The Murder of Princess Diana by Noel Botham Read Free Book Online Page B

more pronounced when she collapsed during the opening of Expo ‘86 in Vancouver. Charles wasn’t entirely certain that it wasn’t just another deliberate stunt to upstage him and grab the headlines. She had, after all, taken to outshining all the members of the royal family intentionally, even the Queen. At the state opening of parliament she turned out with her hair done up in a chignon which, as she intended, focused every scrap of attention, not to mention the press cameras, in her direction and away from the Queen. It made Elizabeth look a complete fool, as her irate sister, Princess Margaret, pointed out. The family was angered, but not overly concerned, at this demonstration of Diana’s ability to manipulate the media. After all, wasn’t she one of them? But it was already giving certain courtiers considerable cause to reevaluate.
    What neither Charles nor the other observers at court had considered was that Diana might finally react to his adultery by taking a lover of her own.
    The opportunity for her to do so had been there for the taking for almost a year. Royal Protection Squad Sergeant Barry Mannakee, a handsome thirty-seven-year-old, had become her official minder in 1985 and had quickly developed a special rapport with the princess. Soon afterward, at her suggestion, he was given the vital role of guarding Prince William, and became a firm favorite of the toddler.
    Mannakee was married with two children and had seventeen years’ experience as a police officer when he met Diana. His maturity impressed her and in just a few weeks he had become her closest confidante and friend. “She trusted him implicitly,” said a former colleague, “and felt free to pour out all her woes to him. He became the recipient, or dumping ground might be a better term, for four years of stored up emotions and resentments. Until he came along, there was nobody she dared talk to.”
    Diana was aware of the scandal involving Royal Protection Squad Sergeant Peter Cross and the Princess Royal, and had sympathized when Anne began an affair with Cross after her marriage to Mark Phillips collapsed. Cross had been transferred to other duties when his relationship with Princess Anne became obvious.
    Diana told her biographer Andrew Morton that she reserved her fondest memories for Barry Mannakee, who became her bodyguard at a time when she felt lost and alone in the royal world. Wrote Morton, “He sensed her bewilderment and became a shoulder for her to lean on and sometimes to cry on during this painful period.”
    For a woman with no self-worth or self-esteem, a trusted confidante like Mannakee was of enormous value. He was content to listen to her for hours on end, accompanying her on shopping trips or being at her side for long drives around the Balmoral estate when Charles disappeared on fishing expeditions. They grew very close. It was Barry, the son of working-class London parents, to whom Diana turned when she was unhappy or depressed. And it was Barry who would hug her when she was crying, and give her the reassurance she needed. Observers at the time believe it would only have taken a very small step for them to have become lovers. But despite various rumors and reports to the contrary, and a lurid account of a romance in at least one royal biography, their relationship did not become a physical one—although there were those in the palace who definitely believed otherwise.
    Their friendship was terminated abruptly after Charles overheard Diana recounting details to Mannakee of the prince’s own affair with Camilla, and listened to the policeman counsel her on how best she should deal with it. The furious prince telephoned a senior officer in the Royal Protection Squad and ordered Mannakee’s immediate transfer from royal duties. There were several senior officers in the squad who resented Mannakee’s easy closeness to the future queen—after all, he was a mere sergeant—and were pleased to see him switched to the