Princess Diana once askedKatie Couric for parenting advice, the veteran journalist has revealed.- Couric said Diana once asked how she kept her children from "watching too much telly."
$4, she was struck by her glowing beauty and "girlish charm."
But when they actually began to talk, Couric learned that Princess Diana had some very ordinary parenting struggles - like children who watch too much television.
$4 she gave Diana advice in her new memoir, $4 which was released on Tuesday.
The veteran TV journalist met Princess Diana during a June 1996 luncheon for breast cancer research at the Drake Hotel in Chicago.
Couric sat next to Diana, who she recalled was "glowing in a sleeveless cream-colored dress with a single strand of pearls" and "still looking like the rosy-cheeked, bashful, part-time kindergarten teacher Prince Charles introduced to the world when she was just 19."
"At one point she turned to me and said, 'I like your lipstick,' which took me by surprise," Couric continued. "I was flattered that she'd noticed."
Couric said the princess then asked her for some advice.
"How do you keep your children from watching too much telly?" she recalled Diana asking. "I'm having a terrible time with William and Harry."
Couric later asked Diana if she was excited to go home after the US trip.
"I would be, but I'm going home to an empty house," replied the princess, who was finalizing $4.
Couric said she was struck by Diana's "openness" and "sensed a deep sadness."
"At the time, I had no idea how miserable she really was," she added.
Fifteen months later, Couric would be covering Diana's funeral live from London.
And the legendary "Today" host revealed that she broke down in tears when she saw what $4: a single envelope with the word "Mummy" written across it.
"I realized that what I was seeing was not the passing of the most famous woman in the world," Couric wrote. "It was two boys who'd lost a parent."