Princess Diana (†)
Their dance partners had to meet these three criteria
© Tim Graham Photo Library / Getty Images
Princess Diana is still considered the queen of hearts. Although shy in public, she could just as easily be charming and funny. When it came to dance partners, she was quite strict. Potential candidates had to meet three criteria, author Landon Jones recalls in his new book “Celebrity Nation”.
“I walked into this room and I looked up at this tall goddess and I was like, ‘This isn’t going to work; it’s going to be screamingly funny,'” British dancer Wayne Sleep once told Hello. Princess Diana, † 36, once asked the ballet star to coach her for her December 1985 appearance on the “Friends of Covent Garden Show”. Her dance scenes are unforgotten to this day, thanks to “The Crown” everyone is aware of them again. But the road to Diana’s performance was rocky. Because exactly what Wayne Sleep criticized at the time was in Diana’s head all her life: her height of a proud 1.77 meters. In addition to this point, there were apparently two other criteria that potential dance partners had to meet.
Princess Diana had three requirements for her dance partner
In his new book Celebrity Nation, former People editor Landon Jones describes these three requirements that Lady Di had of potential dance partners. In the podcast “To Di For Daily” by Royal commentator Kinsey Schofield, he now talks about it. He himself almost had the chance to dance with the first wife of King Charles, 74, but he couldn’t meet all three criteria.
©Getty Images
It was at a charity dinner in Chicago that he was seated next to Diana. Although they got along very well throughout the evening, he wasn’t allowed to take her onto the dance floor. The reason: Jones is not 1.85 meters tall. “I met two out of three criteria, but I’m not 1.82. Someone else danced with her then,” he recalls of the evening.
So one of the criteria was that potential dance partners had to be at least 1.85 meters tall. There were also two more. In her podcast, Kinsey Schofield talks about the three criteria that everyone seems to have known: “You had to be married, a good dancer and taller than 1.85.”
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At 1.77 meters tall, Diana was quite tall. Apparently it was important to her that she was the smaller one when she danced – in line with the traditional role model.
Source used: express.co.uk, people.com, hello.com