Prince William Once Revealed Princess Diana's Celebrity Crush: “My Mom Kind of Fancied...”

Even the royals get starstruck. Princess Diana—forever a style icon and a force for good—had a secret soft spot for Kevin Costner. Her son, Prince William, casually let the little detail slip to the Yellowstone star himself. However, Diana’s admiration wasn’t just a fantasy. With a little help from Sarah Ferguson, she and Costner were introduced, and Diana was also in talks to star in a sequel to The Bodyguard. Sadly, the film never made it to the big screen.

As reported by People magazine, Costner spoke about his meeting with William and said, "I happened to be in England, and I got this message that the Prince would love to talk, and I said, 'What?'...and then I went, 'Okay.'" He recounted, "We met in this room, and it was just us. He walked up, and we shook hands...The first line out of his mouth was, 'You know, my mum kind of fancied you.'" The revelation caught Costner off guard, as reported by E! News.

Speaking of his first meeting with Diana, Costner said, "It was so sweet. Sarah was the one who set this up. Sarah was very cool...when she could have been going, 'Well, I’m a princess too. What about me?' She didn’t do that at all. Diana and I began to talk." On one occasion, Costner recalled telling Diana, "I said, 'Look, I'm going to do Bodyguard 2 and I think I can build this around you. Would you be interested?' And...she goes, 'Yes.'" Their conversation happened around 1996, just as Diana was nearing her official split from then-Prince Charles. At the time, she told Costner, she was ready to embrace something new.

The Hollywood actor further recalled, "She goes, 'My life's about to change.' She said, 'Is there going to be a kissing scene?' And I said, 'Do you want there to be one?' And she said, 'Yeah.' And I said, 'Then we'll do that.'" Before the production could even begin, Diana died in a tragic car accident on August 31, 1997, in Paris while trying to escape the paparazzi. Soon after the incident, Costner claimed that Buckingham Palace rejected the fact that Diana was involved in the project. As reported by ABC News, to this day, the royal family has remained silent on Diana and Costner’s connection.

Costner found himself at odds with the royals, who were skeptical that Diana would ever set foot in Hollywood. Determined to make it happen, the Yellowstone star turned to Ferguson for help, but it was of no use. Costner opened up about the Bodyguard sequel in 2012, revealing that the film would have tackled Diana’s turbulent relationship with the paparazzi. In a terrifying twist, he remembered that the script had arrived on his desk the day before her untimely death, as reported by the New York Post.