The Death of the People's Princess

Written by: Kenzie Desrosiers

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The Honorable Diana “Duch” Frances Spencer was born on July 1, 1961 at Park House to Viscount Edward John Spencer and Viscountess Frances Ruth Spencer. Diana was the fourth of five children, however, her older brother John passed away 10 hours after he was born. When Diana was seven years old, her parents divorced. Frances later married Peter Shand Kydd, with whom she had an affair with. After the divorce, Diana lived with her mother, but after Frances’ mother testified against her, John was given full custody of each of the children.

In 1975, following the death of Diana’s grandfather, Albert Spencer the 7th Earl Spencer, her father became the 8th Earl Spencer and Diana received the new royal title of ‘Lady.’ John moved this family to Althorp, the Spencer family estate. The following year, John married Raine, Countess of Dartmouth.

In 1977, sixteen-year-old Lady Diana Spencer met Prince Charles of Whales for the first time at Althorp, the Spencer estate. At the time, Charles had begun a short-lived romance with Diana’s older sister, Lady Sarah, and was visiting the family home for a hunting trip. Their relationship quickly fizzled out after Sarah allegedly told reporters “Charles makes me laugh a lot…I really enjoy being with him. There is no chance of my marrying him. I’m not in love with him.” She continued that she wouldn’t marry Charles, “if he were the dustman or the King of England.”

In the summer of 1980, Charles and Diana were reunited after they both received an invite to stay at Philip de Pass’s family home for the weekend. After this weekend, Charles and Diana began a courtship. The following September, Diana traveled to Northern Scotland to spend the weekend with Charles and the Royal family.

On February 6, 1981, Charles proposed to Diana at Windsor Castle. Their engagement became public knowledge later that month. Five months later, Charles and Diana wed at St. Paul’s Cathedral and Diana received the new title of Her Royal Highness, The Princess of Whales. The following summer, Prince William was born, followed by Prince Harry two years later.

Five years into their marriage, Charles began having an affair with his former girlfriend, Camilla Parker Bowles. Around this time, Diana struck up a romance with Major James Hewitt.

In 1989, Diana accompanied Charles – much to his distain - to the 40th birthday party for Camilla’s sister, Annabel. While Diana mingled, she suddenly noticed that Charles and Camilla were gone. Downstairs, Diana found Charles, Camilla, and an unnamed man. She joined the conversation when the unnamed man stated that they should all return to the party, however, Diana had other plans. She said, “Camilla, I’d love to have a word with you, if possible.”

Diana continued, “Camilla, I would just like you to know that I know exactly what’s going on.” In a surprising response, Camilla said, “You’ve got everything you’ve ever wanted. You’ve got all the men in the world falling in love with you, you’ve got two beautiful children, what more do you want?”

“I want my husband,” Diana replied. That night, Diana “cried like I have never cried before.”

In May 1992, author Andrew Morton published the novel Diana: Her True Story which detailed Diana’s private life. Upon her death it was revealed that Diana was a direct source for the novel, having sat for interviews with Andrew where she openly discussed her personal struggles and the breakdown of her marriage.

Just a few months later, private phone calls between Diana and James Gilbey, suspectedly, were leaked. Diana’s former bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, believes that the phone calls were recorded and released on a loop by the secret service to the hope that it would be heard and released to the press. "It's my belief GCHQ at that time were monitoring members of the royal family because of heightened IRA activity at the time…For some unknown reason this conversation is released on a loop to allow [radio hams] Cyril Reenan and Jane Norgrove to pick them up,” he said.

By November, far more intimate conversations between Charles and Camilla were released, otherwise known as “Camillagate.”

In Oct 1993, Diana allegedly wrote a letter to her butler Paul Burrell, where she told him of Charles affair with his personal assistant and the family’s former nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke. She claimed that he was planning to have her killed “to make the path clear for him to marry TIggy.”

In an interview in 1995, Diana stated, “well there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowed.” On Dec 20, 1995, Buckingham Palace announced that the Queen, with support of the Prime Minister, sent the couple letters advising them to divorce. The following summer, the couple agreed to the terms of their divorce, which was finalized on Aug 28, 1996.

The following statement was released, “The Princess will continue to be involved in all decisions relating to the children and will remain at Kensington Palace with offices in St James's Palace. The Princess of Wales will retain the title and be known as Diana, Princess of Wales."

On July 11, 1997, Diana and her sons went on holiday to St. Tropez as guests of Dodi Al-Fayed, the son of billionaire Mahomed Al-Fayed.

Three days later, Diana told the press, “you will get a big surprise with the next thing I do.” This led many to speculate that Diana was pregnant.

Two weeks later, Diana spent the weekend with Dodi in Paris. Following the long weekend, Diana and Dodi flew to Nice and cruised the Mediterranean on Dodi’s yacht, where they were photographed kissing. After a week, Diana and Dodi returned to England.

At the end of August, Diana and Dodi flew to Nice, where they once again cruised the Mediterranean on his yacht, along with his two bodyguards Trevor Rees-Jones and Kieran Wingfield.

On August 30, Diana and Dodi arrived at the Ritz Hotel, owned by Dodi’s father, and entered through the rear entrance around 4:30PM.

Around 7Pm, Diana and Dodi left the hotel through the rear exit headed for his apartment. Then around 9:30Pm, they left his apartment headed for dinner at the Chez Benoit restaurant. However, they abandoned their dinner plans after being hounded by the paparazzi. Twenty-minutes later, they arrived at the Ritz Hotel, this time through the front entrance and had their food sent up to the Imperial Suite.

At 12:20AM, the couple once again left the Ritz Hotel through the rear exit headed for Dodi’s apartment. When the paparazzi realized they began pursuit. There is evidence that showed the Mercedes came into contact with a White Fiat Uno. Witnesses also saw a number of vehicles traveling close to the Mercedes.

At 12:23AM, the Mercedes crashed into the thirteenth pillar of the Pont de L’Alma tunnel. Dodi and driver Henri Paul were pronounced dead at the scene. Diana was barely conscious and was taken to the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital. She was pronounced dead following emergency surgery at 4AM. Dodi’s bodyguard and sole survivor, Trevor, was taken to the hospital for serious injuries and was released on Oct 3, 1997.

Three days later, Diana was laid to rest on the grounds of her childhood home, Althorp.

Mohammad Al-Fayed, Dodi's father, alleged that security services, MI-6, acting on behalf of Prince Philip, arranged and carried out the murder of his son and Diana. He claimed that Diana was pregnant with Dodi's child and they were to announce their engagement but the Royal family "could not accept that an Egyptian Muslim could eventually be the stepfather of the future King of England."

He theorized that British agents forced Paul into the tunnel, then engineered a flash of light that blinded him and caused the crash.

However, the Operation Paget found no evidence from family, friends, confidants, or other associates of Diana's to support Mohammad's claims. Furthermore, the evidence; pathological, scientific, medical, and anecdotal, showed that Diana was not pregnant.

Before her death, it was alleged that she feared the "Establishment" and believed that the Royal family wanted to cause her harm. Lord Mischon stated in a handwritten note that in the Fall of 1995, Diana told him that someone had informed her that within the next six month, "whether in an accident in her car such as pre-pared brake failure or by other means, efforts would be made if not to get rib of her, then at least to see that she was so injured or damaged as to be declared unbalanced."

Diana, herself, wrote the following, "I am sitting here at my desk today in October, longing for someone to hug me and encourage me to keep strong and hold my head high. This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous. [...] is planning `an accident' in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for Charles to marry..."

"Dear Simone, as you know, the brakes of my car have been tampered with. If something does happen to me it will be MI5 or MI6 who will have done it. Lots of love, Diana."

“They don’t want to understand me. I am a threat in their eyes. They only use me when they need me for official functions and then they drop me again in the darkness... they are not going to kill me by poisoning me or in a big plane where others will get hurt. They will either do it when I am on a small plane, in a car when I am driving or in a helicopter. The only time I really feel safe is when I am in the USA. Everybody in America likes me. I am very popular there. The ‘Establishment’ doesn’t like me and there is no ‘Establishment’ there.”

Diana had told friends that if anything happened to her, Prince Philip was responsible.

Other theories suggest that paparazzi or Diana's driver Henry Paul intentionally caused the crash. Who or what do you believe is responsible for the death of Diana and her fellow passengers; MI-6, paparazzi, Henry Paul, a tragic accident, or something else?