Dis relationship with paparazzi soured after divorce

The relationship between Princess Diana and the paparazzi soured after her divorce, when she no longer had the privilege of full-time royal bodyguards, the inquest into her death has heard.

London, Nov 28 : The relationship between Princess Diana and the paparazzi soured after her divorce, when she no longer had the privilege of full-time royal bodyguards, the inquest into her death has heard.

Kenneth Lennox, former picture editor of British newspaper The Sun, said that the princess respected the fact that the press "had a job to do," and had been on pleasant terms with the paparazzi.

However, he said that once she was stripped off the services of the royal protection officers, younger, paparazzi-style photographers moved in with increasingly aggressive practices.

Lennox also revealed that Diana undervalued the level of interest she was generating in the final months of her life when she vacationed in the Mediterranean with her new lover, Dodi Fayed.

Testifying about how he was offered photographs of the crash in which the Princess died, Lennox told how the subject became "taboo" in the media in the subsequent years.

He said a clear division had to be made between experienced, highly skilled press photographers and paparazzi who specialised in snapping celebrities.

He also revealed how he had photographed the princess many times himself before becoming a picture editor.

"My relationship with her was as a photographer and a princess, and there was that gulf between us, although we did speak on occasions," the Scotsman quoted him, as saying.

"I am not a friend, I never have claimed to be, but she knew I had a job to do and did her best to make my job easy. She was a very good subject," he added.

However, he added: "When the princess had protection there were certain distances we kept from her, it was all encapsulated in a form and a style.

"When she lost her royal protection a lot of the younger photographers would be a bit more aggressive about the way they went about getting the photograph."

ANI