London: Princess Diana feared the royal family, and felt like a "lamb to the slaughter," the inquest into her death has heard.
Patrick Jephson, Diana's former private secretary, said that the princess felt under threat after royal advisers and powerful figures behind the throne lined up against her.
Diana had earned the wrath of the Royal Family when in Andrew Morton's 1992 book she said of her wedding: “I felt as though I was a lamb going to the slaughter.”
Her criticism of Prince Charles and his camp in a 1995 BBC Panorama interview brought further anger.
Jephson told the London hearing that Diana felt isolated after her marriage in 1981 and the establishment ignored her many pleas for help.
Jephson, a former Royal Navy officer, also revealed that the effect from the book had stoked up bad feelings against the princess and had been seen as a "betrayal".
Diana, who denied having had any involvement with Morton, was summoned to a meeting with the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.
During the discussion the Duke accused her of only being "in it for the publicity", Jephson told the inquest.
He agreed that Diana had "mortally offended elements of the royal establishment" with her part in this "gigantic piece of whistle-blowing".
"I thought that what was in the book probably needed to be heard but, preferably in context, and instead attention was focused on the way in which this material had come to light," the Telegraph quoted him, as saying.
"What you might call the royal establishment was less concerned about the content of the book than the fact it was disclosed at all," he added.
Jephson also agreed that it would be a "fair interpretation" to say that Diana felt a lamb to the slaughter going from her young life into the Royal Family.
"There were times when she felt isolated," he added.
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