Princess Diana Was Obsessed With ‘Witch-Woman’ Who Gave ‘Dire’ Predictions and Fed Her ‘Paranoia’
Princess Diana’s interest in astrology and the supernatural fueled her belief that somebody was out to get her, one person who knew her well said.
Patrick Jephson was Diana’s private secretary for six years between 1990 and 1996. That role gave him unique insight into the princess’s life and state of mind. Jephson testified at the 2008 inquest into Diana’s 1997 death. He described her as paranoid and in thrall to various spiritual advisors, whose predications and pronouncements she took as gospel.
Princess Diana embraced a ‘bewildering cocktail’ of alternative therapies and beliefs
The Princess of Wales frequently consulted fortune-tellers, astrologers, alternative healers, and others. These consultations “fed the paranoia that never lurked far beneath the surface,” Jephson told the court (via The Standard).
She “saw plots everywhere,” he said.
Diana also believed predictions that her former husband Prince Charles would die.
“Fergie’s witch-woman says my husband is going to be killed! She sees mountains and a helicopter!” Jephson remembered Diana telling him. A psychic had told Diana’s sister-in-law, Sarah Ferguson, that Charles would die in a skiing accident. The Duchess of York reportedly believed that would clear the way for her estranged husband, Prince Andrew, to serve as regent, as Prince William was still underage.
Jephson told the court – which was investigating Mohamed Al-Fayed’s belief that his son, Dodi Fayed, and Diana had been killed by MI6, acting on the order of Prince Philip – that the princess was intoxicated by a “bewildering cocktail” of alternative practitioners. While she was convinced of the value of these various therapies, Jephson said they actually “robbed her of her equilibrium at times of stress and dissipated her powers of concentration.”
Princess of Wales believed Prince Charles was doomed
Among those advising Diana were a psychic named Rita Rogers, whom she met via Ferguson. Rogers told Diana that someone would cut the brake lines on her car. She also consulted with Madam Vasso, a Greek mystic. Vasso later wrote a tell-all book about the Duchess of York.
Diana was particularly eager to hear about what would happen to Charles, from whom she separated in 1992; they divorced in 1996.
“She continued to heed her astrologer’s predictions, the more dire the better, particularly where the prince was concerned,” Jonathan Hough, the Diana inquest counsel, said. “She was rewarded with regular forecasts of helicopter crashes, skiing accidents and other calamities that obstinately refused to befall him.”
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