The $1.6M offer for photographs of Princess Diana's grave

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Princess Diana | Photo 02

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In 1996, an Australian charity worker pulled off an amazing coup. She approached the late Diana, Princess of Wales and invited her to be the honored guest at the inaugural charity dinner for a murdered heart surgeon in Sydney.

Marie Sutton, an ex-nurse from the small country town of Mooree couldn't believe it when the letter arrived from Kensington Palace written in Diana's hand-writing. Yes, Princess Diana said, she would be pleased to attend the celebration and announced it would be her very last charity function before retiring from the public eye.

Thus in October 1996 Princess Diana attended the Victor Chang Institute dinner in Sydney as hundreds of media from around the world followed her every move. Diana spent 5 days in Sydney attending various charity events. Out of the glare of publicity, she also
visited hospices spending hours with the sick and dying.

10 months later Diana died in the infamous Paris car crash along with Dodi Fayeed.

But during the preceding year to her Australian visit and the following remaining months of her life, Diana built a friendship with Marie Sutton, telephoning her constantly and writing dozens of letters revealing the most intimate details of her life that have never been told.

In 1998 Marie Sutton was invited by Diana's brother, Viscount Althorp, as the only non-family member to visit the small island on the family estate that was to become Princess Diana's final resting place. And he alowed her to take photos including poignant ones of Diana's grave on which lay, small personal momentoes placed by the Princess's 2 sons.

The full story is told on an Australian website-the Social Shuttle and of how just weeks ago, Marie Sutton turned down a staggering $1.6M offer from an American publisher for the diaries she kept with the dozens of letters from Princess Diana and the only photographs ever taken of Diana's grave.