The breakdown of Diana and Charles’ marriage was a source of speculation throughout most of their relationship. According to Diana’s scandalous 1995 Panorama interview, the marriage began to break down in 1986 after Prince Harry’s birth. Charles had re-kindled his relationship with his former lover Camilla Parker-Bowles that year and Diana knew they had drifted.

Yet, the couple did not separate until 1992. They were still officially married until 1996, when the Queen ordered that they divorce – the nature of their messy split and public spats were seen to be damaging the monarchy’s reputation.

The Sun revealed in August 2017 that Diana had confided in the pop star George Michael during this tricky time through intimate phone calls, which were taped by the singer’s answering machine.

In July 1996, after George rang the Princess of Wales to wish her a happy birthday, she told him about the complicated divorce: “It’s been pretty grim, but we’re near the end of it.

“Not a very loving, compassionate family, this one I’m leaving.

“I’m going to get three quarters of what I want and the quarter he can’t have, soother you go.”

George also said: “I’d love to see you.”

But Diana still sounded concerned: “George, can I wait until this has all quietened down? Just lawyers. You know what they’re like.

“It’s OK, it’s all very grown up.”

Before his death in 2016, George passed the tape onto his childhood friend Andros Georgiou as a “retirement present”.

Diana met the pop star in 1989 backstage after a concert and they grew close as her personal life became more difficult.

On the phone, the People’s Princess asked her friend if life was treating him “kindly”.

He said he was “in love”, to which Diana sadly replied: “Oh lucky you, lucky you.”

The divorce left the Princess of Wales with £17.5million but without the title Her Royal Highness.

Mr Georgiou said the two had “a very honest friendship” and once drank a bottle of wine together in Kensington Palace.

He told The Sun: “This was about two years before she and Charles officially separated.

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“She told him their marriage had been an arranged one and that, as she’d been so young, she’d no real idea of what she was getting into.

“Although Camilla was never mentioned by name, she confided that Charles didn’t love her as he was ‘still in love with his ex’.

“Diana loved being a mother and lit up when she spoke about William and Harry, but said she had never felt like a wife. She was obviously very unhappy and we both felt desperately sorry for her.

“She was such a special, lovely person and she should have got that love back.”

George also told The Mirror in 2016 that he “really got on well” with Diana.

The late singer said: “But I was always reluctant to call her up. It was almost like a mate of mine who doesn’t want to call me up too much in case it looks strange – because he thinks that everybody else is calling me up.

“It was the same equation with Diana and I. She meant so much to so many people, including me.”

Emma Corrin will play Diana in the fourth series of the popular Netflix drama, The Crown.

The third series – which Diana does not feature in – was released over the weekend and focuses on the Royal Family’s life between 1964 and 1977.

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