From the opening chimes of a nation’s favourite drinking anthem, Chumbawamba's “Tubthumping”, blaring out of Princess Diana’s convertible car as she pulls into Tony Blair’s Chequers driveway, the music of the mid-90s plays a big part in the final series of The Crown.
We know Princess Diana was a big music fan – though whether she’d have been singing along to Tubthumping is questionable, especially as it was only released 20 days before her death, not eight weeks like the show claims – and references are peppered throughout this final outing for Peter Morgan’s “fictionalised” version of the royals.
In the first four-episode part of The Crown's final season, Diana sports a cool vintage Duran Duran t-shirt on her last holiday, and there’s not one but two George Michael cuts soundtracking her romance with Dodi Al Fayed: first “Fast Love” in episode one, then “Spinning The Wheel” in episode two.
But what was the relationship between Princess Di and George Michael and how did they become friends?
How did Princess Diana and George Michael meet?
While both were arguably two of the biggest celebrities of the ‘80s, Diana and Michael met for the first time at the Live Aid concert, held at Wembley on July 13 1985.
Diana reportedly had a crush on Michael in his Wham! days, and when they met at the stadium, according to the Daily Mirror, she told him that she found him “very gorgeous” to which he responded: “Thank you, ma’am—you’re pretty smashing yourself.”
According to Michael’s biographer James Gavin in George Michael: A Life: “Thus began the awkward 12-year friendship between a smitten aristocrat and a closeted sex idol."
The friendship
By 1993, the friends had formed a tight bond, being of a similar age, and helping each other navigate the murky waters of fame. At this time, Michael was embroiled in a court battle with Sony, and Diana had been on hand with advice and comfort for him.
They called each other “darling” and Michael gifted her a gold watch. Michael explained to the Huffington Post in 2011: “I think we clicked in way that was a little bit intangible, and it probably had probably more to do with our up bringing than anything else. She was very like a lot of women that have been attracted to me in my life because they see something non-threatening. Maybe because I take care of my sisters and I'm so protective of my sisters, women seem to smell that. So women who had a hard time growing up or feel that they were not, you know... when I was still sleeping with women, my God it was absolutely all of the time.”
In the same interview, he suggested that Diana would have liked the friendship to be more than platonic, despite him being gay: “There were certain things that happened that made it clear she was very attracted to me. There was no question,” adding that they were never intimate as “I knew it would have been a disastrous thing to do."
At the end of 1993, Diana called on Michael to step up and headline her first ever Concert For Hope, to commemorate World Aids Day. At the end of his performance, he gave a shout out to Diana, who was wearing a white suit and a red Aids pin, thanking “the lady who made this evening possible.” She smiled and waved back at him.
The leaked phone call
According to The Sun, Diana called George Michael in 1996 to talk about her divorce from Charles. Michael didn’t pick up immediately, and she started to leave a message on his voicemail. He subsequently answered the phone to talk, but the tape kept recording.
The tape eventually wound up in the possession of one of Michael’s friends, who then sold it to the press and made it public in 2017.
When asked by Michael in their call how the divorce is going, Diana replies: “It’s been pretty grim but we’re near the end of it,” then quipping: “A very loving, compassionate family, this one I’m leaving.”
Diana’s death
After Diana’s death in a Paris car crash in August, 1997, Michael was devastated. Speaking after the funeral, he said he was reminded of the death of his mother, Lesley, just six months earlier that year: “I bawled my eyes out. It was almost like I was reliving my mum’s funeral.”
He later released his single, “You Have Been Loved”, in a tribute to his ex-boyfriend Anselmo Feleppa, but it was also fitting tribute to the passing of Diana. The song was kept off the number one chart position by their mutual friend Elton John’s own dedicated song for Diana, the re-written “Candle In The Wind”.
Talking about Diana at her funeral and what his friend meant to the public, he explained: “I think she was there to remind people of their humanity.”
In 2011, Michael told of his guilt of not contacting Diana more, especially after watching her Panorama interview, telling the Huffington Post: “I kind of feel guilty because she did really like me as a person, and I tended to shy away from calling her because I thought she must have so many people calling her for all the wrong reasons."
“I knew she was so suspicious of people by then, so I would almost treat her the way I know some people treat me. I would presume it was an intrusion to call, when actually you know they're lonely and would hear a friendly voice.”
Michael died at the age of 53 on Christmas Day, 2016.
