Lady Diana Mosley talks of Hitler

As motorsport boss Max Mosley waits to see whether he has persuaded the High Court that the News of the World was wrong to describe his S&M routine as “Nazi-themed” – a judgment in his breach of privacy case is expected mid-week – stories of his parents’ relationship with the Third Reich continue to circulate. Writing in the Financial Times, James Naughtie, presenter of BBC Radio 4's Today programme, revealed that he once enjoyed (sort of) an engaging lunch with Lady Diana Mosley (pictured) in her Paris home, shortly before her death in 2003.

After a sticky start – she asked Naughtie for some help with radio, believing he was some form of technician – he asked Lady Diana what she would say if Adolf Hitler walked into the room (her wedding to the wartime fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley had been conducted in Josef Goebbels's home, with Hitler at guest of honour). Said Mosley: "I should say, 'How very nice to see you'. He was such an interesting man. I bet you would have liked to ask him some questions, wouldn't you?"

Naughtie was a little taken aback by this. He wrote: "She talked about the 'bad things that had unfortunately come about, and I was left with the tingling, shaky feeling that I'd met someone who had cavorted with the big Nazis and still hadn't abandoned them."

This view was reinforced when he swapped notes with Lady Diana's biographer, Anne de Courcy, who told him that she had visited her in Paris and admired a leather-bound set of Goethe in her library. To this, Mosley replied: "Yes, they're beautiful aren't they. A wedding present from the Goebbels."