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LONDON - Germaine Greer has launched a scathing attack on the late Princess of Wales, labelling her a "devious moron".
Appearing at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, the outspoken Australian academic made her comments ahead of a memorial service on August 31 to mark the 10th anniversary of Princess Diana's death in a Paris car crash.
"I have come to the conclusion that she was a devious moron," Greer was quoted as saying in The Independent on Sunday.
"One of the things I have been puzzled by is why her whole life was such a mess. She made a mess of being Princess of Wales, but that is fine because the job is not do-able. It is an insane job and, in history, all but one of the Princesses of Wales have come to a sticky end - stickier than hers.
"I am also interested in why she couldn't manage life after being HRH. It still puzzles me that she does that no-no thing: she sleeps with married men ... and this is the angel that people want to crown."
Greer's appearance at the festival was to talk about her contentious new book about William Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway.
She made her remarks about the hugely popular Princess Diana in the context of describing Hathaway as Shakespeare's "angel".
The controversial Greer also suggested that Shakespeare died from syphilis, and that his bones, which could show the signs of the disease, would never be found.
- AAP
