Inside Princess Diana’s near brush with Hollywood fame as movie role unveiled

Princess Diana could once have been a Hollywood star, after Kevin Costner revealed he was ready to protect the late Princess of Wales in The Bodyguard 2.

Princess Diana almost became a Hollywood icon, according to one Oscar winning actor (Image: Getty)

Princess Diana could once have been a Hollywood star, after Kevin Costner revealed he was ready to protect the late Princess of Wales in The Bodyguard 2.

The 69 year old actor, had once been in talks with the Princess to produce a sequel to his hit film The Bodyguard, with a script featuring the royal already written at the time of her tragic passing back in 1997.

Opening up about what the sequel may have entailed on The Howard Stern Show, the acclaimed actor revealed that he would once again have reprised his role as former Secret Service agent, Frank Farmer and would have been visiting Hong Kong to look after a prized racehorse when he his character crossed paths with Diana.

“He’s on a plane, Princess Di’s up front, everyone has to get off the plane,” he explained. “Di goes off the plane first, she goes into Hong Kong, because she’s going to this [horse] race too.”

Kevin Costner had pitched a sequel to his hit film The Bodyguard to Princess Diana (Image: Getty)

“Princess Di, I meet her the next day at a party and I’m looking at her like everybody else. And she finally walks over and goes, ‘I know who you are!’ And I said, ‘What the f–k are you talking about?’ She goes, ‘I know you’re here to watch over me.’ And I said, ‘No, I’m not actually. I’m watching over a horse,’” Costner continued.

“In the story, she had broken with the royal family.”

The unexpected collaboration spawned from an earlier meeting between Kevin and the Princess back in the early 1990s, after the pair had been introduced by Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York. 

At the time, Diana had already begun the process of divorcing King Charles, and was impressed by Kevin’s pitch when he asked her to be involved.

According to Kevin, the Princess has specifically requested a kissing scene! (Image: Getty)

“I said, ‘I’m going to do Bodyguard 2 and I think I can build this around you. Would you be interested?’” Costner said.

“She goes, ‘Yes … My life’s about to change.’ I thought I understood what she’s saying: ‘I’d like to open my life… I think I would like to do this.’”

Interestingly, the Princess even allegedly pitched a kissing scene between them according to the star – which is perhaps unsurprising, after it was revealed earlier this week that Prince William had once informed the actor that his mother had “fancied him”

“The second time we talked she said, ‘Is there going to be a kissing scene?’ I said, ‘Do you want there to be one?’ She said, ‘Yeah,’ and I said, ‘Then we’ll do that,’” Costner explained.

However, it is understood that the Princess would not have been his main love interest in the film.

Following Diana’s death, the project was shelved as Kevin no longer felt it was viable to continue and likened the royal’s instrumental role in bringing the film to life as his former co-star Whitney Houston had been.

“I could not replace Princess Di,” he said. “Kind of like, if I couldn’t have done Bodyguard with Whitney, I don’t think I was gonna make it with anybody.”