Diana’s dance teacher reveals private anguish over Charles

Princess Diana’s dance teacher has revealed intimate details about the royal, including her distress over the collapse of her relationship with King Charles amid his affair with Queen Camilla.
Anne Allen was Diana’s dance teacher for nine years, starting work with the royal soon after her fairytale wedding and continuing through the births of her two boys and the collapse of her marriage.
Now she has written a book about her experiences and revealed private conversations between the pair in Dancing With Diana: A Memoir.
People today published excerpts from the new book, which will be released on September 10.
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Allan said she was first told Diana had requested private dance lessons with her just weeks after the princess married Prince Charles on July 29, 1981.
Allan said their first meeting took place at a private dance studio in London.
“She walked straight to me, extending her hand and saying, ‘How lovely to meet you, Anne, and goodness knows what you must think about all this’,” before noting Diana was bright red with embarrassment.
She said the princess insisted she call her Diana, before she went off to change into a black leotard, pink tights and ballet shoes.
Just one week after their first meeting, Allan was entrusted to keep the first of many secrets Diana would share with her.
“At the end of the class, she asked if she could have five minutes to chat. ‘Anne, I wanted to tell you that a little one is on the way. I’m pregnant!’
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“We shared a joyous moment, just two ladies together… she continued speaking: ‘I wanted to let you know that once the announcement is made they will not let me take classes anymore, but I would like to keep it going for as long as I can, and I don’t want to be fussed over. After all, lots of ladies have babies.'”
Allan said Diana revealed Charles was thrilled at the prospect of becoming a father.
Soon after Prince William was born on June 21, 1982, the princess resumed lessons.
“By September, Diana and I were back in the studio. I was excited to see the princess again and anxious to hear how she was and if she was loving being a mum.
“She greeted me with such warmth, and for most of the lesson we talked about babies.
“Diana told me she absolutely adored her son and wanted to spend all her time with him that she couldn’t sleep because she wanted to keep checking on him.”
As her lessons went on, Allan said Diana switched to “more comfortable unitards in different colours or matching tights and leotards with white jazz shoes.”
Their lessons were again interrupted when Diana gave birth to her second son, Prince Harry, on September 15, 1984.
When they resumed, Allan said she noticed straight away that Diana was “a little thinner,” but the princess revelled in motherhood.
“She said William was wonderful with his little brother and she loved watching them together.”
She said Diana revealed, “Everyone seems very happy that we now have the heir and the spare!” and while Harry’s red hair “was a lovely surprise” as it showed her Spencer side coming through, the princess also revealed, “I’m not too sure what Charles thinks about that.”
During the hundreds of secret one-hour dance sessions that followed over nine years, the pair developed a deep friendship, and Allan was privy to Diana’a darkest secrets, including her battle with bulimia.
“Her head dropped and, unable to look me in the eye, she said, ‘I am so ashamed, Anne, but I need to tell you that I suffer from bulimia.'”
She said Diana explained it started when attending important functions and dinners where she had to sit down to eat, and was sparked by feeling inadequate and judged by others.
Allan was also privy to increasing tensions in Diana’s marriage to Charles.
She said on one occasion in 1986, Diana sat on the floor of the studio crying.
“I could feel the hurt, a helplessness within her. Slowly, after a few more minutes of gentle sobbing, she said, ‘I just can’t seem to do anything right when it comes to my husband. I do love him so much and want him to be proud of me, but I don’t think he feels the same way. I don’t understand why I am not enough for him; I think he prefers an older woman.'”
Allan said it was not the first time the Princess had mentioned another woman, and this time she felt compelled to ask her about it.
“What followed was very alarming to hear. ‘I know he is seeing Camilla again. Am I expected to accept that, like the other Princesses of Wales before? One just turns a blind eye to husbands having a mistress? Why does he not love me? I really don’t understand. I have tried everything.'”
Allen said Diana told her, “There’s no affection between us, and I am always on my own. I just want to be loved. I can’t keep going on like this.”
During another dance lesson, Allan said “she dropped to the floor, sobbing.”
“‘I just don’t know what to do, Anne. I find myself in an unbearable situation. I haven’t seen Charles for weeks and he doesn’t want to talk to me. I thought he would come back to me, and we could work things out. How do I go on when I’m not wanted?'”
Allan said that by this point, a separation had been brought up.
“I honestly didn’t think that was what she wanted. Diana wanted Charles to be with her and to love her. Even though she was in her own romantic affair, at this point, Charles was still the man she desired and that was why it was so agonising for her.
“‘Keeping my family together is the most important thing to me,’ she said, still crying.”
In 1989, Allan moved to Scotland, ending their nine-year professional relationship. They maintained contact for a while, but this eventually faded.
Allan was at a work event in Toronto when she heard Diana had been injured in a car crash in Paris.
She said she stayed up all night, praying that Diana would pull through, “but I felt such heaviness in my heart.”
She was left in “total shock” when her death was announced.
“My first cohesive thoughts were of William and Harry. I also wept for Charles, who would suffer deeply, regardless of the divorce,” Allan said, adding she joined millions of others around the world to watch her funeral on TV.
“Afterwards, I held my own private vigil at home, surrounding myself with candles, flowers and Diana’s dance photos and letters. All I could do was remember and cherish the time we had together.”
Diana had a love of dance throughout her life, and would often take to the dance floor with her husband and others, including actor John Travolta.
She even surprised Prince Charles by performing a dance on stage on his 35th birthday but the move reportedly angered her husband.
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