March 06, 1995 Vol. 43 No. 9 Wheeler Dealer
A Driver Sells His Tale of Di's Romance to the Tabs
WHEN OLIVER HOARE FIRST HIT the headlines last year, he was cast as the dashing—but blameless—married man to whom an infatuated Princess Diana made countless anonymous calls. Last week, however, the London art dealer found himself in a less sympathetic role. In a sensational story in the tabloid News of the World, former chauffeur Barry Hodge (whom Hoare fired last month for unspecified reasons) claimed the princess's crush was anything but unrequited.
As Hodge told it, Hoare, a 49-year-old father of two, began an affair with Diana, left his wife, Diane, for two months in December 1993 to set up a "love nest" in Pimlico, and is still involved with the princess.
According to the newspaper Today, Hoare left intimate messages for Di with the Waleses' paging service as recently as last month. Reportedly one read, "Longing to hear you and love you madly. Thinking of you every minute."
"Their affair is definitely still on," says Lady Colin Campbell, author of Diana, the Princess Nobody Knows. "It certainly hasn't run its course yet, but there's nowhere for it to go."
For her part, Di seems determined to downplay her connection to the beleaguered Hoare. On Feb. 19 she left London for the Caribbean island of St. Bart's, where her host was friend and fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier.
According to Hodge (who was rumored to have received a six-figure fee for his story), Charles often dined with Camilla chez Hoare, but Diana didn't make an appearance until July 1991, when an excited Hoare ushered staffers into his office at his gallery. As the princess perched on his desk, Hoare, bearing a cake, asked the startled assemblage to serenade her with "Happy Birthday." Said Hodge: "It was embarrassing."
Over the next four years, Hodge claimed, Hoare and Diana met up to four times a week at the homes of friends, including Lucia Flecha de Lima, wife of a Brazilian diplomat. (Now posted in Washington, where her husband is ambassador, she was Di's hostess on her November trip to D.C.) Chats with "passionate-sounding whispering," he claimed, were frequent: Di, he says, "could phone [the limo] more than 20 times a day," and Hoare rang her during his jogs through Kensington Gardens.
To many royal watchers, the chauffeur's tale had little shock value. It was no secret, says one Fleet Street veteran, that Flecha de Lima (a close friend of both Diana and Hoare) provided a trysting place. "I'm certain," he says, "that when they met it was with the knowledge of and in space provided by Lucia."
According to Hodge, the relationship prompted "screaming rows" between the Hoares. The silent phone calls that they began receiving only heightened the tension; in October, Diane, 46, insisted upon a police investigation. "It always seemed very odd to me that [Hoare said] he had no idea who was making the calls," said Hodge. "Any 5-year-old child could have figured it out." At the end of 1993, he said, Hoare moved from their $3.5 million West London home into the Pimlico flat. He returned two months later, but the rift remained.
Hodge said that Hoare warned Di about the probe and made plans to move into another flat. "His wife found out," he said, "and all hell broke loose." Di also had her histrionic moments, Hodge claimed. Last July 23, he said, while Diane was away, she came to Hoare's home in tears; the two remained locked in the drawing room for 90 minutes.
According to Di's friends, last August's leaks about her silent calls to Hoare (who said nothing on her behalf) destroyed any affection that she might have had for him. "She decided that he was a spineless creature," a chum told the Daily Mail.
It appears that Diane Hoare has also had enough. On Feb. 20, the Sun echoed Hodge's contention that she has decided to seek a divorce. Fiercely loyal to the Windsors, she reportedly has promised not to name Di as a corespondent. "Diane comes from one of the best families," a source told the Sun. "She knows the damage it would cause."