Kevin Costner’s ‘Always Respected’ Sarah Ferguson for How She Handled His Talk With Princess Diana About a ‘Bodyguard’ Sequel
Kevin Costner has respected Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, for decades. Why? Because of what happened when she put him in touch with Princess Diana about starring in a Bodyguard sequel. Ahead, what the “cool” now-64-year-old British royal did that impressed Costner. Plus, how the Yellowstone alum found himself talking to Prince William about Diana years after her death.
Kevin respects Sarah Ferguson because she ‘never inserted herself’ into his ‘Bodyguard’ sequel conversation with Diana
In a June 2024 People interview, Costner reflected on The Bodyguard, his hit 1992 movie, discussing what he wanted to do after the original, which starred him and Whitney Houston.
The now-69-year-old wanted to cast Diana as the female lead. There to connect him to the British royal was her sister-in-law.
“Sarah was the one that set this up,” Costner said. “Sarah was very cool, the duchess, when she could have been, like, going, ‘Well, I’m a princess, too. What about me?’”
“She didn’t, she didn’t do that at all,” he recalled. “She was going, ‘No, I’m going to make this happen, Kev,’ and she did.”
“I always respected her that she never inserted herself, and Diana and I began to talk,” Costner added.
Costner later had a ‘very sweet conversation’ with Prince William about Diana
Long after discussing a potential Bodyguard sequel and Diana’s sudden death at the age of 36 in August 1998, Costner found himself in a room with the royal’s oldest son.
“I ultimately had a very sweet conversation about 15 years later with Prince William,” he said, sharing he’d been in England when the now-Prince of Wales reached out to him.
“I happen[ed] to be over in England and got this message that the prince would love to talk to you.”
‘What?’ Costner remembered saying. He goes, ‘He’s here; he’d like to talk to you.’ So, I went like, ‘OK.’”
“It was just us. I’m sure there was somebody out[side] but…there was nobody else [in the room],” Costner continued. “He walked up, and we sat down, and we shook hands, and the first line out of his mouth was, he says, ‘You know, my mom kind of fancied you.’”
“We talked about a half-hour,” he added, noting he’ll “never” reveal what was discussed, “but it was a very sweet thing.”
“We just chatted, and we both broke away, and we never became pen-pals or did anything like that. But I’ve had such fond memories of who he was, how I was approached, and what we talked about,” Costner concluded.
Not only has Costner met Diana and William, but he also hosted Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at a local fundraiser near their home in Montecito, California.
Diana didn’t see herself starring in a ‘Bodyguard’ sequel with Kevin Costner
Per Newsweek, Diana’s former butler, Paul Burrell, first confirmed the late royal’s potential involvement in a Bodyguard sequel. In his memoir, A Royal Duty, Burrell recalled Costner calling Diana at home in the summer of 1996 when her divorce from King Charles III, the then-Prince of Wales, was being finalized.
“One evening in July, the telephone rang. It was the film actor Kevin Costner,” Burrell wrote.
The call came through on the direct line into my pantry.”
“As I placed him on hold, I rang the princess on her extension in the sitting room. ‘It’s Kevin Costner. He would like to speak to you.’ There was a shriek of excitement. ‘Put him through, Paul, and come up.’”
Burrell claimed Diana told him she didn’t plan on starring in a Bodyguard sequel or any movie where “she would play a princess” and Costner would “save her life.”
“He was so charming, but he cannot be serious,” the former butler remembered Diana saying of the actor.
Describing the whole thing as “informal,” Burrell noted Costner’s proposal “flattered” Diana’s “ego, ”and that she’d certainly been “charmed” by the Oscar winner. However, she “dismissed” the idea. Her response, according to Burrell, was: “‘It is simply impossible.’”
