“Morton’s view is that his version would at least give you some control.” Though there was no ‘hatchet job’ on the immediate horizon in 1992, Prince Charles did cooperate with Jonathan Dimbleby on a 1994 biography which detailed in part how the prince had been forced into a loveless marriage with the Princess of Wales. He thinks there’s another book coming about you that’s likely to be a bit of a hatchet job based on sources close to the Prince of Wales,” Colthurst tells Diana. Described as a ‘minor aristocrat’, Colthurst was educated at Eton and came from a wealthy family.Ĭolthurst later spoke of how Diana was 'enormously enthusiastic' to tell her story. They had been friends since before Diana’s marriage into the royal family, when she was still Lady Diana Spencer, working as a nanny in London.

Born in Ireland in 1957, James Colthurst was a close friend of Diana, and became the ‘middleman’ between the Princess of Wales and her biographer, Andrew Morton, in 1991–2. Morton began his journalism career in the 80s, working for British tabloid newspaper The Daily Star, first as a general reporter and then royal correspondent. According to the Toronto Sun, Diana used the nickname 'Noah' for Morton - which was a joke based on an American paper's reference to him as a 'notable author and historian.' Using Colthurst as a go-between also aided Diana's deniability, so that she could say she had never met Andrew Morton.

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