'The Crown' Season 5: Did Princess Diana Wear Disguises Out in Public?

Princess Diana's battle for privacy from press and public intrusion during the 1980s and 1990s is well documented and, to some commentators, is one of the leading contributing factors to her untimely death at the age of 36 in a high-speed Paris paparazzi car chase.

From her marriage to Prince Charles at the age of 20 in 1981, Diana became one of the most famous and most photographed women on earth, causing a public sensation wherever she went whether she was on-duty or not.

Played by actress Elizabeth Debicki in season five of the hit Netflix drama The Crown, the character of Diana is shown to resort to dressing in disguise to attend a private date with her heart surgeon boyfriend Hasnat Khan. But did the princess really wear costumes to blend in with the public?

Did Princess Diana Wear Disguises Out in Public?

A number of sources after Princess Diana's death have recounted incidents where the royal would dress in disguise to avoid public recognition. One source was a psychic healer used by the princess who became a close friend named Simone Simmons.

In her book Diana: Her Last Love, about the princess' real-life relationship with Dr. Hasnat Khan, author Kate Snell claims that the royal would wear wigs, adjust her make-up and wear a different style of clothing to go on dates with the heart surgeon. A fictionalized version of one of these dates is recreated in The Crown.

Snell writes that in the drawing room of Kensington Palace, Simmons was stunned into silence when Diana appeared wearing a "long dark brown wig recently acquired on her behalf by her butler Paul Burrell from the Oxford Street department store, Selfridges."

"It was one of several wigs Diana had adapted for herself, and such disguises became key to going out with Khan, safe from detection by public and paparazzi," wrote Snell.

As well as for dates with Khan, Simmons told the 2017 documentary Diana: The Woman Inside, that Diana would also wear her wigged disguises to enjoy walks through London without being stopped.

"In spite of the media putting her in the spotlight, she put on her wig, wore what she wanted, came for walks on Hampstead Heath, went to the charity shop with me in Camden High Street," she said.

"One time she was experimenting," Simmons remembered of a time she was fooled by the royal in disguise, "and this person answered the door to me, walked me up the stairs into the small lounge and William and Harry were there, and she said 'the princess will see you now,' and the boys just could not stop laughing...then she said 'I fooled you!'—I said 'Oh my god.'"

Did Princess Diana Go to a Nightclub in Disguise With Freddie Mercury?

One of the most famous reported incidents of Princess Diana dressing in disguise to go out with friends was recounted by British actress Cleo Rocos in her 2013 memoir The Power of Positive Drinking.

The actress described an evening in the late 1980s spent with comedian Kenny Everett, Queen frontman Freddie Mercury and Diana.

After watching an episode of The Golden Girls, the trio decided to go out to one of London's gay clubs but with Diana in disguise to avoid press interest.

"She just wanted the thrill of going in, undetected, to order one drink, and would then leave right away, she promised," wrote Rocos.

"By this point she had tried on the outfit Kenny [Everett] had intended to wear—a camouflage jacket, hair tucked up into a leather cap and dark aviator sunglasses.

"Scrutinizing her in the half-light we decided that the most famous icon of the modern world might just...JUST, pass for a rather eccentrically dressed gay male model."

The actress recounted the group's excited surprise when the princess appeared to blend in with the club crowd undetected.

"We were nudging each other like naughty school children," she said. "Diana and Freddie [Mercury] were giggling."

After their promised drink the group returned the princess to Kensington Palace, with Rocos proudly re-telling how "not a single person found us out."

Season 5 of The Crown is available to stream on Netflix from November 9.

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