LONDON - Former French President Valery Giscard d’Estaing has revealed that it was late Princess of Wales Diana who actually came up with the idea of the controversial romantic novel ‘The Princess and the President’.

Giscard d’Estaing, 83, revealed in an interview with Le Point, released on September 24, that Lady Diana came up with the book idea and encouraged him to set it down on paper.

“It was Lady Diana’s idea. In 1994, while we were discussing love affairs between leaders of big countries, she suggested: “Why don’t you write a story around that?” the Telegraph quoted him as saying.

“A little later, she asked me if I had begun writing. I submitted some ideas to her, which she approved of. Afterwards, she kept coming back to it.

“She spoke about it with me in our last telephone conversation, before she left for the south of France in June 1997, and she urged me to dedicate my summer leisure time to writing it.

“Six weeks later, she met her tragic death in the tunnel under the place de l’Alma.

“I considered that (the book) was a promise that I must honour,” he said.

Giscard d’Estaing, who revealed on September 23 that Diana had wanted the story to be based on herself and him, said that while the “locations and decor” were true to life, he invented the facts.

“I invented the facts,” he added.

His admission has apparently laid to rest rumours that the book, ‘The Princess and the President’, might be based on a real affair. (ANI)