>> some women put up with a sham of a marriage. but not diana. >> she wanted to blow the lid off everything. >> isn't it normal to feel angry and want to change the situation that is hurting? >> this was her going totally rogue, she was risking it all, not knowing where it would lead. >> diana's taking on one of the oldest and most powerful institutions in the world. >> she wanted her truth to be told, and she was determined that she was going to control her narrative. ♪ it was the summer of 1990, and charles was playing polo, and he fell badly off his horse and broke his arm. and he was rushed to the local hospital. >> it was a major fall, a major break. and it takes time for the swelling to go down. >> diana was 100 miles away in london when she heard about the accident, and she jumped into the car with her bodyguard and drove to the hospital. >> it was a very big story. lots of reporters, photographers, film crews outside of the hospital he was being treated. >> inside royal palace staff were stunned to discover charles' very first visitor wasn't diana, it was camilla parker bowles. she had sidled through the backdoor so the media hadn't caught sight of her. >> prince charles' bodyguard from buckingham palace were trying to work out what time diana would appear. >> fortunately camilla was able to slip out the back door before diana arrived. >> according to the diana version, charles made it clear that he didn't really want his wife there, he wanted his mistress there. he wanted camilla to be at his side. >> that for diana was really the point where she decided she was no longer interested in attempting any further reconciliation for the sake of the marriage. >> so many dreams as a young girl. hopes my husband would support me, encourage me. i didn't get any of that. >> what you have is the entire firm engaged top to bottom in maintaining a massive lie. >> the fact that prince charles had a mistress in mrs. parker bowles had to be kept secret and to dismiss and even rubbish suggestions that the marriage might be in trouble. there was no precedent for a separated, let alone divorced, prince and princess of wales. it was unthinkable. >> they were effectively leading separate lives. >> prince charles was based in highgrove in gloucestershire. diana was left on her own at kensington palace a hundred miles away. >> they only came together at the weekend when diana would drive down with william and harry and spend the weekend at highgrove. the way the staff told it was that no sooner had the princess' car receded out of view than they could hear the gravel crunching of another car, and that would be camilla arriving. >> camilla was effectively the mistress of the house and would organize dinner parties and other events for a close circle of friends. >> diana was constantly fobbed off. she would raise it with courtiers and they'd just say, it's not true, you're imagining things. >> it was corroding the whole organization. adultery isn't exactly a novelty for the british crown. but in diana spencer, they had a wife who was not going to take it quietly. and they had a husband in prince charles who failed to follow the time-honored rules for somebody in his situation. rule one being, you respect the mother of your children, especially in public. you look after her. you treat her better, because of what you're doing, not worse. >> my husband made me feel so inadequate in every possible way, that each time i came up for air, he pushed me down again. >> i remember on a joint golf tour the prince publicly humiliating his wife. belittling her. the host was outlining the program, most of which discussion was directed at the prince. and then the host turned to the princess and asked her what she was going to be doing. it was a serious program. before she could answer, the prince interrupted and said, "shopping, isn't it, darling?" the princess blushed. she couldn't speak. she was publicly humiliated. >> that was just a great example of how he tried to paint her as shallow, as frivolous. >> it opened my eyes to what diana was dealing with every day. >> charles tries to grapple with the attention that diana receives and that he resents it. and finally he tries to put her in her place, but that was simply not possible, she was a global superstar. >> the prince and princess were originally invited by the old communist government. but there's been a revolution since then, and the man who met them off the plane was the country's new president, arpad goncz, who spent six years in prison under the communist regime. >> i remember the first high-profile visit to a former communist country and the president's wife was moved to tears by the emotion of the moment. princess diana noticed and spontaneously, instinctively put out her hand, comforted mrs. goncz, held her hand all down the red carpet. that gesture became the symbol of the whole visit. the visit was a success before we'd even left the airport because of diana's spontaneous act of kindness. >> charles was jealous, and diana felt completely underappreciated because of all her efforts on behalf of both of them. >> diana was living with this burning sense of injustice, and she wanted to blow the lid on everything. >> she felt the injustice of her husband being able to carry on his affair pretty much with impunity. >> she wanted her truth to be told. >> there was a boil inside the house of windsor that was about to burst. ♪ with hand-crafted steakburgers and chicken sandwiches. there's a perfect plate for everyone. great value for all your favorites only from ihop. download the app and earn free food with every order. 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you can't go near her. and there was james sitting there, and i said, but you can. >> i would take a little cheap tape recorder, and then i was initially going to ask the questions. and she just snatched the paper out of my hand with all andrew morton's questions on. it was like a floodgate opened. everything just came out. >> diana was establishing the fact her marriage was a wreck. that no one in the royal family cared for her. she self-harmed. she would stuff herself with food and then make herself ill. >> she was sharing her innermost personal secrets. she was risking it all, not knowing where it would lead. >> just imagine how tortured diana must have been to get to this place. >> she hadn't considered deniability. so we had the idea of getting friends to give interviews and use those as cover for diana's story. the title of the book became "diana, her true story," against diana's wishes. diana wanted the book to be called, "the true story." and i said, no, it isn't the true story. it's your true story. we doubted nothing that she said, but it was only her view. and we later found out that it was a hell of a lot excluded. >> diana couldn't exactly call out charles and camilla while she herself was involved in an on-off four-year liaison with the cavalry officer james hewitt. she realized she needed to sort out her own business first. so hewitt got the old heave-ho. >> she said nothing about her relationship with james hewitt. james gilbey, the voice on the squidge tapes, never mentioned him. there was this start of the relationship with oliver hall, the married art dealer. >> diana was getting her retaliation in first. >> this was the biggest fear of her life, the marriage ending, her being blamed for it, divorce. charles gets the children because she's the bad guy. >> she didn't believe that what she was doing was really on the same scale. what charles was doing was really engaging in a very serious and profound love affair. and these side affairs that diana had, they never came close to the deep love affair that charles and camilla were enjoying. >> this is the original manuscript as marked up by diana. diana describes the time when she threw herself down the staircase, landing in a heap at the bottom. she was pregnant, she was desperately unhappy, and no one seemed to care. she does admit that it was a cry for help. i think she would have never risked the lives of one of her children. and diana on the tape says the queen was the first to arrive on the scene. but in the manuscript she writes "mum." so it now reads the queen mum was the first to arrive on the scene. now, that's not what diana told us. diana was very wary of saying anything about the queen. so i think she's fibbed there, which i'm sure she did to keep the queen out of the picture. >> diana's harboring a secret. she knows that in a few months' time her tell-all book is about to be published. >> she knew that there would be a portrait of her marriage that was very much at odds with what people believed. >> the prince and princess of wales will spend today as they've spent much of this royal tour, apart. >> we were told originally they were both destined to go to the taj mahal. >> charles was busy with his schedule, and they weren't able to fulfill the promise that charles had made 12 years earlier that he would visit the taj mahal with the woman that he loved more than anybody else, his wife. >> he will concentrate on issues such as industry, investment. >> charles didn't go because he was doing something else. diana went alone. >> just sitting there. >> suddenly the light switched on for all of us, we realized this was a key moment. it was more powerful than thousands of words, just that one image. this beautiful, glamorous princess all alone in front of this monument to love itself. >> nothing about that image is incidental. she knew what she was doing, and she knew how the media and the public would read into it. >> she was asked about it by a reporter. and he said, "well, what do you mean?" >> a very healing experience. >> in what way? >> healing. >> she was sending messages in advance of the book. and she played the media game very skillfully. >> there's a real pressure cooker atmosphere as diana is planning for the publication for the book. it's at least a year in the making, and she's doing all this literally under the noses of royal officials. >> diana was effectively planting a bomb underneath the royal family. >> diana knew the minute buckingham palace found out about this, it would have been stopped. >> at one stage diana felt all her conversations were being listened to. so we decided to get some scramblers. these are the original ones we used, which will be laughable nowadays. but each time we used them, we'd have a conversation for perhaps half a minute, then the line would be cut, completely dead. >> she insisted we have her rooms at kensington palace swept for bugs. diana trusted no one inside the royal system. >> she was well aware that this was a pretty big moment for her. and, you know, she put it in her letters. "dearest james, your support and guidance this year in particular has meant a great deal to me. obviously we're preparing for the volcano to erupt, and i do," underlined, "feel better equipped to cope with whatever comes my way. thank you for your belief in me. it's such a relief not to be on my own any more and that it's okay to listen to my instinct. lots of love." >> she finally realized that this thing was going to change her life. forever. ission investment products, right? (fisher investments) nope. fisher avoids them. (other money manager) well, you must earn commissions on trades. (fisher investments) never at fisher investments. (other money manager) ok, then you probably sneak in some hidden and layered fees. 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>> no, i'm not. this 19-year-old girl was a very uncomplicated, lively, great sense of fun, great sense of humor. yet within a year of the marriage, she was standing on the steps of the house three months' pregnant with prince william and threw herself down. that's the despair. >> the establishment's response was to deny it all, it couldn't be true. to be told that the fairytale marriage was a complete sham, well, this is the story that no one wanted to hear. >> members of parliament talked about having the book banned. bookstores refused to handle the book. >> mps condemned it as a savage attack on the royal family. >> the people who did get the blame were her friends who had given interviews. carolyn bartholomew who was diana's closest friend rang me up saying, i'm being crucified in the papers here. eventually andrew came up with a plan with diana. >> diana was really incredibly brave. she could have just let all of her friends take the flack. instead, she takes responsibility. >> i turned up to caroline bartholomew's house, and diana did a bit for me. diana kisses caroline, kisses her husband, kisses the baby, i'm click, click, click. the baby pointing look, look, look! they're all pretending that they don't know i'm there. >> diana's visit to her friend was a critical moment, because it showed that diana herself was supporting the book. >> the royal family was appalled by the book. so they felt justifiably that it was a terrible betrayal. >> in the ensuing storm, although visibly under strain, the princess made no attempt to deny the stories. in all that you do, in various ways, the philosophy of tender loving care. may god bless you, and may you always remain, ma'am, just you. >> because of her glamour, because of her perceived vulnerability, you had something like love, real adoration of this really special creature. and that is why the book was so shocking to ordinary people. they really cared about her. and they were horrified that her life wasn't the wonderful thing they thought it was. >> diana's experience, despite all of her privilege, is strangely universal. >> how many women know what it's like to be in an unhappy relationship, to feel trapped like that. >> there's an emotional truth to what diana went through, which millions of people worldwide experience themselves. >> there was enormous sympathy. crowds of people turned out as if to say, we're with you. we understand. public support really polarized. you were either for this rather cold and remote royal family, or you were with diana. >> diana's actions also changed what was possible for women at the time. >> diana grew up in a scene where women had to shut up and have babies. not have opinions. diana did not shut up. she stood up with amazing courage against her husband and all his lackeys and all the institutional detritus. and that was something. that was really something. >> that gave women watching, regardless of class, a lot more courage to do that in their own live