Kevin Costner has revealed the royal family ‘turned on him’ after he claimed Princess Diana was in talks to appear in a sequel to The Bodyguard shortly before her death in 1997.
The actor, 69, claimed the royal family did not believe the late princess had agreed to star in a sequel to the original 1992 film which Kevin starred in with Whitney Houston.
Speaking on The Howard Stern Show, Kevin said: ‘When Diana passed, about a year later it had leaked out that I was prepping ‘Bodyguard 2’ with her. And what happened was, the royal family kind of turned on me a little bit
‘Like, ‘No, that’s not true.’ And it got actually kind of ugly. And I let it go for a while. It just got uglier and uglier.’
Kevin told how he reached out to Sarah, Duchess Of York, who introduced him to Princess Diana, and asked for help.
Kevin Costner has revealed the royal family ‘turned on him’ after he claimed Princess Diana was in talks to appear in a sequel to The Bodyguard shortly before her death in 1997
The actor, 69, claimed the royal family did not believe the late princess had agreed to star in a sequel to the original 1992 film
He said: ‘Finally I called up Sarah, and said, ‘Sarah, you need to tell me who is leading the charge there on this thing. She goes, ‘No, no, no, Kev, you don’t want to talk to them.’ I said, ‘Yes I do.’
‘I called them up and I said, ‘I’m telling you something, you need to stop because it is true. And if you don’t stop, I’m gonna start. Because it was.”
At the time Kevin was trying to make a sequel to The Bodyguard, Diana had separated from Charles and was estranged from the royal family.
He recalled: ‘What had happened was, I started talking to her through Sarah, and I said, ‘Look, I’m gonna do ‘Bodyguard 2′ and I think I can build this around you. Would you be interested?’ ‘
‘And she goes, ‘Yes. My life’s about to change.’ I didn’t really go into depth with it, but I thought I understood what she was saying.’
He added: ‘She was very sweet and we talked. The second time we talked she said, ‘Is there going to be a kissing scene?’ I said, ‘Do you want there to be one?’
‘She said, ‘Yeah,’ and I said, ‘Then we’ll do that.’ I wasn’t going to make the full romance about her. But there was going to be a moment that we did. And she was so sweet about this.’
Kevin decided not to move forward with the sequel after Diana died in a car crash in Paris in August 1997. He explained: ‘I couldn’t replace Princess Di.’
The Bodyguard earned $411 million at the box office, becoming the second highest-grossing film of 1992 (Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner pictured in the film)
Kevin decided not to move forward with the sequel after Diana died in a car crash in Paris in August 1997. He explained: ‘I couldn’t replace Princess Di’
Kevin first spoke about the axed Bodyguard sequel in 2012, saying the plot would revolve around him protecting Diana’s character from stalkers and paparazzi
Kevin revealed he later met Diana’s son Prince William years later who wanted to meet the actor when he was in Scotland.
He said: ‘We meet in a room. There’s nobody in the room. I sat across from him and he looked at me and he said, ‘My mom fancied you.’
‘It was the sweetest, gentlest thing. He believed the story, and believe it or not after the talk with the royal family, about two years later the butler came out and said, ‘Yeah, that was the true what Kevin was saying, that she [Diana] was gonna do it.
Kevin first spoke about the axed Bodyguard sequel in 2012, saying the plot would revolve around him protecting Diana’s character from stalkers and paparazzi before their relationship eventually turned romantic.
The Bodyguard earned $411 million at the box office, becoming the second highest-grossing film of 1992.
The film’s accompanying soundtrack remained the best-selling soundtrack of all time with sales of over 50 million worldwide.
