More than 25 years after her tragic death the world still can not stop asking if it was truly an accident or if Princess Diana was silenced by forces far greater than we can imagine.
Conspiracy theorists, as well as the general public, have voiced their opinions of the tragic incident in the Pont de I’Alma tunnel in 1997. Some claim it was a royal family set up. Others claim the paparazzi was paid to aggressively follow the princess.
Let’s jump back in time to 1997 in Paris, France to break down the events that led up to Princess Diana’s demise.
The Accident in the Pont de I’Alma Tunnel
On August 30, 1997, Princess Diana and love interest, Dodi Fayed, arrived at Paris Le Bourget Airport and were met with a multitude of paparazzi. After having arrived in Paris, the two were seen arriving at the Imperial Suite at the Hotel Ritz Paris and reportedly planned on having dinner later that evening.
At about 9:50 p.m. that night, the pair entered the Ritz through the front entrance after reportedly having to cancel dinner plans at another restaurant due to the exasperating amount of paparazzi at the restaurant’s location. They decided to dine in the Hotel Ritz’s restaurant and later moved to a private dining area in their suite.
Sometime after midnight, the two decided to leave the Hotel Ritz and travel to Fayed’s private apartment near Champs-Elysees. To avoid the vexing amount of paparazzi stationed outside the hotel, the team: Diana, Fayed, Henri Paul and Trevor Rees-Jones, came up with the plan to have a decoy car leave the hotel to distract the paparazzi while the actual vehicle, the infamous Mercedes-Benz S280, waited for them to exit the hotel and drive them away.
At around 12:20 a.m. on August 21st, Diana and Fayed left the Ritz out the back entrance to get into the waiting Mercedes that had Paul, the head of security for the Ritz Hotel, the driver of the vehicle. Rees-Jones, Diana’s bodyguard, got the item safely to the vehicle to start their drive to Champs-Elysees.
When leaving the Ritz, the plan did not go accordingly as the vehicle was immediately pursued by the paparazzi. As the vehicle sped up, several paparazzi and photographers were following the vehicle aggressively making the vehicle speed up more.
At about 12:23 a.m., driver Henry Paul, who had been drinking earlier that night, made the decision to take a “less direct route” to escape the chase of the paparazzi. Paul had lost control of the vehicle and crashed into one of the pillars at an estimated 65-70mph in the Pont de I’Alma Tunnel. Dodi Fayed and Henry Paul were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. Princess Diana and Trevor Rees-Jones were critically injured but alive.
Paramedics arrived on scene at about 12:30 a.m. and attended to Diana and Rees-Jones. Diana had severe internal injuries to her chest and lungs. She also sustained a concussion, a broken arm and a cut on her thigh. Paramedics later discovered a tear in her left pulmonary vein that caused severe internal bleeding.
After stabilizing her and giving her oxygen, they started to transport Diana to the nearest hospital. During transport, Diana had suffered from cardiac arrest and the paramedics were able to obtain a heartbeat after performing CPR. They arrived at the hospital at about 2:06 a.m. after the ambulance decided to drive slower to prevent an increase in Diana’s injuries.
When arriving at the Pitie-Salpetriere hospital, Diana was quickly admitted to the emergency surgery department where a team of surgeons attended to her internal bleeding and tried to repair her torn pulmonary vein. After blood transfusions, surgery and CPR, Diana’s injuries were too severe and she never regained consciousness after her final cardiac arrest. Princess Diana passed at 4:00 a.m. on August 31, 1997.
As a later investigation ruled out foul play, people became sceptical as there was a major time difference between paramedics getting to the scene and Diana arriving at the hospital. As well as the overwhelming presence of paparazzi that day and following the vehicle later that night. Let’s look at the two popular theories that have been speculated behind Princess Diana’s death.
Paparazzi Killed the Princess
Princess Diana was one of the most photographed women in the entire world with paparazzi continuously following her every move to profit off of the pictures they took of her. Paparazzi presence increased after her divorce with Prince Charles in 1996.
As mentioned in the events that led up to Princess Diana’s death, there was a heavy paparazzi presence following Diana that day and leading up to the crash that unfortunately led to the princess’s demise. Many photographers ended up being arrested for choosing to take pictures of the crash scene instead of helping Diana and others involved in the crash.
This created public outrage towards the paparazzi with many people deeming the paparazzi responsible for the death of Diana claiming their persistent and relentless pursuit directly caused the crash. The public then called for stricter press regulations and privacy protections for celebrities and public figures as well as debate on media intrusion and tabloid culture.
The theory that ended up being spread was theorists suggested the paparazzi were in some way instructed to follow the car more closely and aggressively that night. Some have argued that the paparazzi were informed of the couple’s (Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed) movements and agenda for their day in Paris. Some theorists also believe that the paparazzi were framed and set-up to take the blame for the accident and it was arranged by larger and more powerful forces.
Royal Family Is In Control
With many conspiracy theorists believing the paparazzi was the main contributor to the death of Princess Diana, others believe in a dark theory that the Royal Family planned the crash in order to protect the Royal Family image.
Princess Diana started romantically seeing Dodi Fayed in the summer of 1997. Fayed is the son of billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed who is the owner of Harrods department store. The paparazzi and press started to heavily follow the two on their vacations and outings.
Allegedly, the Royal family’s concern was Princess Diana being in a relationship with someone who was not British and was Muslim. According to some theorists, that made some members of the Royal family feel a bit uneasy as they believed the relationship “threatened” the image of the monarchy.
Mohamed Al-Fayed was a supporter of this theory and made many claims. He claimed continuously that the British establishment and Prince Philip were allegedly behind the crash. He also claimed that Princess Diana and Dodi were engaged and that the princess was pregnant at the time of the crash. Those claims were debunked after an investigation was made but that didn’t stop him from continuing to blame the MI6, the British Secret Intelligence Service, for the death of his son and Princess Diana.
Over the years, theorists have gathered evidence to support this claim that the Royal family is at fault. A heavily discussed piece of evidence is a letter Princess Diana wrote in 1993 to her butler, Paul Burrell, that expressed a fear of someone planning an accident on her car. Conspiracy theorists have used the letter to fuel the argument that Diana was in fear for her life by most likely the Royal family.
The British Metropolitan Police began a proper investigation to explore these claims called Operation Paget. In this investigation, police found no evidence of foul play and confirmed that Princess Diana was not pregnant the night of the crash. In 2008, it was ruled that Princess Diana and Dodi were killed due to the intoxication of driver Henri Paul and the aggressive pursuit of paparazzi.
Many theorists are still skeptical of Operation Paget, some believing that the Royal family somehow silenced or had some control over information and the investigation.
In Conclusion
What happened to Princess Diana was a tragic event that will be discussed till the end of time. Her death has also sparked some criticism over media ethics, behaviors of the paparazzi and analyzing royal security protocols.
Conspiracy theorists still to this day discuss what they believed happened on August 31, 1997 in Paris. The most believable evidence that fuels their stories is the letter Princess Diana wrote to her butler in 1993. This had many questioning the truthfulness of the royal family and being skeptical of Operation Paget.
After the announcement of the princess’s death, people around the globe created many memorials and tributes in her honor. Princess Diana was loved by many and her loss left an emptiness in many hearts around the globe.
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