Diana changed "autobiography" to protect Queen, says author

Diana, Morton disclosed on Monday, had been the real source behind the biography.

While editing the first draft, she changed a section dealing with her apparent suicide attempt which was witnessed by the Queen, Morton told the Times newspaper.

“During the interviews, she said that when she threw herself down stairs at Sandringham (a royal residence) while pregnant with Prince William, the Queen was the first on the scene,” he said.

Diana altered the text and instead inserted Queen Elizabeth, the Queen mother’s name, Morton said.

She also supplied Morton with copies of love letters (Charles’ lover) Camilla Parker-Bowles had written to the prince, which were “passionate, loving and full of suppressed longing,” to prove she was not imagining their relationship, he said.

Buckingham Palace on Monday condemned Morton’s decision to release a new edition of the book with a spokesman for the royal family saying it was “particularly sad coming as it does so soon after the princess’s death.”

Meanwhile, a dress worn by late Diana to a Paris preview of Les Miserables sold for 200,000 dollars at a charity auction, reports said yesterday. The Monday night benefit auction for a local aids group featured a black velvet gown of Diana’s that was subsequently sold to an anonymous telephone bidder from Florida.

The gown appreciated more than five times from the 36,800 paid last summer at an auction conducted by Christie’s in New York. The owner, Boston Boutique operator Barbara Jordan, donated the dress to Monday’s auction.

Organisers said they believe the gown is the first item of Diana’s to be sold since her death in a August 31 car crash in Paris.