Britain's Prince Charles' marriage to the late Princess Diana was "idiotic", according to a new book.
The former German chancellor Helmut Kohl - who led the country from 1982 to 1998 - is said to have spoken out about the marriage between the Prince of Wales and Princess Diana to journalist Heribert Schwan.
According to the Daily Mail newspaper, Schwan reports Kohl as saying: "Her [Diana's] marriage was an idiotic affair.
"Had she become queen immediately she would have done her bit in bed, created three princes and her duty to the nation would have been fulfilled. But like this she had to travel around, talk to mayors and so on and then she withered away."
Schwan was tasked with writing the former chancellor's memoirs and had already conducted more than 600 hours of taped interviews with him between 2001 and 2002 when the pair fell out.
Earlier this year a court told Schwan that he had to return the tapes, but he managed to delay handing them over until he'd finished making full transcripts of the conversations and went on to publish the book, 'Legacy: The Kohl Transcripts' without permission.
Princess Diana - who was divorced from Prince Charles in 1996 - died in a car crash in Paris, France in 1997.
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