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    British TV to air Diana’s recordings on her failed marriage

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments1817 Views
    In this Wednesday, June 20, 1990 file photo, Britain's Princess Diana and Prince Charles, take shelter under an umbrella while attending the second day of the Royal Ascot horse race meet near London. (AP Photo/Martyn Hayhow, File)

    By Sylvia Hui

    LONDON (AP) --

    A British television channel is broadcasting a new documentary on Princess Diana using controversial videotapes in which she candidly discussed her marital problems and her strained relationship with the royal family.

    The recordings of Diana talking to her public speaking coach, Peter Settelen, in the early 1990s included her description of how Queen Elizabeth II reacted when she asked the monarch for advice about her failing marriage with Prince Charles.

    "So I went to the top lady, sobbing. And I said 'What do I do? I'm coming to you, what do I do?' And she said 'I don't know what you should do,'" Diana said. "And that was it. And that was help."

    This year marks the 20th anniversary of Diana's death in a Paris car crash on Aug. 31, 1997, which was followed by an outpouring of grief in Britain and beyond.

    Diana and Charles married in 1981 and divorced in 1996 after having two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. The tapes include her discussing Charles' relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, whom Charles later married in 2005.

    The recordings also show Diana talking about falling  "deeply in love" with a man widely believed to be her protection officer, Barry Mannakee, as well as Charles' attempts to woo her during a barbeque in 1979 when she was 18.

    Police held some of the videotapes after they were seized in ex-royal butler Paul Burrell's home in 2001. Diana's family tried to make a legal claim to the recordings, but they were returned to Settelen in 2004.

    Excerpts of the recordings were aired in the U.S. in 2004 but they have never been screened in Britain. The documentary airs Aug. 6 on Channel 4.

     

    Tags:Prince CharlesPrincess Diana



    Ex-OpenAI engineer who raised legal concerns about the technology he helped build has died

    Saturday, December 21, 2024
    Suchir Balaji poses for a photo in Hawaii in 2018. Balaji was a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who died in November 2024. (Balaji Ramamurthy via AP)

    Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26.

    Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products.

    "We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time," said a statement from OpenAI.

    Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said "appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation." The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide.

    His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a "happy, smart and brave young man" who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends.

    Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT.

    "Suchir's contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn't have succeeded without him," said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what... Read More

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