Princess Diana reportedly sought messages from her dead father, believed her grandmother watched over her from the spirit world and invited a healer into Kensington Palace to cleanse her bedroom of negative energy.
The People’s Princess had a private fascination with ghosts, mediums and reincarnation. As her marriage to Prince Charles deteriorated, she turned to clairvoyants and spiritual advisers for reassurance about her family and future.
Messages from Diana’s dead father
One of the clearest contemporary accounts appeared in The New Yorker in December 1992.
Irish clairvoyant Betty Palko, who lived in Surbiton, said she had advised Diana since 1987 and received information from spirit guides.
Palko claimed that the spirit of Diana’s father, Earl Spencer, who died in March 1992, had appeared during meetings with the princess.
According to Palko, Diana could neither see nor hear her father, but became convinced he was present after the medium passed on personal family details.
Palko said the message conveyed love and understanding, along with an apology for leaving Diana when she needed him.
The clairvoyant also claimed to have foreseen Diana and Charles’s separation, announced on 9 December 1992. Her account was published only days afterwards.
The medium who helped Diana contact lost loved ones
Another adviser was Rita Rogers, a medium based in Derbyshire.
According to royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith, Diana believed Rogers had helped her communicate with three people who had died.
They included Barry Mannakee, a former royal protection officer who died in a motorcycle accident in 1987, and Diana’s uncle, Baron Fermoy.
The third was her grandmother, Cynthia Spencer, Countess Spencer, whom Diana reportedly believed was watching over her from beyond the grave.
Bedell Smith also recorded Diana’s belief in reincarnation. The princess reportedly thought she had previously lived as a nun and an early Christian martyr.
And Diana may have had ghostly experiences of her own. As recounted in Vanity Fair’s investigation into her spiritual life, Bedell Smith wrote that Diana hesitated to discuss such encounters because she feared being mocked.
Psychics and a cleansing at Kensington Palace
Diana’s circle of advisers extended well beyond these two mediums.
She consulted astrologer Penny Thornton from 1986, while television psychic Sally Morgan later said she gave Diana readings over four years.
According to accounts of their meetings, Diana wanted to know what lay ahead for her sons, including whether Prince William would become king.
Her interest even reached the rooms of Kensington Palace. Spiritual healer Simone Simmons described spending around 40 minutes removing what she considered harmful energy from Diana and Charles’s former marital bedroom.
Afterwards, Simmons said Diana felt an improvement in the atmosphere and asked her to perform a healing session. Her recollections are described in the Evening Standard’s account of her time with Diana and the later Vanity Fair investigation.
Simmons also recalled Diana using rune stones to perform readings herself. This suggests the princess was not simply listening to predictions: she was experimenting with spiritual practices.
Did Princess Diana return as a ghost?
Diana died following a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997, aged 36.
Stories about her spirit followed her death, including claims connected to her childhood home and final resting place in Northamptonshire.
As we explored in Does Princess Diana Haunt Althorp House?, the historic estate has ghost stories of its own, although reports of Diana herself appearing there remain unsubstantiated.
