It was one of the iconic moments of Princess Diana's 36-year life, a dance she performed with actor John Travolta at the White House on November 9, 1985. That dance may not generate as many headlines as Travolta's dance, but it is remarkable nonetheless.

This week, Selleck released her memoir, You Never Know. It turns out that Selleck was in Washington, D.C., with her husband, Prince Charles, and almost turned down a dance with the Crown Princess, who was attending a dinner hosted by President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan at the White House. In his memoir, Selleck recounts how he ended up dancing with Diana and how it almost didn't happen

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At the time, Selleck was in Hawaii filming "Magnum P.I." and wasn't even sure if he could make it to D.C. for the event in the first place. But his publicist told him." Look, this is Princess Diana's personal guest list, and the only actors on it are you, Clint Eastwood, and John Travolta." So, needless to say, Selleck went to the White House that night.

According to Selleck, he and Eastwood kept a low profile while Travolta and Diana performed a memorable dance. 'We moved away from the dancers and around the corner a bit,' he said. 'At that time, John and Princess Diana were dancing and rocking out to an up-tempo number. John and Princess Di danced an up-tempo number and rocked out.

However, as Travolta and Diana began their second dance, a British woman approached Selleck and urged him to interrupt the duo and ask Diana to dance, fearing that "word would get out" about Travolta and Diana's second time on the dance floor. When Selleck wrote, "Clint and I haven't said anything," the woman repeated, "Mr. Selleck, you should take his place."

In a loud voice, Selleck declared, "I'm not going to interrupt John Travolta." The woman "wasn't too pleased," he continued, and eventually did not interrupt Travolta, but did interrupt him before they went into their third dance.

For Selleck, Diana was "very shy, despite being lovely and a good conversationalist." In an interview with Town and Country magazine, Selleck said that he was not very attracted to stars, but he was dazzled by Diana: "Oh yes, she was a starstruck," he told the magazine, apologizing to her for his lack of skill on the dance floor and saying at the dance school that he " I skipped cotillion," he revealed.

"All I could dance was box steps and dips like I did in high school dances. 'I wasn't going to dip with Princess Di. So we just talked. But she was so graceful." He added that the experience was "certainly memorable."

Selleck said he was "anxious" to meet the royal couple, according to Hello magazine, but that Princess Diana was "charming, graceful, and beautiful" and praised Prince Charles' ability to "make her feel important to him the moment they were together." Of the Princess, he said, "She seemed to be enjoying life. 'I was relieved that she was talking most of the time. Let's just say it wasn't my best time as a conversationalist."

While Selleck danced with Diana, his wife (then girlfriend) Jilly Mack would dance with Charles. 'The prince danced with my wife, who is English,' Selleck told Town & Country. 'And he asked her for a second dance. 0]

For Travolta, see the 2021 PBS special In Their Own Words: It was Nancy Reagan who introduced him to Princess Diana, and the dark blue, off-the-shoulder Victor Edelstein dress that night was "Travolta's Dress" in his honor. It was to be commemorated. About 10 o'clock at night, Nancy Reagan tapped me on the shoulder and said, 'The princess's dream is to dance with you. Would you like to dance with her tonight? And I said, 'Sure.'"

As mentioned, they danced not once, but twice. It was a "storybook moment. 'We finished, we bowed, she got off, I got off, and the carriage turned into a pumpkin.'