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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Rebecca Russell

Princess Diana's cheeky remark after hearing radio host's review of meeting her

Diana, Princess of Wales was praised time and time again for her ability to put anyone she met at ease, whether this was through personal gestures or funny topics of conversation.

There are countless stories which exemplify her character and warmth, with one recently revealed anecdote from former Capital Radio presenter, Graham Dene, joining the list.

Graham, who now hosts a regular show on Boom Radio, has released a number of brilliant stories to mark what would have been Diana's 61st birthday on July 1.

He said: “I met Princess Diana for the first time when she came into the Capital Radio studios in London early 80s - at the time, she was a patron of our charity Help A London child.

“The staff had lined up downstairs in the office to meet her, and she was walking along, shaking hands and having a brief chat. It was very nice, very formal.

Graham Dene was a presenter on Capital Radio in the 80s (Boom Radio)

“Princes William and Harry were very young at that time, and I had previously been told that because of the boys being early, she used to get up early, and tune into my breakfast show - she loved Capital and loved pop music.

“That morning before the line-up, I had joked on air to the listeners about meeting her that evening and how nerve racking it would be, and I said: ‘I just hope I’ve not got a sweaty hand.’

“That evening, when she came to me, she shook my hand and said, ‘Oh, hello Graham,’ and began to walk away. But then she turned back to me and said: ‘Oh, by the way Graham, the hand was perfectly dry.’

“So she had been listening to the show that morning!

“What Princess Diana didn’t know though was that there was a curtain behind me, and just before she had got to me in the lineup, I had wiped my hand on it to make sure it wasn’t sweaty!

Elsewhere in among his list of anecdotes Graham revealed that the princess would come up to him and request songs to be played the following day.

Princess Diana knew how to put people at ease (Tim Graham/Getty Images)
Princess Diana always had a joke ready (Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)

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He recalled: “At another thank you party ... Diana came running over to me saying: ‘Graham, Graham, can you play a song for me in the morning?’ I said ‘of course I could, what would you like?’ But she couldn’t make up her mind.

“In the end, she decided on Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl, which I thought was extremely appropriate. The next morning, as far as I was aware, nobody else knew about this - it was our little secret.

“I had planned to play the song at around 8.15am. We went to the main 8am news, and at the end of the news bulletin read by Douglas Cameron, he revealed that I would be playing a song for Princess Diana on my show.

"I sat there flabbergasted - he had beaten me to it! Somebody had leaked it, but goodness knows who it was. So, I went straight into Uptown Girl after the news, and afterwards I said: ‘I hope he appreciates the royalties!’ To this day, I still have no idea how that happened!”

Diana, Princess of Wales sat in to listen to Graham's last show (Boom Radio)

Diana's love of music is nothing new as Prince William previously appeared on Apple's podcast 'Time to Walk' last year and touched on stories about his late mother. He remembered that Diana would play "all sorts of songs" to help him and Harry settle their anxieties on the drive back to school.

He said on the podcast: "One of the songs I massively remember and has stuck with me all this time - I to this day still quite enjoy it, secretly – is Tina Turner's 'The Best', because sitting in the backseat singing away, it felt like a real family moment," he said, recalling Diana "driving along, singing at the top of her voice.

"You'd be singing, listening to the music right the way up to the gates of school where they dropped you off, and that's when reality kind of sunk in: You really were going back to school, because before that you're lost in song.

"You want to play it again just to keep that family moment going. And when I listen to it now, it takes me back to those car rides and brings me back lots of memories of my mother."

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