Princess Diana rubbed elbows with everyone from John Travolta to Freddie Mercury during her royal career, and it turns out she developed an unlikely friendship with Liza Minnelli. In an excerpt from her memoir published in the Times, the actress and singer dishes on her incredible life and career—and she revealed that Diana was “a great lady.”
“I met Princess Diana at movie premieres, fundraisers and the like, and we became friends,” Minnelli, 79, wrote. The duo would “catch up and meet for tea” or “have lunch,” and the Cabaret star said she felt protective of the late princess.
“She and I fiercely guarded each other’s privacy,” Minnelli penned, adding, “My instinct was always to protect her. She was a great lady, under siege from the moment she entered the Royal Family.”
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Speaking of the iconic photo of the two of them sitting at a table and giggling, Minnelli wrote, “We had some great laughs at the party after the London premiere of my film Stepping Out in 1991.”
Liza Minnelli and Princess Diana are pictured at the 1991 premiere of Stepping Out in London.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The friends met up at a 1992 tribute concert to Sammy Davis Jr.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
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After posing for a photo, Diana whispered to her friend, “It’s good to see you, feisty lady!” Minnelli wrote. “I laughed and said, ‘Good to see you, too!’ We had a long conversation that night.”
The late princess went on to separate from Prince Charles a year later, and Minnelli recalled the royal marriage was a frequent topic of conversation. “We talked girl talk, and could have spent weeks together,” she wrote.
“Diana spoke candidly about the pressures she was facing, in her married life and as a member of the Royal Family,” the singer penned. “I told her about my own experiences. It was honest and real. We understood each other. She was one in a million.”
Minnelli shared one particularly touching detail about Diana’s Kensington Palace apartment in the book. The late royal incorporated “memorabilia that meant something to her” once she separated from Charles, and apparently, a photo of the New York, New York actress made the cut.
“I later learnt that, among a handful of framed photographs on her living room mantelpiece, there was a picture of me,” Minnelli shared. “Tragically, like so many people I love, she was gone too soon.”