The "Squidgygate" tapes featured conversations between Diana and an alleged former lover, James Gilbey, recorded by British intelligence officers apparently protecting British royals from assassination by the Irish Republican Army, The Daily Telegraph said Thursday.

The inquest heard testimony by Diana's former bodyguard Ken Wharfe detailing the tapes allegedly leaked to the public on which Gilbey told Diana "I love you" and called her "Squidgy" more than 50 times in the half-hour conversation.

Wharfe told the inquest Diana felt the royals were "jealous" of her fame and believed certain members of the royal family were "sharpening their knives" against her.

Wharfe also accused the bodyguard of Diana's lover Dodi Fayed, Trevor Rees-Jones, of contributing to her death because of a game of "cat and mouse" he played with photographers.

Diana and Fayed died in a car crash in Paris in 1997.