US television to air candid Diana video

The NBC network will air the tapes recorded between 1992 and 1993 by her voice coach Peter Settelen, who reportedly sold them to NBC after a legal tussle with Diana's family.

In advance excerpts released by the network, Diana recounts how she fell in love with a member of her palace staff, presumed to be royal policeman Barry Mannakee, who was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1987.

"It was all found out and he was chucked out. And then he was killed," she says. "And that was the biggest blow of my life, I must say. And I think he was bumped off."

Diana speaks candidly of her ill-fated marriage with the heir to the British crown, Prince Charles, saying she only met him 13 times before their wedding and noting that their sex life was limited.

"There was never a requirement for it from him," the princess says. "Once every three weeks about, and I kept thinking it followed a pattern.