A former top news editor in Great Britain is claiming that Princess Diana leaked the royal phone directory to him in an attempt to bring down her husband Prince Charles, with whom she was separated from at the time.
Clive Goodman, former royal editor for News of the World, said the late Princess Diana handed him the private royal phonebook because she needed "an ally" in the press so she could "take on" her husband, The Telegraph reported.
The phonebook showed that Prince Charles's staff was much larger than hers. Goodman, 56, said "she was going through a very, very difficult time,' The Telegraph reported. The Princess separated from her husband in 1992 after a decade of marriage.
"She told me she wanted me to see the scale of her husband's staff and household, compared with others," Goodman said. "She felt she was being swamped by people close to his household.
"She was looking for an ally to take him on- to show the kind of forces that were ranged against her," Goodman said, according to The Telegraph.
Goodman is currently on trial on charges of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office and for paying a public official for the royal directories. A total of 15 directories, or "Green Books," were found in his home in the county of Surrey.
The former editor said some of the books were given to him by the former senior valet for the Prince of Wales. The Princess, who "had a (good) relationship with several journalists," sent one of the books to his office in Wapping, Goodman said, The Telegraph reported.
Goodman said his stories greatly benefited from the contacts in the "Green Books," including when he wrote about Princess Diana's death in a car crash in Paris in 1997. He was able to contact a source the night she died.
"I explained what was going on in Paris- that helped mobilize him. I called him at home at 1 a.m. on the Sunday- I had his number," Goodman said, The Telegraph reported.
Goodman, who was previously convicted for hacking the phones of Royal Household members, maintains he is innocent.
