In a revelation that’s lighting up the LGBTQ world, a new biography claims that Princess Diana once dressed in male drag to sneak into a gay bar with none other than Queen frontman Freddie Mercury. The buzz comes from Dianaworld: An Obsession, a new book by Edward White that hit shelves Tuesday. In an exclusive excerpt published by People, White revisits an iconic story that’s floated in queer circles for years — and now, it’s back with fresh detail.
White writes, “In Diana’s mythology, furtive nocturnal activity plays an important role as moments when she secretly revealed hidden aspects of her true self…And nighttime offered the possibility of reinvention and anonymous adventure; the best-known example being the alleged occasion when Diana took a trip to one of London’s most famous gay bars.”
A night in the late 1980s, when Diana persuaded Freddie Mercury, actress Cleo Rocos, and gay comedian Kenny Everett to take her to London’s Royal Vauxhall Tavern. Everett warned her, saying it was “not for you … full of hairy gay men.” But Diana was determined. So Everett helped disguise her — camouflage jacket, leather cap, aviators — and off they went.
Rocos remembered thinking Diana “might just … JUST, pass for a rather eccentrically dressed gay male model.”
No one recognized her. The foursome had a quick drink and slipped out — but the story stuck. White admits the tale “sounds far-fetched,” but says whether true or not, it captures Diana’s kinship with the queer community and her longing for chosen family. Freddie Mercury and Kenny Everett would both die of AIDS-related complications in the ’90s. Diana, the so-called “People’s Princess,” died in 1997 — but for many LGBTQ fans, her spirit lives on in stories like this.
