The photos of Princess Diana wearing a leopard-print one-piece and matching sarong are some of the most iconic shots of the royal, and decades later, women are still chasing the perfect recreation of her look (do I own a similar version by Good American? Yes, yes I do.) But despite her swimsuit standing strong on its own, one former royal reporter recently shared that Diana's animal-print outfit was actually a clever trick to hide her real swimsuit from the press.
I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! contestant Jane Moore—who is a former royal correspondent and co-host of popular British talk show Loose Women—told her fellow campmates the story of how Diana walked on the wild side in an episode of the hit British reality show.
Moore explained that Princess Diana would "go on holiday and all the media go as well, and then her detectives would come over and go, 'Right, if you leave her alone all week, on Wednesday morning she’ll come on to the beach on the island and you can take some photos.'"
The TV personality referenced one trip—likely the princess's 1990 vacation to Necker Island, where the famous leopard swimsuit pics were taken—when Diana was wearing an animal-print one piece and matching sarong as young Prince William and Prince Harry played in the sand.
The press snapped away from a nearby boat, and Moore recalled, "We turn the boat around, and just when we’re so far away, she’s come back out onto the beach in the most microscopic red bikini that you’ve ever seen." Take that, paparazzi.
Of course, the media absolutely lost it, with Moore sharing, "All the photographers were throwing money at our boat guy going "Turn around!'"
The journalist added that Diana—who worked out "deals" with the press—"was really good at having a relationship with the media…she played it very well."
One such press relationship, however, didn't turn out so well, with both the late royal's former lover, James Hewitt, and chauffeur, Stephen Davies, speaking out on Diana's explosive 1995 BBC Panorama interview in recent days. Decades later, an investigation would find that reporter Martin Bashir used false information and misleading tactics to convince Diana to take part in the show.
Davies told the Daily Mail how he was fired from his job because of lies Bashir fed to the royal in order to gain her trust—and the former royal driver only found out the real reason why he was fired after watching a 2022 episode of Netflix's The Crown.
As for Hewitt, he called Bashir a "toad," telling the Sun that the interview caused him to become "the most hated person in the world."
