Prime TV to screen controversial Princess Diana sex tapes

Prime TV says it will screen controversial tapes of Princess Diana's private conversations with her speaking coach about her sex life with Prince Charles.

The channel says it has the NZ broadcast rights to the 110-minute documentary, which will screen on Britain's Channel 4 tonight.

Diana's brother Earl Spencer pleaded with Channel 4 not to screen the show, saying it will be hurtful to Princes William and Harry.

Channel 4 defended the tapes as "an important historical document" offering unique insights into Diana's life 20 years after her death on August 31, 1997.

Charles and Diana in New Zealand in 1983. File photo

British media have reported that Diana told her public speaking coach Peter Settelen that she and Prince Charles "didn't have sex for seven years" after Prince Harry was born in 1984. The couple separated officially in 1992.

Diana reportedly told Settelen that she asked Charles about Camilla Parker Bowles, whom he married after Diana's death: "I remember saying to my husband, 'Why? Why is this lady around?' And he said, 'Well, I refuse to be the only Prince of Wales that never had a mistress.'"

Prime said it could not give a date yet for when the film will screen here.

"It will screen at some point over the next few weeks but programming have yet to release a date, so I'm sorry I can't really be any more specific at this point," a spokeswoman said.

"It won't screen next week however as our schedule has already been released for next week.

"This will screen as part of the free-to-air channel's look back at Princess Diana's life and legacy throughout August and September which includes the two-part documentary Diana: The People's Princess; Diana - Seven Days that Shook the World; Diana: The Day the World Cried and Diana and the Paparazzi."

Skiing in Austria with Princes William and Harry. File photo / Getty Images For Sunday Travel

Meanwhile another documentary using tapes from interviews for a biography by Andrew Morton, Diana: In Her Own Words, will screen on Sky TV's National Geographic channel on August 15.

TVNZ plans to screen a new 90-minute BBC documentary exploring the impact of Diana's life and death, including interviews with Princes William and Harry.