Jane Seymour Was a Secret 'Muse' for Princess Diana's Wedding Dress Designers
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Tommaso Boddi/Filmmagic Jane Seymour
She's starred in the 1973 James Bond film Live and Let Die, TV shows like Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, writes books and designs chic scarves, but Jane Seymour has another unknown role: fashion muse for the designers of Princess Diana's wedding dress. And she has a secret collection of gowns that could easily have belonged to the late princess.
Seymour's relationship with David and Elizabeth Emanuel started with a recommendation from a journalist, she revealed on the podcast My Wardrobe Malfunction, hosted by Susannah Constantine.
During the premiere of her 1978 movie The Four Feathers, the British-born actress was set to be presented to Queen Elizabeth. "A journalist had said there are these new designers who have just graduated from college and have done their first show and there's this dress there that you should be wearing," she told Constantine.
"[The Emanuels] let me borrow this beautiful, beautiful off-the-shoulder white dress and I wore it," she added. The joke in our family was that the Queen liked the dress and turned to Prince Charles, 'We've found the frock, go find the girl!'
"After that I became very close friends and a secret muse of the Emanuels."
Terry Fincher/Princess Diana Archive/Getty Images Princess Diana and Prince Charles on their wedding day
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Seymour, 69, became a frequent customer of the young designers.
"I have in my closet the replicas – I mean the other dresses that Diana would have had," she shared. "I had the other one of a lot of her dresses. So, I've never parted with them. Whenever I see David Emanuel I show him and say, 'I've got the closet up here and if you ever need anything it's right here.'"
During the podcast episode, Constantine revealed that Seymour was her first "girl crush" in school. "I had your poster on my wall – you and Elton John," she told her.
James Warren/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Susannah Constantine
Calling from Malibu, California, Seymour also revealed that when she arrived in the U.S. to make the Bond movie, she was mugged.
"I went to New Orleans to do the James Bond film when I was 20 or 21, and I was mugged, actually. I was mugged at four o'clock in the afternoon on Bourbon Street," she said.
Rodin Eckenroth/WireImage Jane Seymour
And she got into more scrapes when traveling on to the next stop. "Then when I tried to go to Jamaica they stopped me in Atlanta and told me I didn't have the right visa for America, for transit, but I did have a visa that would allow me to go out and work, so I stupidly said, 'That's stupid,' and almost got arrested. Actually, I did."
"They pulled me to a special room and interrogated me and I remember in tears saying, "But if you like James Bond you better let me get on an airplane, I'm in the James Bond film and if you don't let me get on the airplane there won't be a movie,' and they said 'OK, well just this once, but don't do it again.' Of course, I had a lot of the costumes in my baggage because they'd asked me to bring the costumes out."
