Princess Diana was “advised against” visiting drug addicts and Aids patients during a visit to Egypt over fears that it would portray the country in a bad light, official documents have revealed.
In May 1992, a few months after her separation from the then-Prince Charles was confirmed, the late royal visited the Great Sphinx and the pyramids of Giza as part of a solo trip to Egypt. Princess Diana had wanted to use the trip to promote causes close to her heart – including tackling the stigma surrouding Aids.
Just five years prior, in April 1987, Diana made headlines around the world when she shook hands with an Aids patient during the opening of the UK’s first specialist HIV and Aids unit.
A confidential document noted that the reaction by the Egyptian authorities, to propose a visit to an Aids hospital or drug rehabilitation clinic was “not clear”.
The document added: “Drug addiction has been recognised as a problem for a number of years and we have been encouraged recently by a more open attitude towards Aids. However, they are both still sensitive issues.”
Dr Leila Emara, private secretary to Hosni Mubarak, who was then the president of Egypt, later confirmed that the proposed itinerary was unacceptable. A report said: “[Diana was] advised strongly against pursuing the possibility of an engagement to do with Aids.
“Dr Emara implied she was encountering serious resistance. I recommend that we accept this advice.” Instead, Princess Diana visited schools for blind children in Cairo, as well as a polio rehabilitation centre.
The late royal also paid a visit to a centre for the disabled in Aswan and a mosque and the Egyptian Museum.
While on the tour of Egypt, Diana had initially been reluctant to pose in front of the pyramids during a photocall in Giza.
After covering the princess for years throughout her life within the Royal Family, photographer Kent Gavin refused to give up on the idea of picture of her near the pyramids.
The renowned photographer previously explained: “I said to Diana, ‘Ma’am, those pyramids are one of the seven wonders of the world and you are the eighth, we need that picture’ and she said, ‘Well, I can’t refuse that, can I?’
The visit was also a poignant one in Diana’s royal life as it was the place that she confessed to her bodyguard Ken Wharfe that she “wanted out”.
As written by author Robert Jobson, Mr Wharfe recalled in the book Guarding Diana: “…As the group continued to take picture after picture, even though there was nothing there of interest to photograph anymore, Diana opened up and spoke about her feelings of total isolation.
“‘I want out of this once and for all’, she confided.
