Barrymore's wife tells of Diana friendship

Michael Barrymore's former wife today revealed how a bizarre bond formed between the disgraced entertainer and Princess Diana in the months leading up to her death.

Cheryl Barrymore also described the television presenter's drug-taking and disturbed behaviour - including how he repeatedly assaulted her and had sex with a man after he had drugged her.

In the first extracts from her autobiography, Cheryl Barrymore, who was his agent and wife for more than 22 years, describes how in 1996, after her husband checked into a drugs rehabilitation clinic, Princess Diana flew home early from a holiday to meet the entertainer.

The meeting was arranged by reporter Martin Bashir, "Diana's unofficial envoy", and was the first of many.

"She seemed to believe they could achieve something truly great and immortal together because they had the key to weeping massive public affection," says Mrs Barrymore.

She says that when news of Diana's death became known the troubled entertainer cried down the phone: "Tell me, tell me it isn't true," before revealing that he was at a Brixton nightclub "high on something".

Barrymore is also said to have told his wife to stay away from the Princess's funeral, saying he wanted to take a "young boy".

Mrs Barrymore said the assaults began in 1996 and included her being slammed into a door. She decided to divorce him, she said, after finding out he had drugged her and had sex with boyfriend Ricky Greene.