Was her love of this No. 1 hit a sign of things to come?
We now know that by the late 1980s, Princess Diana was struggling with her marriage to Prince Charles. But even at the time, rumors were circulating that all was not well in the seemingly fairy-tale union. Many of us, when we’re feeling sad, listen to a sorrowful tune—and behind palace walls, Diana was no different. The 20-something royal loved playing her favorite songs on repeat, and there was one lovelorn ballad that really spoke to her.
Diana so loved this song from a popular movie that had come out a few years earlier that she requested it at now-King Charles’s 40th birthday ball at Buckingham Palace in 1988, the iconic band’s guitarist recently revealed. The name of the tune? Well, it would turn out to be very telling. Keep reading to learn what the song was, whether Charles, who turns 77 on Nov. 14, heard it—and if he knew why it resonated with Diana.
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Which song did Princess Diana love in the ’80s?
Diana’s favorite song in the late 1980s was “Separate Lives,” by Phil Collins and Marilyn Martin. Makes sense, right?
Looking back now, it’s clear the lyrics spoke to the princess, who was troubled in her marriage to Charles. The hit song, performed as a duet by the former Genesis frontman and Martin, topped the Billboard charts in 1985. It was the theme from the movie White Nights, starring ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov and Isabella Rossellini.
The lyrics, written by Stephen Bishop, are very poignant:
“I can’t go on just holding on to times
Now that we’re living separate lives
Well I held on to let you go
And if you lost your love for me, well, you never let it show
There was no way to compromise
So now we’re living separate lives.”
Of course, by the time of Charles’s birthday party, he and Diana were also living separate lives—though they wouldn’t officially separate until 1992.
How did this factor into Charles’s 40th birthday party?
Charles turned 40 in 1988 and, according to insiders, hosted a private ball in Buckingham Palace to celebrate. Phil Collins—who had met Charles and Diana on multiple occasions by then—was booked to play the party.
His guitarist at the bash, Daryl Stuermer, recently revealed in an interview just what happened behind the scenes.
“Phil asked me if I would play with him specifically for Prince Charles,” Stuermer told Vulture. “His 40th birthday party was going to be at Buckingham Palace. … There would be about 500 people, and there was no press allowed. So it was just me and Phil looking around at all of these fancy people.”
“We started playing, went through one song, and Princess Diana walked up and said, ‘Can you please play “Separate Lives”?’ At that time there were already some rumors going around that she and Prince Charles were having marital problems, and we thought it was kind of interesting that she asked us to do ‘Separate Lives,'” he said.
What happened next?
Like any good party band, they played the request!
“So we agreed, and then performed ‘One More Night,'” Stuermer said. Charles and Diana were probably not going to smooch to “Separate Lives,” but when the band played the second song, it turned out to be a sweet moment. “Prince Charles and Princess Diana actually danced to that one,” he said. “Everybody moved aside, and they just danced to the song together.”
How did Collins react to the request?
Although it could have been a little awkward, Collins actually knew “Separate Lives” had been the princess’s favorite for a few years. In fact, in a 1986 interview for Playboy, the singer revealed that Diana had told him about it when they first met. “When I saw her one of the first times, she said, ‘I love “Separate Lives,”‘ and I told her I’d send her a copy,” he said. “She told me she already had one.”
And in 2016, Collins said on the UK’s Jonathan Ross Show that he played a “completely insensitive set” of his hits at the party, including “Separate Lives” and “Doesn’t Anybody Stay Together Anymore,” claiming, “I didn’t know they were splitting up.”
Meanwhile, songwriter Bishop responded to Stuermer’s revelation on TikTok: “I’m honored beyond belief. I loved Princess Diana and was so sad when she passed. I’m glad she found solace in my song ‘Separate Lives’ during a difficult time in her life,” he wrote.
What other music did Diana love?
In addition to a nice power ballad, she loved (and had a close friendship with) George Michael, whom she’d had a crush on since his Wham! days. According to the Mirror, when Diana first met Michael she quipped, “You’re very gorgeous,” to which the singer replied, “Thank you, ma’am—you’re pretty smashing yourself.” Diana’s personal chef, Darren McGrady, later tweeted, “Always knew when Princess Diana was in a good mood. George Michael music used to belt out around the courtyard.”
Diana was also a huge fan of pop band Duran Duran, and in 2022, bass guitarist John Taylor revealed in an interview with Entertainment Tonight that Diana would sing “Wild Boys” in the car with sons William and Harry.
“When we met Harry and William, they said, ‘Oh, we used to sit in the back seat and mom would play “Wild Boys,” and we will sing along,'” Taylor said, adding, “That idea stuck with me that the little boys would be going, ‘wild boys,’ [and] that that would be a moment for them,” he said.
And in 2017, a collection of cassette tapes belonging to Diana went on display at Buckingham Palace, giving us more insight into her playlist tastes. The collection included albums by Elton John, George Michael, Luciano Pavarotti, Rod Stewart, Diana Ross, Céline Dion and Lionel Richie.
Did Diana have any surprising musical tastes?
Definitely. It’s a little risqué, but we just discovered one last surprise. Diana was also a fan of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Tim Curry, star of both the original London stage version and the 1975 movie, recently revealed that he met Charles and Diana when he was in a play at London’s National Theatre in the 1980s.
“Diana said, ‘You were in The Rocky Horror Show, weren’t you?'” he told BBC Radio. “And I said, ‘Yes, ma’am, but I don’t imagine that you saw it,’ and she said, ‘No, of course I did—it very much completed my education.'”
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Sources:
- Vulture: “Daryl Stuermer and Phil Collins Were a Match Made in Heaven”
- YouTube: “Phil Collins Gets Quizzed On His OWN Music: The Jonathan Ross Show”
- TikTok: “Stephen Bishop official TikTok”
- Mirror: “Princess Diana’s chef reveals incredible chemistry between George Michael and his boss”
- Entertainment Tonight: “Duran Duran Reveals Princess Diana’s Favorite Song of Theirs (Exclusive)”
- YouTube: “Tim Curry on when Princess Diana confessed her love for ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show'”
