Princess Diana Playfully Disagrees With Her Aides in Never-Before-Seen Footage From 1997 Trip

Old footage of Princess Diana from her January 1997 visit to Angola to bring awareness to the devastating effects of landmines has been aired for the first time by ITV News.

On Wednesday, April 1, journalist Steve Scott — who served as ITV News’ Africa Correspondent when Diana was on her trip — appeared on the network’s Reporting History series, hosted by Tom Bradby, where they played excerpts from her sitting down with him and other reporters that had been cut at the time.

Scott could then be heard saying, “Can we ask the question about the political role?”

“I’d have thought that was the most important question out of the two. I’d go for that one,” Diana replied.

“What, the political one?” Scott asked, and Diana confirmed with a nod.

However, one of her aides stepped in and said, “No, not the political one, you don’t mean the political one,” but Diana remained firm that she did mean the political question, saying, “No, no, I mean the one saying I’m not a political figure.”

“As you heard, her team were trying to stop her answering that question,” Scott said. “But she wasn’t having any of it and she was being very playful with not having any of it… Because she wanted to get that message across.”

In the part of the interview that did air, Scott asked her, “What did you make of yesterday’s political storm back in England?” as her stance on landmines was then seen as controversial.

“I saw it merely as a distraction, because I am not a political figure, I am a humanitarian figure,” she responded. “And always have been and always will be.”

Heading back to England, Diana and Scott were on the same plane, and the newscaster said in the episode that the former Princess of Wales spoke to him about her sons Prince William and Prince Harry.

“Despite the fact that this campaign was very important to her now and she was going to continue working on it, her priority was her boys and would continue to be her boys, and that’s where she would be focusing most of her energy going forward,” Scott recalled Diana telling him on the plane ride.

Just months after that trip, Diana, of course, tragically perished in a car accident at 36 years old in August 1997.