Diana ‘planned to move to Malibu with Harry and William to launch movie career’

Or so her voice coach, Stewart Pearce, claims.

(Image credit: Tim Graham Photo Library via Get)

Or so her voice coach, Stewart Pearce, claims.

In Royal news today, it's been claimed that Princess Diana was planning on moving herself and her two children to the US in 1997.

According to a friend of the princess, she was keen to make it in Hollywood, not as an actress, but as a producer or director. Her main aim was always to promote her charitable work.

Stewart Pearce, who was Diana's voice coach, claims that she ‘planned meetings with top film executives in Autumn of 1997’ and ‘believed a move to Malibu would help her escape the establishment and class system in the UK’.

Whether or not she would logistically have been allowed to move Harry and William to America remains unknown.

Sadly, Diana's plans were cut short in 1997 when she died in a tragic car accident.

Speaking to The Daily Mail to mark the 24th anniversary of Diana's death, Pearce also commented on Diana's relationship with boyfriend Dodi Fayed.

He denied that she had been pregnant with Fayed's child at her time of death and further that she had plans to marry Fayed, despite their ‘whirlwind summer romance.'

Pearce says that despite ‘having an amazing time with the inexorable gentleman’ and ‘enjoying each other’s bodies’, that they had no intention of marrying as far as he had been made aware.

On her pending Hollywood career, Pearce also said that, while she was hesitant to appear on camera, she was keen to ‘explore her creative power’.

He said: "There were a number of major projects brewing in her consciousness through offers that had been offered to her."

"One of the major opportunities that she wanted to create, was to start developing documentaries about three charitable interests that would then be assimilated into major movie pictures. She was planning on spending a lot of time in Hollywood."

Paul Burrell, who was Diana's butler, has also said before that the Princess expressed wishes to move the children abroad. Speaking to ABC News in 2007, he said Diana had spoken about relocating them to Fayed’s Malibu home.

He said: "She said, 'This is our new life, just won’t it be great, think of the lifestyle the boys — nobody’s judgmental here in America, you don’t have the class system, you don’t have the establishment.'"

Ally Head
Senior Health, Sustainability and Relationships Editor

Ally Head is Marie Claire UK's Senior Health, Sustainability, and Relationships Editor, nine-time marathoner, and Boston Qualifying runner. Day-to-day, she works across site strategy, features, and e-commerce, reporting on the latest health updates, writing the must-read health and wellness content, and rounding up the genuinely sustainable and squat-proof gym leggings worth *adding to basket*. She's won a BSME for her sustainability work, regularly hosts panels and presents for events like the Sustainability Awards, and saw nine million total impressions on the January 2023 Wellness Issue she oversaw. Follow Ally on Instagram for more or get in touch.