Diana Denies Making Nuisance Calls to Art Dealer Friend

LONDON — A distraught Princess Diana has denied making anonymous telephone calls to an art dealer friend who was acting as a go-between when her marriage to Prince Charles fell apart.

It was the latest bizarre twist in the life of the estranged wife of Prince Charles, the heir to the British throne. Diana, 33, bowed out of public life last year after she made a heartfelt plea for privacy.

But she propelled herself back into the limelight with an unprecedented interview published Monday in the tabloid Daily Mail.

Media reports say Oliver Hoare, a close friend of Diana and Charles, complained to police last October about a stream of nuisance calls. Each time he answered, no one spoke at the other end.

Hoare, an expert on Islamic art, worried that he might be the target of Middle East extremists, but investigators were said to have traced the calls to Diana’s private apartments, her mobile phone, a line at her sister’s house and even some public phone booths.

Diana, denying she ever made any of the calls, told the tabloid: “You cannot be serious. I don’t even know how to use a parking meter, let alone a phone box.”