Diana: I confronted Camilla

Priness Diana's hopes and dreams were shattered by Prince Charles's cruelty, millions heard her claim on American TV today.

In her second, bitter taped attack, Diana said she wanted Charles to be a "father figure" but he never "supported or encouraged" her throughout their doomed marriage.

In audio tapes never heard before, recorded six years before her death, Diana says: "I had so many dreams as a young girl, hopes that my husband would look after me, would be like a father figure. He would support me, encourage me, say well done. I didn't get any of that.''

And in previously unseen video footage Diana talks about her hopes and struggles to explain why she carried out her charity crusade.

Diana's voice coach Peter Settelen, who sold the tapes to NBC, poses as a reporter and asks the Princess why she does charity work. Diana giggles nervously and replies: "Because I've got nothing else to do."

In the audio tapes Diana spells out in graphic detail how serious the divisions were between the couple.

Her confession reveals in her own words what she claims was Charles's cruel behaviour towards her throughout their marriage.

Her comments - broadcast on the NBC network in the second part of their major new documentary - will rock the royal family.

The tapes, recorded by Diana at Kensington Palace as she plotted to leave royal life, were used by author Andrew Morton to write his bestseller Diana - Her True Story.

In the audio tapes, handed to NBC by Morton's publisher Michael O'Mara, Diana is heard talking about the heartbreak of her marriage. She focuses on one incident in which she confronted

Charles's mistress, Camilla

Parker Bowles.

The showdown happened in 1989 at a birthday party for Camilla's sister. After finding Camilla talking to Prince Charles and another man, she said: "I said to the two men, 'Okay boys, I just need to have a quick word with Camilla and I'll be up in a minute', and they shot upstairs like chickens with no heads. And I could feel upstairs, all hell was breaking loose. What was she going to do?

"I was terrified of her. I said: 'I know what's going on between you and Charles'.

"And she said to me something very interesting. She said: 'You've got everything you've ever wanted. You've got all the men in the world to fall in love with you and you've got two beautiful children, what more do you want?' "

"So I said to Camilla: 'I want my husband.' And I said: 'I'm sorry I'm in the way and it must

be hell for both of you. But I do know what's going on. Don't treat me like an idiot'."

After confronting Camilla she had an emotional journey back to Kensington Palace with Charles: "In the car on the way back my husband was over me like a bad rash.

"And I cried - I could never cry before - it was anger, it was seven years of pent-up anger coming out.

"Next morning I woke up and I felt different. A shift - a tremendous shift. I'd done something and said what I felt. There was still the old jealousy and anger swilling around but it wasn't so deathly as it had been before. And that was it, really it. It was a big step for me.''

She revealed how a friend had forced her to talk to her doctor. The doctor at once grasped the princess's emotional turmoil.

"He said: 'I can get you better in no time at all, the problem lies with your husband'." Going on to talk about the importance of her two sons, she said: "I hug my children to death... and I say 'who loves you most in the whole wide world?' and they always say 'mummy'. It's so important."

She calls her wedding day "overwhelming... so humblemaking". But she soon found it increasingly hard to play her part.

"They wanted a fairy princess to come and touch them and everything would turn into gold... little did they realise that the individual was crucifying herself inside because she didn't think she was good enough."

And Diana reflects: "I think from day one, I always knew I would never be the next queen. Put it that way. No one said that to me. I just knew it.''

Later in the tape, she talks about her future after her divorce: "I'm much happier now, I'm not blissful but I'm much more content than I've ever been, because I've really gone down deep and scraped the bottom a couple of times and come up again."

Diana recorded the six audio tapes, as well as other video tapes used in the film, and handed them to her Old Etonian friend Dr James Colthurst who gave them to Morton. At the time the book was published, in 1992, Diana denied collaborating with the author.

The broadcast comes weeks after the royal coroner ordered a fresh investigation into her death.

It also follows revelations that Charles will be interviewed by Scotland Yard Commissioner, Sir John Stevens, over a letter produced by Diana's former butler Paul Burrell in which she alleged her ex-husband was plotting to kill her.