Did Princess Diana really go out one night disguised as a man to mingle in the crowd at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, one of London’s most famous gay bars?
The scene sounds pretty incredible. It’s a story that’s been playing in the media for some time, but it’s been circulating again with a vengeance thanks to the new book Dianaworld: An Obsession, by biographer Edward White.
Princess Diana and Freddie Mercury
According to the author, this episode sums up that rebellious impulse so often attributed to Diana.
The main source of the story is actress Cleo Rocos, who recounted it in her memoir published in 2013.
According to her, that night in 1988 the princess not only shared an evening of laughter and champagne with Rocos, Kenny Everett and Freddie Mercury, but also took the courage to accompany them on an outing that, for anyone in her position, would have been unthinkable.
They were watching episodes of The Golden Girls, but with the volume turned down, making up dialogue with a rather high pitch.
Diana, at her most playful, heard that her friends were planning to go to the Royal Vauxhall and wanted to join in.
Everett tried to dissuade her, telling her that the place wasn’t for her and that it was “full of hairy gay men.” But Diana wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Mercury, in a complicit tone, settled the conversation with a phrase that is now part of the myth: “Go on, let the girl have some fun”.
The plan needed a disguise. So the princess ended up with a military jacket, leather cap, dark glasses and her hair up.
Rocos recalled that, with that look, they managed that “the most famous icon of the modern world might just…. JUST, pass for a rather eccentrically dressed gay male model”.
Once inside the bar, her friends were convinced that someone would spot her, but it didn’t happen. But it didn’t happen: “She sort of disappeared. But she loved it,” Rocos wrote.
Princess even returned the clothes the next day with a note. “We must do it again!”
Was it real – or a story that grew with time and the worldwide fascination with Diana? Peter Freestone, Mercury’s assistant and friend, has said no.
In an interview with Express Online in 2019, he was blunt: “No, not at all. Maybe Diana went with Kenny but Freddie wasn’t there. He never met her.”
Edward White acknowledges that version. He says the anecdote “sounds far-fetched” and compares it to modern fairy tales.
Even so, he recalls that there are other similar episodes, although less extravagant, that are documented. Like when Diana wore a wig and glasses to go with Hasnat Khan to a jazz bar in Soho.
Whether true or legend, the story has survived the test of time.