Princess Diana knew her marriage to King Charles "wasn't going to last", Wayne Sleep has claimed.
Princess Diana confided in Wayne Sleep
The 74-year-old dancer struck up a friendship with the late royal - who had sons Prince William, 41, and Prince Harry, 38, with her ex-husband - when he gave her lessons ahead of her secret performance at at the annual Christmas party of the Friends of Covent Garden at the Royal Opera House in 1985, and he recalled how the "shy" princess felt "everything she did seemed to be wrong".
He told The Guardian newspaper: “She was very shy. She’d talk about the boys. She wasn’t a party animal, but she loved to dress up.”
Asked if Diana - who split from Charles in 1992 - was happy, he added: “No. I think it had just reached that point. She realised it wasn’t going to last, no matter what she did. Everything she did seemed to be wrong. Really it’s none of our business, is it?”
The pair's dance featured in a scene in 'The Crown' in 2020, with Emma Corrin as Diana and Jay Webb as Wayne, and the dancer approved of the depiction.
He said: "I think they did very well, considering."
Wayne was also good friends with late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury and they had been discussing a potential collaboration for the singer with the Royal Opera House before he became too ill to begin negotiations.
Of their nights in at Freddie's house, Wayne said: "All he’d want to do was put on operas and see who could get the high notes."
And the former 'Celebrity Big Brother' star struck up a friendship with David Hockney when the artist came to draw his ballet class.
He said: “I remember one night we got so stoned, me and David, and we played the Russian national anthem eight times.”
Wayne recently visited David in France, and added: “We sang it together again on Saturday!”
Tagged in Princess Diana King Charles