It’s difficult to remember a time when the royal family were as prominent in this country’s media as they are right now. With a period of national mourning following the Queen’s death last month, a new King and the hotly anticipated return of Netflix’s The Crown for it’s fifth series, Google searches have been dominated by who’s who-s and when was what-s.
So allow us to add to the deluge – who is Dr James Colthurst, close friend of the late Princess Diana and ‘middleman’ between the Princess of Wales and her biographer, Andrew Morton?
Who is Dr James Colthurst?
Dr James Colthurst (born 1957) was a medical professional who first became friends with the Princess when she was still Lady Diana Spencer and worked as a nanny in London. Colthurst came from serious money, grew up in a castle in County Cork, Ireland, was educated at Eton and has been described as ‘a minor aristocrat’.
How was Dr James Colthurst involved with Diana's book?
Aside from being a doctor (he’s now the director of a medical research firm), Dr James is best known for acting as a go between for Diana and the author Andrew Morton, whose explosive biography of the Princess, called Diana: Her True Story, was published in 1992.
According to sources, Colthurst brought questions from Morton to Diana and made the top-secret tapes that would form the basis of the book.
He said of the experience, ‘She was enormously enthusiastic to have her story out there, she knew exactly what she was doing. I'd cycle in, the recorder was in the briefcase, nothing surprising there. I'd go in and we'd normally have a few questions before lunch, we'd have lunch then we'd come out after lunch, I'd clip the microphone on and she'd finish them off.’
What has Dr James Colthurst said about Diana?
Colthurst has given various interviews about his friendship with Diana, most notably his contribution to the 2017 Channel 4 documentary Diana: In Her Own Words, when he said, ‘There was a great deal of jealousy from the grey men who sat behind Prince Charles, not wanting him to be living in her shadow.
‘Her character was being written down – as she saw it, a campaign to sideline her and remove her from the boys.
‘That was her worry, that she was going to lose the boys – overriding, above everything else, that was the concern – and that they were using a character run-down as a means of making that happen, an understandable next step.’
What has Dr James Colthurst said about Meghan Markle?
Writing for The Independent Ireland in 2018, Colthurst said, 'It may seem presumptuous to second-guess how someone might have felt about a situation, were they here with us today. But having known Diana, Princess of Wales well, I find it hard to imagine she would be anything other than enormously happy about Prince Harry's wedding to Meghan Markle, and extremely proud of her younger son.
'His mother would be delighted that he has found a companion who will challenge and support him superbly, so that the strength of their combined team will be far greater than the sum of its parts.'
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