John Travolta Spilled The Beans About His Unforgettable Night With Princess Diana

We’re talking about Princess Diana, of course! And she wasn’t exactly a novice dancer herself. She’d done ballet when she was younger, and only her height had prevented her from pursuing it further. In the 2017 British documentary Diana: In Her Own Words, the princess’ former dance tutor spilled some tantalizing tidbits about her student’s moves.

Anne Allan revealed, “[Diana] had dance in her soul. I realized the pure enjoyment that it gave her. She loved the freeness of being able to move and dance... I could see it helped to alleviate her emotional life.” And when Diana and Prince Charles were invited to a White House gala in 1985, she certainly showed off this passion with Travolta.

Travolta wasn’t the only celeb Diana was with that night. Tom Selleck and Clint Eastwood were also in attendance at the prestigious event, and both were given the honor of dancing with the royal. But one of her dance partners freely admitted that he had two left feet — not ideal if you’re trying to impress a princess!

In a 2019 interview with TruthCelebs, Selleck admitted that he hadn’t exactly made the ideal dancing partner. “We had a thing when I went to school where you learned the correct way to dance,” he said. “I didn’t go. I kind of wasted the time apologizing for how I was dancing. [Diana] was just charming [and] lovely.”

And while Diana also had her heart set on dancing with her hero Mikhail Baryshnikov at the gala, the ballet icon was unfortunately kept out of action by an ankle problem. Instead, a man who’d been launched to worldwide fame through his dancing skills became Diana’s ideal partner on the night. Yup, we mean Travolta.

That night is one the Grease star has been happy to talk about ever since. During a 2007 press tour for Hairspray, for example, Travolta recalled how his royal dance had come about. “I didn’t know or expect to dance with Princess Diana,” he told Dutch TV channel Een. “And it was the president’s wife, Nancy Reagan, [who] said, ‘It is her wish.’”

“At midnight, I had to tap her on her shoulder, and I had to say, ‘Would you care to dance?’” a clearly proud Travolta continued. “She turned around and dipped her head in that Lady Diana way, and we were off for 15 minutes dancing. I’ll never forget it.” Sounds like she made quite the impression!

“I’m so honored that I was able to experience it. And I know for a fact that it was a highlight of being in the United States,” Travolta continued. “It was Diana’s favorite moment.” He added, touchingly, “I feel I made her life better, she made my life better, and I’m very sorry that she’s not here.”

Seven years later, Travolta again discussed his royal encounter during an interview with The Daily Telegraph. At that time, the star claimed that he hadn’t been anxious about the idea, telling the newspaper, “I’d seen [Diana] dance with Charles beforehand, so I knew that she was strong. But she looked like she was leading [him].”

“Because I knew that the world was watching, I thought that I really needed to give [Diana] certainty that I knew what to do,” Travolta continued. “I put my hand in the middle of her back, brought her hand down so that it wouldn’t be so high, and gave her the confidence that we would do just fine.” And it seemed to do the trick.

Travolta enjoyed the moment with Diana so much, in fact, that he described it as a high point of his career on Good Morning America. Appearing on the show to promote his movie Gotti in 2016, Travolta was asked what he’d most want to resurrect from the 1980s – and dancing with royalty was his reply.

Yes, while he may have gotten the year slightly wrong, Travolta told Maria Schiavocampo that he will forever cherish the time he swept the royal off her feet. “I danced with Princess Diana in 1986, I believe,” he said. “That was one of the highlights of my life, so that’s probably the best moment of the 1980s.”

But Travolta’s most detailed account of the glamorous night appears in Tina Brown’s biography of the late royal, The Diana Chronicles. In the 2007 book, the actor is quoted as describing Diana as “charismatic and full of presence, like a movie star.” He also revealed how the dance was staged. “It was clearly planned,” he said. “I knew it would be an attention-grabbing moment, and I had three hours to sweat.”

Recalling how he’d prepared for the big moment, Travolta said, “I’m 6 feet tall. I think with heels, she’s probably my height. Tall woman, and slender – so the illusion is tall. I go back in my mind to my formal ballroom-dancing schooldays. I’m remembering all the tricks. The tap on the shoulder comes.”

“My heart starts to race,” Travolta continued. “Nancy takes me over. Princess [is] not facing me. She’s facing towards the president. As soon as we get out there, the whole place clears for our encounter. I want it to go off well and show her I am in control, and she doesn’t need to worry and knows I’ll lead.”

“I look [Diana] in the eyes and reassure her with my eyes to say, ‘We’re okay,’” Travolta added. “We probably only dance ten minutes, but it feels like 20.” And when he was asked whether he found the princess sexy, Travolta replied with gusto, “Absolutely… People are either innately sexual or sensual or not. She had both.”

“I did know it had to look like a million dollars because it was history being made,” Travolta explained. “And it was my job to make it look as good as if it was in a movie. It was dense with life, filled with life, and you’d have had to have been dead not to feel the joy around it.”

Diana and Travolta actually danced to songs that had appeared in either Grease or Saturday Night Fever. “You had the sense that she’d seen [the films] as a teenager,” the actor recalled. “Clearly a princess’ dream of a big magnitude that you could feel. She was a young woman watching those movies. She wasn’t a princess back then. And now even a princess’ dreams can come true.”

Baryshnikov told Brown that he was relieved Travolta had danced with Diana instead of him that night. The ballet icon added that the royal was “so radiant and fresh. And John, so very dashing – this great American symbol of popular culture – and the White House marines in their dress uniforms looking on. It was probably as well it was Travolta [and] not me out there. My nose would have been around her bosom.”

In any case, a photo taken of Travolta and Diana dancing at the White House has become iconic. And the midnight blue velvet dress that Diana wore to the gala is worth a pretty penny, too. The gown fetched approximately $360,000 when it was put up for auction in 2013. It sounds like a lot, but it is a piece of history.

And we shouldn’t be surprised that Diana decided to jive away the night with Travolta. She’d even had experience sharing the dancefloor with a household name. At a party to celebrate Prince Andrew’s birthday a few years earlier, she had been introduced to Elton John. And after doing the Charleston together, the pair soon struck up an unlikely close friendship.

It was no secret that Elton and Diana were friends — nor was it a secret that they eventually fell out. But no one was ever really sure what caused the rift — until the pop icon finally spoke out. In his autobiography Me, Elton dished the dirt about the feud between himself and Diana. And what he had to say left fans of both of them stunned.

That wasn’t all. Me also contains explosive revelations about what Diana and the rest of the royal family were like behind closed doors. And as someone who ended up making his way into the royal inner circle, Elton had been a witness to some surprising scenes — ones the royals wouldn’t have wanted him to talk about.

The autobiography caused quite a stir when it was released — perhaps because Elton also chose to spill some eyebrow-raising secrets about Rod Stewart. But when it came to Diana, he was gentle with her. Even when the star spilled the beans on the feud between him and the princess, it was clear that he misses his old friend.

Elton and Diana first ran into each other in 1981, at a 21st birthday bash for Prince Andrew. They stayed in touch after that fateful meeting as well and grew to become very close. And eventually the pop star and the princess had something big in common. AIDS awareness and research were causes dear to both their hearts.

Elton got to know Princes Harry and William, too. And in 2018 he wrote a piece for Time magazine honoring Harry as one of the Time 100 that year. “I first met an extremely shy and sweet Prince Harry at a private lunch at Kensington Palace, given by his mother Princess Diana for Gianni Versace and me many years ago,” the star revealed.

“What a joy it has been to see that young boy grow to inherit his mother’s warmth, sense of humor, and courage to stand up and champion the causes he truly believes in,” Elton went on. Yes, Diana had seemed unafraid to get involved in crusades others may have wished she’d avoided. Perhaps in a bid to fight misapprehensions about HIV, she had held the hands of AIDS patients — proving the disease wasn’t transferable by touch.

So, what had led Diana and Elton to fall out? The singer spoke about the feud not long after Diana had died. It was 1997, and great swathes of Britain seemed to be in mourning for the princess. Elton performed the song “Candle in the Wind” at her funeral before releasing the track to raise money for Diana’s favorite charities.

At that time, Elton spoke to the BBC’s David Frost about his relationship with Diana. “[Diana and I] did have a little falling out earlier in the year over a charity event,” he revealed. “We did write each other letters, which neither of us responded to. It was only after the tragic death of Gianni Versace that we actually spoke.”

Versace had been a mutual friend of Elton and Diana, and he had been involved in the incident that had led the pair to become estranged. Tragically, though, the fashion designer was slaughtered outside his mansion on July 15, 1997. Diana would attend Versace’s funeral alongside Elton in what would prove to be one of her final public appearances.

In Me, Elton gave his thoughts about Diana’s funeral — and some of his words were damning. “William and Harry looked completely shell-shocked,” he wrote of his late friend’s children. “They were 15 and 12, and I thought the way they were treated that day was absolutely inhuman. They were forced to walk through the streets of London behind their mother’s coffin, told to show no emotion, and look straight ahead.”

Once the funeral had finished, Elton wrote, he had gone to a studio to record “Candle in the Wind” for release. Then he had finally gone home, where grief had overcome him. “I hadn’t felt able to show emotion all day,” he explained in Me. “I’d had a job to do, and how I felt about Diana’s death might have interfered with my ability to do it.”

Unfortunately, “Candle in the Wind” would haunt Elton for some time. “In the end, I started feeling really uncomfortable with the single’s longevity,” he wrote. “Its success meant there was footage of Diana’s funeral week after week on Top of the Pops. It almost felt like wallowing in her death, as if the mourning for her had got out of hand.”

“And I didn’t want to do anything to prolong [the wallowing] any further. So when Oprah Winfrey asked me on her talk show to discuss the funeral, I said no,” Elton went on. He also decided to never release “Candle in the Wind” again. “I’ve always tried to avoid the topic with journalists,” the star added. “It wasn’t that I wanted to forget it — or [Diana]. I just wanted life to get back to some semblance of normality.”

Elton also revealed details of the “surreal” Palace party at which he had first met Diana. “Because the Queen was there, and no one wanted to cause any offense to the royal sensibilities, the disco was turned down about as low as you could get without switching it off altogether. You could literally hear your feet moving around on the floor over the music,” he wrote.

At the event, Elton mingled with other royal family members — including the Queen herself. He wrote, “Princess Anne asked me to dance with her to ‘Hound Dog’ by Elvis Presley. Well, I say ‘dance’... I ended up just awkwardly shuffling from foot to foot, trying to make as little noise as I could so that I didn’t drown out the music… Then the Queen appeared, carrying her handbag. She walked over and asked if she could join us.”

Elton went on, “So, now I was trying to dance as inaudibly as possible with Princess Anne and the Queen — still holding her handbag — while what appeared to be the world’s quietest disco played Bill Haley. I tried my best to come up with a facial expression that suggested this was a perfectly normal state of affairs.”

But Diana provided a breath of fresh air in that awkward situation. “Anyway, that night in 1981, [Diana] arrived in the ballroom, and we immediately clicked,” Elton explained in Me. “We ended up pretending to dance the Charleston while hooting at the disco’s feebleness.” And with that, the two began a long and largely fond relationship.

In his autobiography, Elton also shared a rather remarkable story about the Queen herself. Once, he had allegedly witnessed her slap another royal family member. “In private, [the Queen] could be hilarious,” the singer recalled. “At another party, I saw her approach Viscount Linley and ask him to look in on his sister, who’d been taken ill and had retired to her room.”

And according to Elton, the monarch wasn’t best pleased with the viscount’s response. “When he repeatedly tried to fob her off, the Queen lightly slapped him across the face, saying ‘Don’t’ — SLAP — ‘argue’ — SLAP — ‘with’ — SLAP — ‘me’ — SLAP — ‘I’ — SLAP — ‘am’ — SLAP — ‘THE QUEEN!’” Naturally, Elton was rather taken aback. “As [Viscount Linley] left, [the Queen] saw me staring at her, gave me a wink, and walked off,” he added.

Elton revealed that he was similarly amazed at how he had ended up mingling in such lofty circles. “No matter how funny or normal the royal family seemed — whether they were asking me if I’d done any coke before I went on stage as Princess Alexandra once did, or winking at me after slapping a nephew across the face — there’d inevitably come a moment where I’d find myself thinking, ‘This is just bizarre. I’m a musician from a council house on Pinner Road. What am I doing here?’” he wrote.

But Diana, Elton added, was different from other members of the family. “With Diana, it wasn’t like that. She was blessed with an incredible social ease — an ability to make people feel totally comfortable in her company,” he explained. “Her kids have inherited it — Prince Harry in particular. He’s exactly the same as his mum. [He has] no interest in formality or grandeur.”

Elton continued, “That famous photo of her holding an AIDS patient’s hand at the London Middlesex Hospital — that was Diana. I don’t think she was necessarily trying to make a big point, although obviously she did. In that moment, she changed public attitudes to AIDS forever. She’d just met someone suffering, dying in agony. Why wouldn’t you reach out and touch them? It’s the natural human impulse to try to comfort someone.”

Elton went even further in his praise for Diana, describing her in the book as “fabulous company — the best dinner party guest.” “If I was bowled over by Diana, it was nothing compared with the impact she could have on straight men. They seemed completely to lose their minds in her presence. They were just utterly bewitched,” he added. And to prove his point, the pop star told a tale that involved many famous names.

According to Elton, he and his partner, David Furnish, had thrown a dinner party at the time of the production of the first Lion King movie. To make up the numbers, the couple had invited Disney CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and his wife, George Michael, Richard Curtis, Emma Freud, Sylvester Stallone, and Richard Gere as well as Diana herself. During the get-together, however, “the most peculiar scene developed.”

Apparently, Gere had begun talking with Diana at the party, and she had seemed equally as interested in him. Elton dished the dirt when he revealed, “[Diana] was separated from Charles by this point, and Richard had broken up with Cindy Crawford. They ended up sitting in front of the fireplace together, locked in rapt conversation.”

But another party guest didn’t seem to approve of the conversation. Elton continued, “As the rest of us chatted, I couldn’t help notice a strange atmosphere in the room. Judging by the kind of looks he kept shooting them, Diana and Richard Gere’s newly blossoming friendship was not going down well with Sylvester Stallone at all.”

Elton speculated, “I think [Stallone] may have turned up to the party with the express intention of picking Diana up — only to find his plans for the evening ruined.” And an even more awkward situation would rear its head, according to the musician. When dinner was served, Stallone and Gere were apparently both out of the room, and Furnish went to find them.

Upon his return, Elton’s husband reported that there was “a situation.” Allegedly, Gere and Stallone had been about to fist-fight over Diana when Furnish found them! And sitting down for a meal together apparently didn’t improve the tension. “After dinner, Diana and Richard Gere resumed their position together in front of the fire, and Sylvester stormed off home,” Elton wrote.

Elton also claimed that Stallone had announced, “I never would have come if I’d known Prince... Charming was gonna be here. If I’d wanted her, I would’ve taken her!” This outburst reportedly caused the musician and Furnish to crack up in laughter after Stallone’s car had gone. As for Diana? She apparently “seemed completely unruffled” by the furor.

The veteran star pondered, “Maybe [Diana] hadn’t realized what was happening. Or maybe stuff like that happened all the time, and she was used to it. After she died, people started talking about something called the Diana Effect, meaning the way she managed to change the public’s attitudes to the royal family or to AIDS or bulimia, or mental health. But every time I heard the phrase, I thought about that night.”

And in the book, Elton eventually spoke about the incident that had driven him and Diana apart. “She was a very dear friend for years, and then, completely unexpectedly, we fell out,” he wrote. “The cause was a book Gianni Versace put together called Rock and Royalty — a collection of portraits by great photographers. The proceeds were going to the AIDS Foundation, and she agreed to write the foreword.”

The musician claimed, however, that Diana had ultimately “got cold feet” and changed her mind about supporting the project. He added, “I think Buckingham Palace didn’t like the idea of a member of the royal family having anything to do with a book that featured shots of naked guys with towels draped around them.” That makes sense...

Elton went on, “At the last moment, Diana withdrew her foreword. She said she had no idea of the book’s contents, which just wasn’t true. Gianni [Versace] had shown her the whole thing, and she had said she loved it.” Diana’s friend was not impressed by this sudden change of heart, and he decided to tell her so.

“I wrote back to [Diana], calling her out, telling her how much money she had cost the AIDS Foundation, reminding her that she had seen the book,” Elton explained in his memoir. But Diana didn’t play around. “The letter I got back was very formal and severe: ‘Dear Mr. John…’” The friendship had reached its breaking point.

Elton wrote of his feelings, “I was angry with [Diana], but I was also worried. She seemed to be losing touch with all sorts of really close friends who would be honest with her and surrounding herself instead with people who told her what she wanted to hear. I knew from personal experience [that] that wasn’t a healthy situation.”

After the death of Versace, however, Diana reached out to her old friend. “I didn’t speak to [Diana] again until the day Gianni was murdered,” Elton revealed. “I don’t even know how she got hold of the number; we hadn’t had the house in Nice for long. She was just down the coast, in St. Tropez, on Dodi Fayed’s yacht.”

Elton continued, “She asked how I was, if I’d spoken to Donatella [Versace’s sister]. Then she said, ‘I’m so sorry. It was a silly falling-out. Let’s be friends.’ She came with us to the funeral, looking incredible. When she walked in, the paparazzi in the church went crazy. It was like the biggest star in the world had arrived, which I suppose she had.”

And, as many know, Diana and Elton sat next to each other during the funeral. The star mentioned in his book, “I feel I should point out that the famous shot they got of her supposedly consoling me — where she’s leaning forward towards me, speaking, while I’m red-eyed and glazed with grief — is one moment in the service where she wasn’t doing anything of the sort. They snapped her just as she was leaning past me, reaching for a mint that David [had] offered her.”

Finally, Elton talked about the last time he contacted Diana. “I wrote to her [after the funeral], thanking her, and she wrote back offering to be a patron of the AIDS Foundation and asking if I would get involved in her landmine charity,” he wrote. “We were going to meet up next time we were both in London to have lunch and discuss it. But there wasn’t a next time.”

And it appears that the pop icon still holds the princess in great esteem. Speaking on the British TV show Lorraine in 2018, Elton said of Diana, “She was very much loved. She was a controversial figure in some respects — but not to me. I loved her because she did so much for AIDS, and she was a great friend to me. We had our fallings out, but we reconciled in the end.”