Dear Reader, I am here to give you yet another view of the death of one of the most charismatic personalities of this century – who enthralled the world with her charm and was liked by many across the globe : Princess Diana or simply Di. She was an icon and the world has yet not come to grips regarding her death; was she murdered or was it a simple accident! I would be putting my views which you will find a tad different from the volumes you already have read or listened to. I request your attention to what I am going to describe.
The description will be split into two – for the motion and against the motion. For the motion would detail what the whole world thinks: it was monstrous to kill Diana. Against the motion would describe what led to the situations which prompted the powers that be to take this extreme step and could Princess Diana have taken a separate path to live, a rather mundane and quiet life for the sake of her sons, William and Harry, whom she loved dearly? Was it not childish of her to ruffle feathers with the people in power knowing fully well that her life was in danger?
FOR THE MOTION. In early hours of Sunday morning, 31st August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales was killed in a high-speed car crash in the Pont del’Alma road tunnel in Paris, together with her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and Henri Paul, the chauffer. The mangled remains of the car after the crash (picture below) tells the impact with which Diana’s car hit the pillar. Diana was only 36 years old then, charming and loving. And a whole world beckoning her. What a tragedy !
Official investigations into the crash maintained that it was simply a tragic accident caused by Henri Paul’s drunken loss of control at the wheel while being chased by paparazzi photographers.
AGAINST THE MOTION. Diana had jetted to Paris and was on course to stay with Dodi the night before reaching London to be with her sons telling them an important announcement – that she never could tell one, would remain the greatest disappointments for William and Harry.
When Diana did get the feeling that somebody was constantly watching her, tracking every move of her – she could have been more inquisitive why the steel bodied armoured Mercedes which was to take them that night was changed all of a sudden! Henri the driver was on duty as the regular driver was on leave and told Dodi that choosing the less acclaimed car would avert the paparazzi and they could quietly escape from the rear of the Hotel.
Wrong, Utterly Wrong !! The small Mercedes S280 was chosen purposely to clean up the assassination job. She should at least have told Dodi to check with his father Mohamed Al Fayed in London the changed plan which Dodi did not. Henri Paul – as later revealed - was on the roll of MI6 and was instructed by the military intelligence to convince Dodi to agree to the small car and the rear exit of Hotel Ritz Carlton. Contrary to the official accident report Henri Paul was not under the influence of alcohol nor was any paparazzi following them forcing the car to speed at 120 kmph upwards.
The tabloid papers were quick to print what was told to print – that Henri Paul was drunk (picture below) and Henri sped to teach paparazzi a lesson. What a folly !
FOR THE MOTION. The car quickly entered Alma Tunnel, Paris en route to Dodi’s Flat at Champs de Elysees and in no time reached high speeds of 120-125 kmph. One white Fiat Uno sped quickly followed by a motor bike and cornered the car, the bike flashing a deadly bright light on the driver, Henri lost control and smashed the car on the 13th pillar of Alma tunnel, the car overturned, rolled and thudded onto the other side of the wall. Dodi and Henri were instantly dead. Trevor Rees-Jones, Dodi’s bodyguard was seriously injured and survived the crash.
Diana was rushed in an ambulance to Salpetriere Hospital and in spite of all efforts, due to massive internal bleeding, succumbed to her injuries.
AGAINST THE MOTION. The time when Dodi met Diana, he was not a celebrity. But Diana was. She should have objected to the rash speed Henri was galloping into and she along with Dodi should have smelled rat immediately and instructed Henri to stop the car or at best reduce the speed. Why Diana could not do that? It was very surprising for a woman who was at a risk for her life did not raise any alarm when Henri started speeding. Dodi’s flat was not far off from Ritz hotel and what was the urgent need to speed the car. Dodi and Diana were so head over heels in love that they could not see death coming !!
The Ritz CCTV footage above shows Dodi holding Diana leading her to the car on that fateful night. Diana should have been more alert to what was happening around her, the entire event was centred around Diana, not around Dodi. She could have controlled the nitty-gritty of every move concerning her.
FOR THE MOTION. In March 1991 London based journalist Andrew Morton wrote a particularly significant article in the Sunday Times. It was based on a deliberately leaked material from Princess Diana provided to Morton via her friend Dr. James Colthrust. The article contained specific insider information regarding the situation within the Charles – Diana household. On another instance on New Year’s Eve 1989, Princess Diana was at Sandringham House when she spoke by telephone to her longtime close friend, James Gilbey.
During that conversation Diana referred to her husband Prince Charles’ family, the British royals : Bloody hell, after all I’ve done for this sickening, dreadful family.
James Colthrust started conducting secret interviews at Kensington Palace with Diana. Interview recordings were passed onto Andrew Morton via Colthrust, in preparation for an upcoming book.
Within months Diana was warned through her private secretary Patrick Jephson – that the men in grey suits at Buckingham Palace knew about her involvement in Morton book.
AGAINST THE MOTION. Chilling, aren’t they? This instance could have given Diana a grave warning, that her phones were tapped and there were people in her household who had been instructed to keep a close watch on her.
In 1995, when Diana chose to give her bodyguards a slip and drove alone in her famous Audi, she found to her horror that the car brakes had been manipulated and she had no brakes when the car was speeding through. By God’s grace she could disembark and took a taxi to meet her brother.
In another incident, on 22nd March 1996 a Porsche 911 smashed into a parked Fiat Uno and sent it careering into the path of Diana’s rented BMW. Looking at the badly dented BMW she could see that there were people who had started plotting her death.
Were you a kid, Diana? Means seriously being such an intelligent woman how could it did not sound a ring to you? What happened in Paris on 31 August, 1997 could have happened on that evening – how defiant were you not to take into your course that you were already being treated as a subject and some very powerful group of people wanted you to disappear.
Annus Horribilis. Years of mistreatment at the hands of senior royals, the long-term affair between Charles and Camilla, media and public pressure had pushed Princess Diana to the point where she felt she could no longer bottle up her feelings. She believed she had to reveal to the public some of the true nature of what was occurring in her life and her marriage. Build-up of mounting pressure led her to Morton collaboration. This created a lot of bad mouthing from the royals followed by a ferocious letter from Prince Phillip to Diana. The Queen declared 1992 to be her annus horribilis.
The Morton book was, to a very large extent, responsible for formal separation between Charles and Diana in 1992.
FOR THE MOTION. On 12 January, 1997 Princess Diana landed in Angola on a mission to help landmine victims and campaign for the worldwide eradication of anti-personnel landmines.
She announced : It is an enormous privilege for me to be invited here to Angola, in order to assist the Red Cross in its campaign to ban once and for all anti-personnel landmines. There couldn’t be a more appropriate place to begin this campaign than Angola because this nation has the highest number of amputees per population than anywhere in the world. By visiting Angola, we shall gain an understanding of the plight of the victims and how survivors are helped to recover from their injuries. We’ll also be able to observe the wider implications of these devastating weapons on the life of this country as a whole. It is my sincere hope that by working together in the next few days we shall focus world attention on this vital but, until now, largely neglected issue.
Earlier Diana’s friend Simone Simmons had travelled to war torn Bosnia to help out her friend Morris Power the head of the Red Cross in Tuzla. On return Simmons told Diana the carnage and suffering of the war-weary population partly because of exploded and unexploded landmines.
AGAINST THE MOTION. Princess Diana’s Angola visit was extensively publicised around the world but caused a furore amongst Conservative politicians back in the United Kingdom.
Earl Howe, the Junior Defence Minister stated publicly that Diana is ill-advised and is not being helpful or realistic. We do not need a loose cannon like her. Peter Viggers, a member of the House of Commons Defence Select Committee declared that Diana was ill-informed and her efforts did not actually add much to the sum of human knowledge.
Four days after Diana’s return from Angola the Queen chaired the royal Way Ahead Group and during the following months pressure against Diana took a more sinister turn.
What you call this – a childish behaviour? Or I-don’t-care-whatever-you-do attitude? Why did she keep on forgetting time and time again that these over-the-top mis-adventures were putting Diana and her children in grave danger, the children whom she loved so much? How could she plan to overcome the fiery disdain with which the State were treating her?
In February 1997 Diana received a threatening call at her home in Kensington Palace, her friend Simone Simmons was there:
I was with Diana in her sitting room at KP when she beckoned me over and held her telephone away from her ear so that I could hear. I heard a voice telling her she should stop meddling with things she didn’t understand or know anything about and spent several minutes trying to tell her to drop her anti-landmine campaign. Diana didn’t say much, she just listened and I heard clearly the warning You never know when an accident is going to happen. Diana went very pale.
Her life was in danger and she needed a new partner with impressive and precise credentials who must be wealthy, available and good with her children !!
Meanwhile the Al-Fayeds jelled very well with Diana. Mohamed Al-Fayed, owner of Britain’s prestigious Harrod’s and Hotel Ritz of Paris maintained a steady friendship with Diana through 1997. Dodi’s death took the life out of the senior Fayed and till his death in 2023 he was never granted UK citizenship primarily because Al-Fayed blamed the British royal family for the deaths of Diana and Dodi. He accused the Royal Family of ordering British security services to assassinate Princess of Wales to stop her marrying Dodi. Diana’s love for Dodi heralded a dangerous phase for the royal family facing twin risks of losing control of William and Harry and also Diana producing revelations that might cause irreversible damage to the monarchy.
In August 2000, lawyers for Al-Fayed announced plans to sue U.S Govt agencies that he believed had unreleased information about the fatal crash.
I believe they are withholding some documents at the request of British secret services. They cannot afford to let the truth be known because they know exactly where the truth lies.
Harry was closer to Diana. It was known to one and all that Prince Harry was closer to his mom than the elder brother Prince William. While Harry loved her Di unconditionally, William was sore at the thought of Diana having an eye on marrying Dodi – who was at best weird to him. They miss their mom even to this day and if someone requested if they were given hand of God, they would promptly recall their mom to have fun with them and love them !!
You left too early. You could have done better Di !
References:
1. Princess Diana: Who Do You Think She Was – Amazon Prime
2. The Diana Investigations – Amazon Prime
3. Andrew Morton: Diana-Her True Story
4. Robert Johnson: Diana, Closely Guarded Secret
5. Nod Botham: The Murder of Princess Diana
6. Trevor Rees-Jones: The Bodyguard’s Story
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