Diana’s Mom Called Her a Whore for “Sleeping with Muslim Men”

Beliefnet

Home

Faiths & Prayer

Diana’s Mom Called Her a Whore for “Sleeping with Muslim Men”

posted by bfeiler | 9:33pm Monday January 14, 2008

Princess Diana has posthumously entered the interfaith relations debate a decade after her death. The inquest into her death heard that her mother called her a “whore” for “sleeping with Muslim men.” Frances Shand Kydd made the comment when she discovered her daughter was in a serious relationship with heart surgeon Hasnat Khan. The pair did not speak again before Diana died two months later, according to her butler Paul Burrell.

Mr Burrell told the High Court that the princess had held up the phone as they sat together on the sofa of her Kensington Palace apartment so that he could hear her mother’s rant.
He said Mrs Shand Kydd, who died in 2004, was a ‘formidable lady’ who often expressed herself ‘in extremely forceful terms about Diana’s consorts, especially if they were Muslim’.
Asked to describe what he had heard on that particular day, he hesitated.
It was only when the coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, interjected, saying: ‘This is relevant’, that Mr Burrell replied: ‘Well, she called the princess a whore and she said that she was messing around with f****** Muslim men and she was disgraceful. She said some very nasty things.’
Mohamed Al Fayed’s barrister, Michael Mansfield, asked: ‘It was shortly after one of these telephone calls that the princess decided she did not want to talk to her mother again?’

It’s easy to dismiss this story as tabloid fodder in what has seemed like a decade-long train of tabloid gosspi. Yet another boyfriend we’ve never heard about from Diana? But I suspect if this story penetrates the public consciousness she could become a powerful symbol to future generations of women in interfaith relationship. What better representative than Diana?! When a mother criticizes a daughter for dating a Muslim, she can reply, “But the Princess of Wales did it…”

most popular

beliefnet

Goodbye!
Dear Friends and Readers, After a wonderful relationship with Beliefnet, I've moved my blog to brucefeiler.com. Please join me there, or check out my new site, councilofdads.com, where I talk regularly about faith, family, and health. Thanks for your interest. Bruce Feiler

posted 2:12:51pm Apr. 21, 2010 | read full post »

The Man Who Started It All
In WALKING THE BIBLE, he's still sitting there forever, behind a cloud of smoke, saying, "People like me don't have time to talk to people like you," then calling me at home that night to introduce me to Avner. Now, nearing 100, he has finally passed.Avraham Biran, an archaeologist of biblical site

posted 10:32:33pm Oct. 06, 2008 | read full post »

Feiler Faster in Denver -- Final Thoughts
The last of my brother's blogs. * * * I was on the floor the other day and came across a man of about forty who wore on his left breast what looked like a military medal. A small ribbon pinned to his chest with a medallion hanging from it. It was the credential that his grandfather wore at the 196

posted 9:16:57pm Aug. 30, 2008 | read full post »

Feiler Faster in Denver -- Day 3
My brother's dailiy blog from inside the hall. * * * President Carter addressed the Georgia delegation this morning. Recently, he said, he'd been interviewed by the editor of the British newspaper "The Guardian" and had been asked whether a President Obama could change America's reputation in the

posted 12:25:22pm Aug. 28, 2008 | read full post »

Feiler Faster in Denver -- Day 2
My brother's latest blog. He's the official photographer of the Georgia Delegation. * * * Considering I described myself yesterday as a pop culture moron, the funniest response I've gotten so far was, "Who's Angela Bassett?" In the wake of opening night there's been a lot of play about Carville and

posted 10:28:13am Aug. 27, 2008 | read full post »

read all»