Prince Di has a nice ring to it.
Princess Diana once went undercover in male drag to sneak into a gay bar in London with late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, according to a forthcoming biography.
In “Dianaworld: An Obsession,” out Tuesday, author Edward White recalls the legendary night, writing in an excerpt obtained by People that “furtive nocturnal activity plays an important role as moments when she secretly revealed hidden aspects of her true self.”
Per White, the “best-known example” of this is “when Diana took a trip to one of London’s most famous gay bars.”
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White cites comedy actress Cleo Rocos, who befriended Diana in the late ’80s and was present for the night in question, as was late radio personality Kenny Everett, the first DJ to play “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
“At some point in the evening, Rocos claims, Diana persuaded them to take her to the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, a place that Everett warned was ‘not for you … full of hairy gay men,’” White pens.
“Diana was insistent, however, so Everett helped her disguise herself in male drag: ‘a camouflage army jacket, hair tucked up into a leather cap and dark aviator sunglasses. Scrutinizing her in the half-light, we decided that the most famous icon of the modern world might just …JUST, pass for a rather eccentrically dressed gay male model.’”
He claims the plan “seemed to work,” as he quotes Rocos in saying, “It was fabulously outrageous and so bizarrely exciting …no one, absolutely no one, recognized Diana.”
According to White, the group “stayed for one drink and left. Diana returned to Kensington Palace and sent back Everett’s clothes the following day.”
Though he acknowledges that the “story sounds far-fetched,” White notes that “there are other, slightly less fantastical tales about Diana disguising herself on nights out, such as when she accompanied Hasnat Khan to Ronnie Scott’s jazz bar in Soho, the princess obscuring her true self beneath a wig and glasses.”
The biographer points out that “the story of Diana in drag at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern has been taken up as an illustration of her connection with the gay community and a metaphor for her own search for a family in which she felt truly accepted.”
In an interview published earlier this month, Rocos — who was particularly close with Everett — detailed what led to that night at Royal Vauxhall Tavern.
“We’d had a jolly lunch at the Bombay Brasserie in London. Diana always wanted to know what was going on in the world of showbiz, and we always wanted to know what was going on at her house. We all used to shriek with laughter,” Rocos, 62, told the Mirror UK.
“Usually, Diana would go home after lunch. But on this day, she came back to Kenny’s house. I went into the kitchen to make some more cocktails. Diana had kicked her shoes off, and she and Kenny were dancing to the Gypsy Kings. Kenny called Freddie Mercury and said, ‘Di’s here. Come over! We are watching ‘The Golden Girls.’”
Per Rocos, Diana soon inquired about what the group had planned for later that night — and what they were going to wear.
“My brother was a war photographer in El Salvador at the time. He had given me his camouflage jacket, and Kenny was going to borrow that. But Diana put on the jacket, and it looked great on her,” she remembered, adding that Everett “got out a leather cap” before Mercury “gave her some aviator sunglasses.”
