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The tapes, which Andrew Morton used to write his 1992 biography ‘Diana: Her True Story’ and were later released for a documentary in 2017, contained all kinds of intriguing tidbits from the princess’ life. In one anecdote, she recalled meeting the English-American actress at a theatre with Prince Charles when she was pregnant with Prince William. The royal couple had gone to watch Ms Taylor in a production of Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes.

However, when they actually met her, Diana said the meeting “was agonising” because she didn’t find her “very easy to talk to”.

The princess added: “I thought she was stuck-up. I’d hoped she’d help me out because she’d been on the stage… more than I had.”

This interaction could not have been more different to her meeting with another film actress, Grace Kelly.

However, Princess Grace was no longer acting by the time she met Diana.

Grace married Prince Rainier III of Monaco in 1956, giving up her own career for love.

The 19-year-old Diana met Grace in March 1981, just one week after her engagement to Prince Charles was announced, at a music recital at Goldsmiths’ Hall in London.

She was feeling rather uncomfortable in a black dress she herself deemed was “two sizes too small” and inappropriate for the occasion.

She said: “I remember meeting Princess Grace and how serene she was – but there was troubled water under her, I saw that.”

The 51-year-old Grace noticed that Diana was feeling uncomfortable and took her to the ladies’ for a heart-to-heart.

Diana opened up and told her how scared and isolated she felt.

Princess Grace patted the teenager’s cheeks and joked: “Don’t worry dear, it’ll only get worse.”

The two royals then went back to the reception and mingled.

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Diana later insisted Grace was always “sweet” to her and felt like they had a connection.

Just 18 months after their first meeting, Grace was killed in a car crash at the age of 52.

Diana requested to go to her funeral, to which Charles said he did not see why she should.

The Princess of Wales explained in her tapes: “I said, ‘Well, I think it’s important, because she was an outsider who married into a big family, and I’ve done the same, so it would feel right.’

“So I went to the Queen and I said, ‘You know, I’d like to do this,’ and she said, ‘I don’t see why not. If you want to do this, you can.’

“I went there, I did my bit, came back and everyone was all over me like a bad rash, ‘Oh, you did so well!’

“And I thought, ‘Well, interesting.’”

The eerie parallels between their lives continued when Diana herself was killed in a car crash.

She died after her car crashed in Paris in August 1997, along with her companion Dodi Fayed and their driver Henri Paul.

Tomorrow is Diana’s birthday, when she would have turned 59 years old.

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