We’re coming up on the 25th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death. That’s why there are so many stories about Diana’s life, so many books out about Diana and so many documentaries and dramatizations happening right now. I watched the documentary The Princess on HBO over the weekend and it made me sad all over again. The way Diana’s life was raked over when she was alive, and following her death, the endless rewriting of her life. Most people in the royal establishment have now completely revised Diana to be some kind of monarchist who was desperately loyal to the crown above all else. That… was not the case. Anyway, the Sun had an interview with one of the bodyguards traveling with Diana and the al-Fayeds. This is Lee Sansum – Diana used to call him Rambo. He was with Diana during her last summer, on the yacht with Dodi Fayed in the South of France. Sansum had some interesting memories:
He drew straws with Trevor Rees-Jones: “We drew straws to see who would be accompanying Trevor that weekend. I pulled a match and it was a long one. When I learned they were not wearing seatbelts in the crash I understood why they didn’t survive. That shouldn’t have happened. It was standard practice for the family to wear seatbelts. It was an order sent down from the boss, Dodi’s dad Mohamed Fayed. Dodi, in particular, hated wearing seatbelts and I always insisted on it.”
Diana thought she would be assasinated: Every day Diana would wake up at 7am and chat to the bodyguard. He said: “She had been happy on that holiday. But I had seen her in tears too, when she learned of the murder of her friend, the fashion designer Gianni Versace. She confided in me her own fears that she might one day be assassinated. She asked if I thought his murder outside his home was a professional killing. I thought it was. Then she said something that always stayed with me — ‘Do you think they’ll do that to me?’ She was shaking and it was clear from her tone that she really thought that they might, whoever ‘they’ might be. I spent some time reassuring her that no one was going to try to kill her and she was safe with us, but she definitely thought there was a risk that one day she might be assassinated.”
Diana also told Lee she wanted to live with Dodi in the States. “I actually signed up to join Diana and Dodi in America. She was definitely going, and that was that. She told me she was going there. She didn’t want to, but that was the only place she felt people weren’t having a go at her. It was probably her way of keeping sane, to get some respite.”
He saw intelligence services following Diana: He reveals the presence of intelligence services following her just weeks before the crash might have been a factor. On a counter-surveillance drive near the Al-Fayed home in Surrey just before they all went to St Tropez, one of Lee’s colleagues saw someone from the Special Reconnaissance Unit, working on a building site. He knew him as they had both been in the SAS. Lee said: “We were generally followed by MI5 but this was the first time we had seen a Special Forces guy. We thought, ‘They’ve upped their game’.
He believes professional intelligence/security people were in the Alma Tunnel: “A witness driving a car travelling in front of the Mercedes in Paris on the night of the crash told the inquest that he saw a high-powered motorbike overtake the car just seconds before the crash. Another witness travelling in the opposite direction saw a second motorbike swerve to avoid smoke and wreckage then carry on out of the tunnel without stopping. The riders of those bikes were never found — and that is no coincidence. I believe that security officers following Diana, possibly British or a combined British–French team, may have either inadvertently caused the crash or were in close proximity to the car when it happened. If it was known that MI6 operatives were right by the Mercedes at the critical moment, a lot of people would have blamed them for it, and that would have been a huge scandal.”
I brought up HBO’s The Princess at the start of the post because the documentary did such a good job of showing Diana’s new energy following her divorce. The last year of her life was so happy and so public. She had gotten out of her marriage, she had money, she was free and she was doing work she cared about. Basically, she was setting herself to ruin Prince Charles’s life for years to come. She would have made the Windsors’ life hellish because she was so public and so free and she was making such powerful friends and allies. So… yeah… I believe Lee Sansum’s recollection about how intelligence and SAS people were following her in France. I also believe that Diana – ever intuitive, always with her high-level emotional intelligence – instinctively knew something was wrong, something was off, that she was in danger somehow, that there were always forces working against her.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES Visiting the Royal Brompton Hospital, London to meet young sufferers of the inherited disease Cystic Fibrosis. COMPULSORY CREDIT: UPPA/Photoshot Photo UGL 013008/A-18 15.04.1997,Image: 502657034, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries call Photoshot Global HQ – London + 44 (0)20 7421 6000 , also New York Office Tel : + 1 646-429-8731 and Hamburg Office Tel +49 (0)40 530 240 5959, Model Release: no, Credit line: Photoshot / Avalon
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- DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES Visiting the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Hindu Temple in Neasden, North London. Wearing a garland of flowers. COMPULSORY CREDIT: UPPA/Photoshot Photo UG 013280/E 06.06.1997,Image: 502657612, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries call Photoshot Global HQ – London + 44 (0)20 7421 6000 , also New York Office Tel : + 1 646-429-8731 and Hamburg Office Tel +49 (0)40 530 240 5959, Model Release: no, Credit line: Photoshot / Avalon
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- DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES After attending the Memorial Service for Terence Donovan COMPULSORY CREDIT: UPPA/Photoshot Photo UKWT 012816/A-18 10.03.1997,Image: 502658878, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries call Photoshot Global HQ – London + 44 (0)20 7421 6000 , also New York Office Tel : + 1 646-429-8731 and Hamburg Office Tel +49 (0)40 530 240 5959, Model Release: no, Credit line: Photoshot / Avalon
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- DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES (Attending the Mines Advisory Group Conference at the Royal Geographical Society) COMPULSORY CREDIT: UPPA/Photoshot Photo UIW 013311/B-09 12.06.1997,Image: 502739127, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries call Photoshot Global HQ – London + 44 (0)20 7421 6000 , also New York Office Tel : + 1 646-429-8731 and Hamburg Office Tel +49 (0)40 530 240 5959, Model Release: no, Credit line: Photoshot / Avalon
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- DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES At Northwick Park and St Mark’s Hospital, Harrow to open the new Children’s Ambulatory Care Centre COMPULSORY CREDIT: UPPA/Photoshot Photo UIW 013520/B-08 21.07.1997,Image: 502739184, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries call Photoshot Global HQ – London + 44 (0)20 7421 6000 , also New York Office Tel : + 1 646-429-8731 and Hamburg Office Tel +49 (0)40 530 240 5959, Model Release: no, Credit line: Photoshot / Avalon
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- DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES (Attending the Royal Film Premiere of “In Love and War”) COMPULSORY CREDIT: Starstock/Photoshot Photo UIW 012679/C-23 12.02.1997,Image: 506995668, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World Rights – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries call Photoshot Global HQ – London + 44 (0)20 7421 6000 , also New York Office Tel : + 1 646-429-8731 and Hamburg Office Tel +49 (0)40 530 240 5959, Model Release: no, Credit line: Photoshot / Avalon
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- Diana, Princess of Wales,Image: 514932301, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289, Model Release: no, Credit line: John Shelley Collection / Avalon
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- PRINCESS DIANA OF WALES, LADY DI. 1996 WASHINGTON DC PHOTO WAS ON THE COVER OF US NEWS MAGAZINE AND WAS THE BEST SELLING ISSUE IN 70 YEARS. . LADY DI . PORTRAIT. RETRATO. HEADSHOT,Image: 538725362, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: World rights – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 sales@avalon.red, Model Release: no, Credit line: Look Press Agency/Look Press / Avalon
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- Diana, Princess of Wales Arriving at a British Sports Association reception, 13 Grosvenor Crescent, London,Image: 552324786, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Photoshot – sales@photoshot.com London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Florida: +1 239 689 1883 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: John Shelley Collection / Avalon
Di’s sister has also made comments about the seat belts and that Di always wore hers. It makes you wonder if they were tampered with and unusable. In a speeding car someone who is a stickler for seatbelt use would definitely be reaching for one.
The seatbelt stuff is the part of the story that makes the rest of the way they say it went down unlikely to unbelievable to flat out untrue.
As l said in another post previously a family friend working in ‘security let’s say’ at the time of de crash alleged that Diana was ‘Done away it’,.end off. ,.l was young at de time, shocked but l will never forget it !!!!
I made that same point in yesterday’s thread that her sisters insisted Diana always belted up. And I’m sure once they realized they were in a high-speed car chase, they would have absolutely engaged those seatbelts if they were working. If they were tampered with, that naturally puts a whole different spin on the situation. I can’t believe that a millionaire‘s fleet of luxury cars would not be highly maintained to have everything functioning and operational, including seatbelts. That always bothered me to this day and was a sticking point. Why weren’t they wearing their seatbelts?
There are photos that show Diana didn’t always wear a seatbelt and the security guard said Dodi hated wearing them. They were being driven at a high speed by a driver who had been drinking.
Yeah the seatbelt thing doesn’t seem that weird to me, even if she did always wear one (not sure if that’s true or not) but it was a high stress situation, it seems kind of natural that she would not do something basic like fasten a seatbelt, even if she always did. Here, the security guard says that dodi hated wearing one and he always had to force the issue.
Sarah and Jane said their sister religiously buckled up i have seen seatbelts that worked but for some reason could not be stretched to fit around a waist tbe security guard who has amnesia cannot remember why he let Paul take the wheel and why he did not check the seat belts the guard made sure he buckled his own seatbelt and did not check the others odd to me
I wonder about this too.
The whole narrative around the seatbelt buckling and Dodi Al Fayed purportedly allowing his supposedly very drunk driver to him and Diana wherever are clearly irrelevant and probably intended to distract us from the core issue, which is the car.
The Mercedes S280 in which the princess lost her life had been tampered: it was recovered from a Paris junkyard after runaway French prisoners had had a terrible accident with it. Technically, the car was not fit to be used at, so how it mysteriously ended up being rent to the Ritz’s owner (Al Fayed senior) as a safe brand new car and by whom and under whose directions are facts Prince Henry can delve into, if he is prepared to cope with agonizing emotional pain.
He will not like the answers he might get and who knows… the names that will unmistakably come up during the course of huz investigations might sound familiar.
I think Harry, of anyone, surely knows more about this than the rest of us, and if he is pursuing this with the Home Office is ready to hear what truth he can, if those familiar names are indeed involved.
I think being stripped of his security is what shocked him into it, as well.
People may not remember this because it was a long time ago, on the 20th anniversary I believe, Oxygen had a week long Diana thing. Only played Diana stuff. I watched all of it. I was quite little when she died so didn’t really pay much attention but after that? I firmly believed she was killed. Those docs were really good in presenting the evidence. She claimed to have secret tapes that were going to expose the Royal Family. Since then I have absolutely detested the monarchy.
It’s a shame I can’t remember any of the programming. Oxygen used to have quality stuff. That week was really informative. I came out a huge fan of hers.
Can’t see the documentary in my country yet 🙁
HBO, hurry up.
The story of Diana’s death stinks to holy heaven. Why wasn’t she wearing a seatbelt when she always wore them? Why was the additional car in the tunnel never found? Why wasn’t she taken to the closest hospital?
Seeing how badly the institution treated the Sussexes, and their piss-poor judgement regarding the Cambridge Failure Tour and Pedo Andy interview, it wouldn’t suprise me at all if the “grey men” planned an “accident”. Perhaps Diana wasn’t supposed to die–maybe the accident was meant to “spook” her into lowering her public profile. And they clearly didn’t anticipate the effect her death would have on the public. No wonder Harry is seeking more answers about his mother. I hope he burns the whole place down.
I thought the hospital question has been addressed in a documentary. She was taken to the hospital best equipped to handle the trauma sustained. The seat belt question is troubling and the presence of mysterious cars … but if the French emergency response system was involved in a plot against Diana we’d probably have had leaks by now.
The French rules in essence doomed her she had to get to a hospital stat
That’s the only part of the official investigation I believe. I remember watching CNN on that night, and the “experts” all news agencies turn to while they are waiting for official statements kept saying that in France, at that time, the protocol for first responders was to stabilize on the scene, then take to the hospital, rather than grab and go, like in the U.S.
There was no way the talking heads on CNN the night Diana died had talking points from any part of the British establishment.
She didn’t ‘always’ wear a seatbelt. There are pictures of her being driven in cars without them on.
She wasn’t taken straight to hospital because that is not the way French EMTs work. In the US and the UK protocol is ‘to hospital ASAP’. In France they have better equipped ambulances and staff and they do as much as they can to stabilise and help before they move patients.
The additional car in the tunnel may never have been found because whoever it was absolutely did not want to get caught up in this terrifying circus.
Diana and Dodi were not supposed to even be making that journey that night. They were supposed to stay at the Ritz and it was a last minute decision by Dodi to leave. Given that, there’s no way someone planning their murder would have known that they were leaving again, that they would have been in that car to tamper with the seatbelts, that Henri Paul would have been driving anybody anywhere – this wasn’t a planned hit because nothing about the trip was planned.
The road in the Pont Alma is uneven. A big, heavy car, travelling at excessive speed, hitting uneven road will destabilise and start to veer off course. An over-correction by the driver, whether drunk or not or an avoidance tactic to miss another car and bang – pillar hit. I have both been in a car and seen a car in front of me on the motorway lose control and seesaw wildly at speed due to a slightly over hasty turn of the steering wheel. It’s utterly terrifying and it happens in a fraction of a second from not much at all.
In my opinion, if anyone is to blame for the crash it is the paparazzi chasing them. They created a dangerous, late night, high speed car chase. Without them the car would have driven smoothly and much more slowly to its destination.
IIRC Dodi kept changing plans such as changing the driver of the car at the last moment.
You’re absolutely right. And we can’t forget that Diana’s heart stopped beating several times in the ambulance and they had to slow down and/or stop to stabilize her. Plus the hospital they took her too had the best medical team and equipment to deal with her internal injuries. I’ve been to the tunnel and seen first hand how dangerous it would be to go speeding into it. Henri Paul was also a notoriously reckless driver. One of Diana’s therapists had been driven by him to the airport where she was flying out to join Diana and Dodi on the yacht, and she said she was utterly terrified they were going to crash he was such a dangerous driver.
Henri Paul was called in at the last minute to drive them from the Ritz and he’d been seen in the bar late in the afternoon having drinks. He was an alcoholic and was actually on medication to stop drinking but clearly it didn’t work. The responsibility for this rests on Dodi’s insisting they leave the Ritz with a driver who was no doubt over the limit and had a reputation for driving like a madman. That plus the paps he taunted created a perfect storm.
Even in 1997 the New York Times was questioning the assertions that Henri Paul was a problematic driver. Ritz security cameras do not show him drinking, which may not mean anything, but earlier that day he declined a beer with a friend who offered because he had to pick up Diana. He also passed a difficult physical and flying test two days before which didn’t indicate any usage of hard or repeated substances and had been flying for years – you can cover up your inebriation if you’re a functioning alcoholic in many circumstances but not flying. Many witnesses and friends corroborated they never saw him drink more than one or two drinks at a time and the level in his blood that was announced was the equivalent of 10 units.
These aren’t definitive proof of anything, but they make me skeptical.
It always amazes me how many people come out of the woodwork to defend all the ways in which she was not murdered by the RF.
It’s not cuckoo to believe that there was much more to this whatsoever and anything else is gaslighting.
Yes, it could’ve been a drunk driving accident, but some people are blind to how far the rich and those in power will go to stay rich and in power. This is mild compared to some things that have been done.
It seems to me the French medical team should have thought of saving Diana than following useless rules that did not save her
@jaded do you have anymore specifics about what they did to stabilize her in the ambulance? I know the French ambulances are better equipped than most, they are basically small hospitals. But it still seems counterintuitive to stop or slow down for any reason. What were they doing that couldn’t be done while the vehicle was in motion?
Steph- I don’t think the link will go through but if you google ABC News article “Princess Diana’s Death Offers Lessons for Health Care Debate, 12 Years Later” it gives clarification.
@Steph – Diana went into cardiac arrest after they removed her from the wreckage of the car, which took a long time. The ambulance was equipped with heart massage and defibrillation equipment which they started using immediately. They couldn’t have known that she was bleeding out internally at that point. As they arrived at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, which was better equipped to deal with her injuries, she went into another cardiac arrest and the doctors had to stabilize her again before she got to surgery. Once there, they discovered a torn aortic vein and she had bled out extensively into her chest cavity. Her heart was displaced to the right side of her chest and other organs had also been displaced and damaged.
Basically even a mad rush to the nearest hospital wouldn’t have saved her, the extent of her internal injuries were so severe.
@ Hench “Diana and Dodi were not supposed to even be making that journey that night. They were supposed to stay at the Ritz and it was a last minute decision by Dodi to leave. Given that, there’s no way someone planning their murder would have known that they were leaving again.”
Special forces aka assassins are absolutely trained to factor in variables, especially on a complex intelligence mission. They knew the car was a variable, along with the drivers, among many others, such as their whereabouts at any given moment. It would be nothing unusual to modify a plan at the last minute. This happens in battle and it happens in intelligence missions. That said, I don’t think it was a huge “surprise” that they left the hotel to go to one of his established residences. It may even have been a rehearsed scenario.
Since Diana did not get to the hospital quickly, that alternate was not available for her. So it is unknown if that would have saved her or not. She was doomed because time was of the essence. Another thing is that the “first responders” were the paparazzi snapping pictures. In cases in the US, she would have been rushed to the hospital. The delay in getting her help in a hospital operating room doomed her, it was too late Dr. Barnard wrote: “My opinion is that they made a mistake in not rushing her to the hospital quicker because her bleeding could only be stopped by surgery.” I agree with him.
I saw one documentary that highlighted the money in the different guards/driver’s bank accounts, from unknown sources, suggesting a payout.
Google Chuck’s former mistress, Kanga, and her car accident supposedly caused by paparazzi as well… she was paralyzed and followed Charles to public events yelling that he did this to her.
@kfg what are you talking about? Kanga was in rehab for a painkiller addiction and fell from a window. No car, no paparazzi.
Kanga had some severe mental health issues, as well as being paralyzed and addicted to pain killers and alcohol. She’d suffered from spina bifida and several corrective surgeries for it from childhood, her back issues weren’t related to a car accident. She later developed uterine cancer and went through a radical hysterectomy, radiation and chemo. Enough to kill a bear. During treatment she became addicted to pain-killers and entered a rehab facility to clean up but she was in a dreadful state mentally and emotionally. While there she pushed herself out of the window in an effort to commit suicide but only ended up paralyzing herself. Unhappily, her husband filed for divorce shortly thereafter, she went downhill after that and started drinking heavily, and at one point she had to be hospitalized for psychiatric care. Once she was released and got her drinking under control she travelled to India, where she contracted a serious gastrointestinal illness and had to return to the UK. She was hospitalized but developed septicemia and two months later she died. Although she was obsessed with Charles and was vocal about it, her only crime was talking too freely about it.
Charles refused to go to the phone so she could say her goodbyes to him as she was dying. She was a mistress of his and he called her the only woman who understood him. I think the fall out the window was not a suicide attempt but an accident. She was to be pitied, and she should have steered clear of Charles, he was toxic to her.
Dale did have illnesses and probably had a breakdown. but I think Charles was done with her and Dale and Diana’s “being damaged ” were put out in the media–and mostly after Diana could not defend herself.Camilla disliked Kanga as a rival and Camilla “won.” Charles turned to Kanga while Camilla had her pregnancies with the APB children. Charles called Kanga the only woman who understood him, but he could not even take her phone calls and speak to her. She was harmless. It shows how he dismisses people in his life. Too bad she ever got near Charles. Same applies to Diana.
I’ve visited Salpiterrie. I used to see my gynecologist there. It’s not really a hospital per se in the traditional sense, it’s a huge complex with multiple buildings. It’s massive. Probably far bigger than all of the others in Paris (Cochin, Saint Louis and Saint Antoine). The American Hospital in Neuilly would have been the closest but it’s private. Shame too as it’s known as the best. If you have money you go to the American Hospital. But I guess they couldn’t take her there as she wasn’t privately insured in France.
25 years, my god. Over the years, I have sporadically been obsessed with Diana for a few days or weeks. Her life was so crazy, she had charisma for a whole room of people and it all ended so tragically. But I don’t believe we’re ever going to uncover more than has already been uncovered. Rees-Jones is not going to regain his memories and documents (if they existed) would have long been destroyed.
It’s entirely possible he’s correct in his assessment. I don’t remember where I read that Dodi was the one being reckless wih the seatbelts and the one who told his chauffeurs regularly to floor it. Whoever was on those motorbikes, the car probably wouldn’t have crashed if it hadn’t been going 100km/h in that tunnel. That’s an insane speed for Paris. So many things went wrong that night and like I said, I get the obsession. But let the poor woman rest.
The “poor woman” is resting. Speculation about her life has no affect on her any longer.
You seem like fun. Yes, I certainly meant she is literally rolling in her grave. Come on.
What has my comment got to do with “seeming like fun”? You seem like someone determined to silence others with, to many, valid speculations.
You took my comment about letting her rest literally. When clearly it’s never meant literally. Ever. Your reply also wasn’t really a comment on what I said, there really was no content, it was just negativity for the sake of it. Who does that? Someone who’s no fun at all. And now I’m silencing you, apparently. Okay then.
Generally I would agree with you but I think in this case it’s necessary. I remember watching the Oprah interview and being completely shocked at some of the revelations of how shameless the family was. If that was just what Harry and Meghan went through, imagine what they are sitting on with Diana. And it’s no coincidence that Harry is going so hard against the Home Office.
It’s not allowing her to rest if they contributed to her death (whether directly or indirectly) and have built a campaign of refuting a lot of her words and rebuilding the images of the people who tried to destroy her because she wasn’t alive to say her piece, in my opinion.
At the end of the day, the RF treated Diana so horribly, cruelly, and coldly, that it’s unlikely speculation over her death will end. And it’s because of the way the RF and institution treated her that people wonder. Wondering about the inconsistencies only hurts the RF and does not allow them to rest. As @equality said, she is resting. The Firm deserves no such rest and if people aren’t convinced about the details of the accident, it’s because people truly believe they are cold enough to have something to do with it.
@ Jais, agree that the royal family should never be allowed to rest. Yes, we will never know the full truth. Al-Fayed has spent millions, and years, in his quest to discover the truth. What is the most egregious cruelty to Diana’s legacy is how the BRF are trying to rewrite Diana’s legacy. But I find William participating with the RF, the greatest insult of all. William will forever be tainted as the one that has betrayed his Mum. William should be haunted for the rest of his life.
As for this commentary coming from Lee Sansum, I fully believe in his statement. The fact that the days leading up to the crash that there were MI5 forces following Diana’s movements were extremely troublesome. This places a direct link that the men in gray or the royal family were desperate to keep tabs on Diana and not only her movements but by the company she kept.
As for the circumstances that caused the death of Diana, Dodi and Henri, we will never know the actual truth. There are so many players involved, it’s hard to point to one person and direct blame. One thing is for certain, that the paparazzi were the driving factors in their deaths. Had they stopped hounding and stalking Diana, she would still be here most likely.
Sorry, but rug sweeping only enables abuse. The RF treated Diana like absolute crap, even when she was married to C. Even after she had just given birth, Ann to reporters, “oh has she? I didn’t know.” Or some such.
Then the way they took security away from PH and MM. it’s absolutely chilling.
I agree they want anyone who dares to break their antiquated protocol….D.e.a.d
If anything happens to Hars & Megs…we know the sick clan did it…point blank period,,,I also saw Annes vitriol and hatred and jealousy
+100 WITHTHEAMERICAN. I also agree that william has betrayed his mother with his revisionist take on her Panorama interview. I maintain that he had a love/hate relationship with her. He loved her, but was embarrassed by her public social life. He has no honor. Diana had a right to a social and humanitarian public life after what the brf did to her. I believe they were glad she died, and I believe they took her security away and set the events of her death in motion.
Diana’s seat belt was broken. That’s why she didn’t use it.
Bit odd if the boss was obsessed with people wearing a belt that he wouldn’t have cars maintained to prevent that.
You think that seatbelt couldn’t have been tampered with in just a few moments? Those cars could have easily been “maintained” earlier in the day and someone tampered with the seatbelt very close to when the passengers got in it.
A broken seatbelt is very suspicious. And it doesn’t take a high level conspiracy to enact a car break in that tampers with a seatbelt. That’s why it’s plausible.
The car they were in was a backup car owned by the Ritz. It was typically only used by the Ritz during the day and was not meant to be traveling over 30 mph as it had been totaled previously. It was nevertheless rebuilt even though it had looooots of issues. It is documented that the seatbelts didn’t work before it was rebuilt. It was a strange car to use, with a very strange history.
The inquest was designed to cover for the British establishment’s part in her demise. John Morgan, an Australian journalist, has written volumes on the inquest and its errors and omissions. Start with part 2 if you’re interested in all the reasons the RF wanted her out, but the RF was already terrified that the Princess of Wales had been madly in love with Hasnat Khan for two years. That was bad enough but Khan was a Muslim man who kept a low profile. Dodi on the other hand, was a problem. The establishment was panicked over the “Diana problem” in 1997.
I also think that Prince Charles would have had a hell of harder time marrying Camilla with Diana still alive.
@Elizabeth – That’s what’s always bugged me. When you combine suspicious circumstances with a demonstrated benefit to Charles and the RF, it’s a lot to dismiss. But like JFK or Marilyn, we’ll never really know.
“Will no one did me of this troublesome priest?” (Attributed to Henry 2nd of England, 1170.)
Four knights promptly travelled to Canterbury and killed the troublesome priest, Thomas Beckett, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Plus ça change…..the more that changes, the more it’s the same.
This makes me so sad. I’ll never forget the night it was announced that she’d died. She should still be here and I do blame Charles and the lot of them.
The day Diana died, my mother wept…my grandmother wept…my aunt wept…for me, as a little girl, seeing these proud African women all weeping over a white woman they had never met, that’s something I’ll never forget. Princess Diana was one of one. They couldn’t stand her light – and fire – so they killed her. You can’t tell me nothing…Di’s death was no accident!
I looked up at the TV and read the line of print running across the bottom about her death in a Paris tunnel and just started crying. For the first time in almost 2 decades, she seemed happy. Plus, she was a mom and that part was really painful to me too. There is no doubt she was killed by someone acting for the RF. If Harry ever finds out who, his own life will be in danger. The Monarchy will endure, no matter the cost.
Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I truly believe that family got rid of Diana and are trying their hardest to repeat history with Meghan. The BRF has their tentacles in all branches of the UK government (shown via the Charles and Andrew coverup scandals) it is not hard to believe that they used those resources to off Diana. That family deserves all of the bad karma and curses for ruining Diana’s life.
Yep this tracks. I never personally thought about her safety, but it just makes sense.
I remember the whole thing quite succinctly in that it caused me to never follow that family again (until Meghan entered the scene). And after what happened to Meghan, I’ve permanently written them off as villains, evil and not worthy of clicks or expenditures of any kind. But yes, Diana was so happy at the end which made me so happy she had found some fragile peace. I have never thought it was an accident.
I can see why people think Diana’s death was murder but I really don’t think they planned to kill her. Again – the seatbelt tampering doesn’t hold up when getting into that Mercedes was a last minute decision.
In the last year of her life Diana was actually getting some bad press. Her gallivanting all over the South of France with Dodi posing for the paparazzi in swimming costumes – the diving board pic, the kiss in the dinghy etc – was seen as pretty tacky. Her death cancelled all that out and propelled her into martyr status. The RF was never so under threat in recent history as when the Queen failed to return from Balmoral or fly BP’s flag at half mast. The public showed, for the only time in her reign, real anger with the Queen. Charles was terrified he would be assassinated by an angry mob – one of the reasons put forward for having her sons walk with him behind the casket. Killing Diana would have been a stupid thing to do for many reasons – not least because, as we have seen, she is now effectively accorded saint status. And someone, somewhere would have eventually talked. So many different people investigated the crash and, God knows, the Royal Family are not exactly strategic geniuses. A whistleblower could make SO much money that I just don’t believe it wouldn’t have come out.
Don’t get me wrong – they treated her appallingly but I do not believe they had her killed.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they played a role. People forget that she got bad press from a lot of her own philanthropic initiatives exactly the way Meghan does with a certain crowd. The racist coverage about her relationships with Hasnat Khan and Dodi was terrible. Shills from the BM like Penny Junor were relating tons of stories about how inappropriate she was as a mother. She was still popular with many, but they used the same playbook on her as they did with Meghan.
She herself distrusted the people around her and wrote she worried Charles was organizing something with a car accident involving her. You can say it was coincidence…or maybe not.
They had no way of knowing how the British public would react at the time. And they are famously bad at decision making when it comes to their public image.
I agree – they treated her badly but they didn’t kill her.
To me it was a tragic accident caused by bad decisions made by everyone involved.
And I wouldn’t believe much of what the Al Fayed’s say about this – if there were security agents following them, my moneys was that they were tracking Dodi because of his father’s very very shady connections and business dealings (esp with the Saudi’s). Dodi himself had shady business connections.
What’s interesting me though is that so many people can believe that the firm had something to do with her death. Whether they did or not, just the fact that it can seem credible that the firm was involved is interesting. As in, if they did and people found out, there’d be shock but at the same time not shock if that makes sense.
@Jais – yes. The way they have treated Harry and particularly Meghan has made people able to believe they are capable of sinking to that appalling low. Talk about shooting your reputation in the face!
I recall Diana got positive press then, especially with the Anti Landmine campaign and her selling her outfits for charity. People Magazine had the story “A Guy for Di” during that Summer. And another cover was Cash vs. Class, with Fergie being criticized for plugging her autobiography and Diana having class. So she did get positive press that Summer. I doubt she’d have married Dodi. And it was OK for her to date him, they did not elope or anything like that. Diana knew the Fayed family for years, her father was friends with Muhammed Al Fayed.
Let’s not forget about ALL of the security cameras in the tunnel mysteriously malfunctioning!
It was engineered. It’s just never added up.
That’s actually been refuted. A woman was caught speeding by a camera in the Pont d’Alma tunnel moments before the crash. Also, even a skilled driver would have had difficulty controlling a huge, heavy car like their Mercedes in a dangerous tunnel, and Henri Paul was driving way over the speed limit. He was a notoriously reckless driver at the best of times. He was also caught on camera taunting the paparazzo before trying to sneak Diana and Dodi out the back way. An official French inquiry concluded that blood tests revealed Paul was legally drunk when he left the Ritz hotel. When you look at the wreckage of the car, it was totaled. The Mercedes they were in weighed over 4,100 lbs and was no doubt specially tricked out with bulletproof glass and doors, which would have added to its weight. Henri Paul must have been going at a hell of a speed to incur wreckage to a tank like that.
A lawyer for the one of the paparazzi stated he taunted them, which I am taking with a grain of salt.
The right-wing Daily Express stated a woman had been recorded speeding. Most of the security cameras in the underpass were security cameras for private property. The Paris Urban Traffic unit controlled the traffic-facing camera but it closed for the night at 11 with no night coverage.
Henri-Paul may have been drunk and reckless that night, but his record previously of driving and flying was not erratic.
*around the underpass
Also, it’s worth it to note that pathologists from the University of Lausanne could find no explanation for the heightened CO2 levels in Paul’s blood and said errors were quite possible in the samples.
@C – Numerous photographers came forward stating unequivocally that Henri Paul taunted them outside the Ritz. He reportedly challenged the waiting photographers, saying: “Anyway, you’ll never catch us!” And this from Diana’s and Dodi’s therapist:
Myriah Daniels, a holistic therapist who had accompanied the couple on a Mediterranean cruise on the Fayed family yacht the Jonikal, told of her terror as she and their entourage travelled from the airport to Dodi’s apartment in central Paris. “I should be dead. I was positive we were going to get killed on that drive,” she said. “With all due respect to him, he was probably a really nice man, but he was a s*** for a driver.”
The British *expert* who insisted that Henri Paul’s co2 levels were unusually high was actually hired by Mohammed Al Fayed…who has always insisted they were murdered. Other experts have stated that if the co2 levels in Paul’s blood tests were in reality that high, he would have been suffering from a severe, migraine-like headache and unable to drive. French toxicologists found he had an alcohol blood level 3 times higher than normal and shouldn’t have been driving. Period.
Kes Wingfield, one of Diana’s bodyguards, contradicted her testimony by stating his driving was fine.
French toxicologists were the ones who identified those levels of Co2. Professor Atholl Johnston of Queen Mary University of London was the one who said in his opinion the samples were most likely tampered with. The high levels of Co2 would indeed have produced physical effects, ones that Dodi’s bodyguards stated they didn’t observe.
With HBO’s The Princess so fresh on my mind, I’m totally buying the refreshed conspiracy theory. If Harry really is looking into his mother’s death, all the loose ends might start to come together, at least in part, but he doesn’t need to share the facts, or his conclusions, with anyone. He just needs some peace of mind.
If we’re feeling renewed grief, I can’t imagine Harry’s trauma. 😢
@ C-Shell, so well executed. Harry must be having a difficult time every year as the anniversary of her death looms.
I remember how heartbroken I, and the entire told, mourned her death. But for Harry it’s personal and understandable.
“She didn’t want to, but that was the only place she felt people weren’t having a go at her. It was probably her way of keeping sane, to get some respite.”
^That is absolutely depressing. The British media and the RF would have absolutely made sure that history repeated itself with her son and his wife. I’m glad they were able to get out.
I thought she was enthusiastic about moving to the U.S., but her sons were pretty young, so that distance probably would have been hard.
I can believe that they were being followed by intelligence officers and also believe that her death was a tragic, tragic accident. She never should have gotten in that car with a drunk driver, and the paparazzi never should have been following them like that. Even if drunk, would the driver have gone as fast as he did if he weren’t being chased by the paparazzi?
I don’t think the British government killed her but I think overall her death was convenient for the royal family, in the long run.
Oh also to say, for my last point about her death being convenient -I think its convenient NOW. now they can wipe away even her own words and act like she didn’t say the things she said. I don’t think it was convenient at the time, I think the royals were really caught off guard by the reaction to her death.
There was a documentary on Netflix a few years back (maybe it still is, I don’t know) about the period between her death and funeral, and Dickie Arbiter (I know I know but he worked for the Queen at the time) is on it as well as someone who was with Tony Blair’s office and someone from the Abbey, people like that. Anyway Dickie said that they were so concerned about having the funeral at the Abbey bc they thought they couldn’t fill it up and it would look really bad on TV to have this half empty church for the funeral. That always stands out to me……this family still, even after she died, did not fully understand how the public felt about her and what she meant to people, even famous people like Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Hillary Clinton (who they later show all attending the obviously packed Westminster Abbey.)
I think it’s possible they could have considered action *towards* it convenient, were taken aback and thrown for a loop, and then considered the situation saved by the Queen finally acknowledging it and making a show for the public, as long as they laid low for a bit. Charles 50th birthday celebrations and documentary the following year did a good deal to shift the conversation a bit.
I think that despite how much staff they have monitoring the media and the public the RF are so firmly entrenched in their own little bubble that they regularly underestimate how the public reacts and who the public gels with. They hear and see what their handlers want them to hear and see so they are often caught off guard.
It was William and Harry that essentially saved the monarchy after Diana’s death. Being her sons they embodied Diana presence and spirit, meaning she would influence the future of the monarchy for the better through them. People only tolerated the monarchy afterwards just to get to Williams reign. But with harry leaving and willie turning out to be just as ratchet as his father that ain’t happening no more.
I agree with you. I know I raised some questions above, but people more knowledgeable than me had good answers for those questions. I don’t think the royal family was sad about her death, and I think the outpouring of grief took them completely by surprise. I only hope that the memory of that grief would stay their hands if they wanted to “take matters into their own hands” regarding Harry and Meghan. I don’t think they would be sad about the demise of the Sussexes, but hopefully they realize how damaging such a thing would be. It’s not 1997, and a lot of mysteries that could remain unsolved in 1997 would shine brightly in the light of day in 2022. I don’t think the royal family can survive 2 dead Princesses in 25 years, and I think (or I’d like to think) there’s still love for Harry under all of the racist hatred he’s been subjected to. That’s why cutting their security was such a stupid, stupid move. But these are really stupid people.
Yup, they’re SO stupid. I know i’ve said in some of the security threads that I don’t understand why the Firm is pushing back on this so hard. You’re giving Andrew security, give Harry and his family security when they’re in the UK. Can you imagine the reaction if something happened to Harry or Meghan or their kids when they were in the UK? The royal family would be TOAST. Harry’s line from TMYCS where he says “they’re not going to stop until she’s dead” would be played over and over again forever.
Even if the BRF had nothing to do with Diana’s death, and even if they don’t think H&M “deserve” security when they’re visiting, you would think SOMEONE over there would realize how bad it would be for them (the royals) if something happened to H&M and it could in any tiny way be traced back to their refusal to provide them security.
Agree totally. I said above that I think the paparazzi were mainly to blame for her death and that I don’t think it was a planned hit BUT I do believe that, seeing what we have with Harry now, it is highly likely they denied her proper police protection and, had she had RPOs looking after her it is probable she would never have been put in that situation to be chased.
So, if they did withhold her protection rather than her rejecting it then they do have blood on their hands.
@ Becks1, they are certainly consistent in their actions. You would think that someone would alert Charles as to how badly it would look pulling H&M security detail, but he didn’t learn then or now. It appears that those who threaten the popularity and spotlight from the FK or FFK are their only concern. They must maintain the safety as well as the protection of all of the heirs.
@ The Hench, I can see it as well. Charles ripping H&M’s security, on top of releasing their location is a blatant example that RF stripped Diana the necessary protection as well. If Charles is willing to place his own son, DIL and grandson into harms way, there isn’t much of a stretch to believe that they committed the same malicious tactic upon Diana.
Charles is a horrible human being and is an absolute monster. He lacks all redeeming qualities of being a decent husband as well as father.
Diana was right!! Charles is NOT fit to be king!!
And neither is Bullyiam but there are wildly different reasons. But he is still a horrendous person. .
The Hench, ITA. I can’t understand why none of the photogs weren’t charged, because they were 1/2 responsible. The other 1/2 was the high rate of speed–which was caused by the photogs. I’ve always thought that was suspicious. Who got them off and how much did that cost?
I think many now believe that the brf cut off Di’s security. How could we not after they cut off H, M A & L’s? I don’t know if that was someone’s wishful thinking or crass stupidity that they did that.
The other really important issue that the brf has once again neglected to understand is how the world will react if ANY of the Sussexes are killed. They tend to believe their own spin in the bm with blinders fully on. They truly did not learn anything after Diana died–not the members of the brf and not the grey men.
That’s the thing. The idea that Diana refused security rather than it being yanked away. They yanked Harry’s security and leaked his location. Why in the world would they have given Diana security if they won’t give it to Harry? Sure, she refused it. It’s just hard to believe that anymore. They’re such idiots bc if they hadn’t denied Harry then people wouldn’t be looking back at what they did to Diana. Who was the queen’s private secretary back then, her EY? Was RAVEC a thing back then or just something recently created to cover their asses. Just wondering.
I believe they contracted foreign intelligence resources to kill her. I don’t think they’d be stupid enough to notify the royal family (soiling the queen) or even use MI6 directly. But too many signs point to it, and that’s just for a lay person to point out. Someone with actual security knowledge, like the man interviewed (an expert) who was intimately close to the situation, said he saw undercover intelligence officers that night. That, and there is proof that the driver’s bank account was padded in the weeks leading up to the accident. I mean, come on.
He didn’t see undercover intelligence officers that night. He saw one several weeks earlier in Surrey, UK. Per the story:
“On a counter-surveillance drive near the Al-Fayed home in Surrey just before they all went to St Tropez, one of Lee’s colleagues saw someone from the Special Reconnaissance Unit, working on a building site.”
I mean, ultimately we will never know but slight misrepresentations of stories like this are exactly how conspiracies are fuelled.
Right, he says he saw them at Surrey and is then assuming that the motorbikes that went past the accident were also intelligence officers, but that’s just his assumption.
I agree that’s not what he said.
But as far as intelligence being involved, Vanity Fair interestingly had this to say in 2004: “Nonetheless, there are some signs of possible intelligence activity in connection with the case. Several of the French paparazzi spoke of a British photographer who had been milling around the Ritz and who had told them he worked for the Mirror—but the Mirror had no one in Paris that night. Nor, curiously enough, have investigators identified any British photographers in the press pack. At least one prominent British paparazzo, a man who was involved in setting up the most famous photo to emerge from the couple’s summer idyll, had a startling explanation for his absence: he told a U.S. journalist that an M.I.6 contact had warned him ahead of time to “stay away from Paris this weekend.”
Again, it isn’t proof, but an interesting nuance.
This is the exact quote above that I am referencing: “He believes professional intelligence/security people were in the Alma Tunnel…” So no, not in Surrey.
Maybe he can’t spell it out clearly enough nor would he want to. He’s saying it without saying “oh yeah they assassinated her.” Obviously, he can’t actually say that. But he came about as close as someone in his position possibly can.
@candy – right, but again, that’s just what he “believes.” He wasn’t there, so he doesn’t know for sure. It makes sense that someone was following them based on what he saw at other times. But he wasn’t there, so he’s making an assumption.
I understand your point, and in many situations like this, it doesn’t come down to one factor alone. There isn’t proof, per se. But is there doubt? Are there gaps? are there signs of a cover up? Are there enough people saying something’s fishy? Where there’s smoke…and that’s leaving out any kind of context. She was absolutely a target, they both were for MANY reasons.
And let’s not forget the CCTV cameras that may or may not have been working that night. That being said, I don’t think we’ll ever know the truth.
I don’t believe she was murdered – if they could do that, Virginia would not be drawing breath. Just my opinion.
I don’t think it’s comparable. For better or worse the royals have had similar scandals to that before and Virginia is not a public figure, nor is she under their jurisdiction in the way Diana was (yes, she was divorced by then but still living under the terms of the divorce from Charles etc and in the same country).
If they did anything to Virginia it would look way too suspicious. Plus Virginia isn’t the only woman out there who had been abused by Andrew and Epstein. All they can do is buy the media off to play down as much of this scandal as they can and throw harry and Meghan under the bus as a distraction.
Also Diana’s popularity was a massive threat to the monarchy. She overshadowed them and made them look irrelevant.
The French hospital may have had the best medical team but Diana was bleeding to death medical teams could have gone to the nearest hospital the long ambulance ride doomed her
There were comments about how fast the crash site was cleared up before investigation
THIS is what I was saying recently on another post. I work with medical examiners, I work with forensics. many close friends are emergency medical doctors. And for funsies, my dad went down in a plane he was piloting 2 summers ago.
No matter how well equipped an ambulance, every second counts where internal bleeding and brain trauma are possible. Those need surgery and imaging.
CPR can be done, manually keeping a heart beating for as long as it would have taken for her to get to any hospital. And upon arrival cardiac massage.
And if necessary she should have been airlifted. 48 minutes is literally negligence. It’s not debunked anywhere. Unless there was a surgeon in that ambulance (impossible) this timeline is medical negligence, at best.
There are so many theories about the crash and I was young when it happened but I just believe it was a tragic accident and the cumulation of a series of bad decisions.
I’m more interested in Diana’s relationship with Dodi. Dodi’s family acts like it was a grand romance and that they were the loves of each other’s lives. There was that memorial in Harrod’s, I dunno if it’s still there. The BRF never mentions Dodi, I don’t even know if they ever acknowledged his death that night. From what I read, Diana literally started dating Dodi in July, about a month before she died. They were together a matter of weeks when they both died so I doubt they knew each other that well. I always saw it as a summer fling she was enjoying after the heartbreak of breaking up with Hasnat Kahn. They would have gone their separate ways in just a few months had they survived or had the crash not happened. He was a known serial dater/womanizer and there’s no way it would have been anything long term. But he often gets labeled as Diana’s boyfriend and I see him more as a boy toy.
I agree. Hasnat was her true love. She’d barely spent any time with Dodi that summer. It’s not like they were joined at the hip. Fayed going on about engagements and pregnancies is so much bs. Diana had too much going on. Dodi was fun, he was into her (but I don’t think he was in love with her either), he took her to glamorous places and it was just a good time before she went back to her serious commitments.
AmelieOriginal and CourtneyB, here’s a quote from the article above:
“I actually signed up to join Diana and Dodi in America. She was definitely going, and that was that. She told me she was going there. She didn’t want to, but that was the only place she felt people weren’t having a go at her. It was probably her way of keeping sane, to get some respite.”
I see no reason to doubt someone who is talking for himself about himself. He was going to go with them when they came to the US. Why would he lie about going to America with Diana and Dodi? Also, I think most of us who were adults when Diana’s life in the brf and afterwards played out in the media knew that Diana wanted to live in the US. Whether Diana and Dodi would have become a permanent thing? Who knows. We’ll never know.
From what I understand she had known the Al-Fayed family for years before she started her relationship with Dodi which by several accounts was instigated by his father who loved the idea of his son and her together.
I agree it wouldn’t have lasted – he was a playboy and high maintenance as demonstrated by his behaviour the night of the accident. He kept changing his mind about what they were doing and where they were going etc..
I don’t know. They may have only been dating a few weeks but I can believe that they both fell hard and fast. Plus they were spending every waking moment together. That can accelerate a relationship. There was a report that they were engaged, which would explain the timing of the “crash.”
When the queen passes, someone willing to make a huge buck might step forward with receipts. Never say never.
Mohammed al Fayed did yeoman’s work trying to get to the bottom of it. The inquest he managed to get was pretty thorough. And yet, I would be surprised if the Brits didn’t have something to do with it. Diana thought her protection was reporting on her to Charles, that’s why she didn’t want them. They probably were. Paul Burrell, very close to her at the time, also said Diana was buying a place in Malibu. It never stops being so sad.
Just days before she died she told some press who were following her that she had some big news to reveal soon. Then she was dead. What was that news? Very suspicious.
I had a premonition that something was going to go wrong and that summer I really thought about writing her a letter advising her to slow down. She was on the move a lot darting from one place and one country throughout the summer.
If she had lived she would have been seen as a thorn in the side of the RF. I have every belief that she was planning to have a baby which would have been a mixed race muslim sibling to a future King of England.
I remember the reports coming in the US via the media that she was in a bad accident. I fell asleep watching the TV waiting for an update. When I awakened to the news that she didn’t survive, I cried. I wasn’t a starry-eyed kid but I remember shuddering at the TV interview and I just wanted to see her continue her charity work and growing into her own.
So many horrible things that went wrong that night but I definitely feel the excessive/ obsessive press hounding her non stop played a huge part in her death. I still wonder if she refused security or if she was denied security…
She stopped the British police protection because she believed that they were spying on her and passing on information.
I believe it. It still angers me to read about Diana. They broke her heart but couldn’t break her beautiful soul. And it made them mad. Even though she freed Charles to be with his horse-faced lazy mistress, Diana’s happiness was somehow perceived as the biggest threat to their dumb institution. I can’t wait to see it all fall apart after Liz bites the dust. Thank gosh Harry and Meghan managed to escape. Chuck was totally ready to sacrifice his own son when he pulled their security.
After seeing the treatment of Meghan and Harry post-Sussexit, I don’t know how anyone can still refuse to even entertain the idea that the BRF wanted her removed from the world stage. It’s just too convenient for them that she died. I’m not one for conspiracy theories. I always found the speculation about Diana’s death as kinda interesting but never took it seriously. But now? They absolutely had something to do with it. At best, they took her security and were like “whatever happens happens”. At worst, they plotted and planned her death. Either way, they wanted her gone.