Boy George has revealed that Princess Diana once broke royal protocol by leaving the receiving line to talk to the 80s pop star.
The British singer made an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show on Thursday February 29, and reminisced with the actress turned talk show host about their meetings with Diana, who tragically died in 1997.
“The first time I met her, I was asked to be in a line up to meet her at some charity even and then when the palace official checked the list, I wasn’t on it, so they pushed me out of the [line],’ Boy George began. “I went over to the bar pretty embarrassed thinking, ‘Oh my God. I can’t believe I humiliated myself.’ And I was standing in that line and [Diana] broke protocol and came over and spoke to me, and she was very sweet.”
But Boy George – real name George Alan O’Dowd – then shared that he admitted to the then-Princess of Wales that he was not a fan of the royal family but that his mom was, and so the Princess spent 20 minutes talking to his mother, Dinah.
“She basically spent 20 minutes talking to my mum, that was what made me fall madly in love with her, because I said, ‘I’m actually not really into the royal family but my mum loves you. Will you meet her?’ She met my mum for 20 minutes and was adorable.”
In his autobiography Karma, which he released earlier in the year, the former lead singer of Culture Club, went into further details, revealing that at the time his reputation was “ragged” due to his struggles with drug addiction.
The event was being hosted by nightclub owner Peter Stringfellow, who had told George Diana wanted to meet him but was kicked out of the line due to the negative public perceptions, but that she was so desperate to meet him she chose to break protocol.
During their chat she complimented him on his eye-catching coat by Judy Blume and a hat covered in silver safety pins. “That must have taken forever,” George wrote Diana said of his spangled outfit to which he quipped: “I didn’t do it myself, love.”
He also wrote that Diana told his mother that George was “a true survivor”.
George is now performing on Broadway as Harold Zidler in Moulin Rouge.
Princess Diana was just 36 when she was killed in a car crash in Paris in August 1997. She left behind her two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.
In 2023, Harry revealed that for years he believed his mother had gone into hiding, later admitting his thoughts to his older brother after William missed a yearly ski trip to Klosters because he hated posing for photographers.
Harry claims that William told him he also used to believe the same.
Writing his autobiography Spare, Harry also recalled the devastating moment he learned of his mother’s death. Just 12-years-old, his father Charles sat on the end of his bed, calling him “dear son” and explaining that there had been a car accident and that his mother had not recovered from her injuries.
