William hope to create something fitting for when the milestone anniversary comes round in August 2017. We want to make sure that theres something that shes remembered by and theres certainly not enough on the right scale in London or anywhere in the UK that shes remembered for. And I think myself, William and a few other people, we all agree on that. Something needs to be put in stone or in place as a memory. Lots of people still talk about her. Every single day we still think about her, so it would be very fitting on the twentieth anniversary to have something that is going to last forever and is a proper recognition of what she did when she was alive.

Her sons are both right Diana should be appropriately honoured, although in my view she cared more about people than monuments. She would probably want any money collected for such a project to go instead to help a sick child rather than spent on a monument of her.

Times change. I was criticised by some when this memoir was first published in 2002. I was happy to take it on the chin because I firmly believed it was right to put pen to paper. My goal in writing this book was to safeguard the Diana I knew for the sake of history and for the sake of accuracy. I was inspired to write this book too after the mistaken and hurtful comments by Establishment figures about Diana. Winston Churchills grandson Nicholas Soames MP, long-standing friend of the Prince of Wales, and Lady Kennard, friend of Her Majesty the Queen, both very publicly suggested that Diana was either paranoid, damaged or both. Whatever the motives for making these public comments they were wrong because their words not only unfairly tarnished Dianas reputation, they painted a wholly inaccurate picture of what she was and what she was about. Sadly, she was not alive to defend herself. Lets be honest how many wives, royal or otherwise, would not become agitated if their husband was having a adulterous affair, as Prince Charles was having with Camilla Parker Bowles? Thankfully, Prince William and his brother Prince Harry have since acted to rescue their mothers memory.