Society photographer Terence Donovan threatened to blackmail Diana’s then-secret biographer Andrew Morton unless he paid him £70,000 for the iconic tiara picture of the Princess used in the book.

Diana gave Morton a sheaf of private pictures for the book she thought had been taken by her favourite snapper Patrick Demarchelier, inadvertently including the Donovan portrait.

‘He told us that if the price wasn’t met, he would tell the world that Diana was involved in the book,’ Morton tells Radio Times.

‘All our attempts to camouflage her involvement would have come to naught. She’d no longer have “wiggle room” to work out her future arrangements with her husband.’

Fortuitously, Donovan, who killed himself aged 60 in 1996, kept his mouth shut for less.

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Society photographer Terence Donovan (pictured) threatened to blackmail Diana’s then-secret biographer Andrew Morton unless he paid him £70,000 for the iconic tiara picture of the Princess used in the book

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Diana (pictured) gave Morton a sheaf of private pictures for the book she thought had been taken by her favourite snapper Patrick Demarchelier, inadvertently including the Donovan portrait

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‘He told us that if the price wasn’t met, he would tell the world that Diana was involved in the book,’ Morton (pictured with the book in 1992) tells Radio Times

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Fortuitously, Donovan, who killed himself aged 60 in 1996, kept his mouth shut for less

SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn wasn’t the only one not warbling at the Cenotaph. 

Prince William was mute during the singing of O God Our In Ages Past. His Blues and Royals great coat has no pockets which meant that he went on parade without a hymn sheet. 

A source says it was suggested that he fold a sheet into the deep cuffs on his coat, his non-saluting arm to avoid it slipping out embarrassingly, but he decided against it. At least he knew the words to his dad’s anthem.

Michael Sheen doesn’t much resemble Prince Andrew in forthcoming A Very Royal Scandal but the disgraced duke should fret more about the preachy Welsh windbag’s capacity to embarrass the royals.

He handed back his OBE in 2017, protesting against William’s appointment as Prince of Wales.

He also took aim at FA president William for cheering on England’s footballers on the eve of last year’s World Cup.

He’ll surely depict Andrew warts and all… with an emphasis on the warts.

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Michael Sheen (pictured) handed back his OBE in 2017, protesting against the principle of the heir to the throne being appointed Prince of Wales

Multifarious squawks of relief from the partridge and pheasant community at David Cameron‘s appointment as Foreign Secretary. 

An enthusiastic marksman with his shotgun, Cameron has been inundated with invitations to country shoots over the coming months. 

He will now be too busy. Worse, he will have to withdraw his re-application for membership of Tory grandee watering hole White’s.

Former Tory chairman Norman Fowler recalls the bafflement of health minister Virginia Bottomley when she succeeded David Mellor and wrote a two-hour slot for ‘shopping’ in her official diary.

Her staff collapsed in convulsions of laughter. It transpired that was the code priapic Mellor used when he sneaked off to meet his mistress Antonia de Sancha.

Superannuated weather forecaster Sian Lloyd whips up a feminist storm on Radio 4’s forthcoming documentary Scorchio by giving retired BBC weatherman Bill Giles a thermal belt: ‘We won’t have made it as women till we have someone doing the weather of Bill Giles’s age and of Bill Giles’s size.’ 

Gratuitously adding: ‘Bill’s belly would cover most of Wales!’

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Superannuated weather forecaster Sian Lloyd (pictured) whips up a feminist storm on Radio 4’s forthcoming documentary Scorchio by giving retired BBC weatherman Bill Giles a thermal belt