Princess Diana’s tragic death in a car accident sent the world into mourning. However, numerous conspiracy theories began to circulate around her death turning the tragedy into one of the most high-profile mysteries of all time.   

Princess’s untimely death was looked at with suspicion and brought back memories of another equally famous personality – Marilyn Monroe. Like Diana, Monroe’s death was mired in controversy.

She was born Diana Frances Spencer on July 1, 1961, at Sandringham in Norfolk. On July 29, 1981, Lady Diana Spencer married Charles, Prince of Wales, and acquired the title of ‘Princess of Wales’, a role in which she was enthusiastically received by the public. 

The couple had two sons, the princes William and Harry. Diana’s marriage to Charles, however, suffered due to their incompatibility and extramarital affairs. The couple separated in 1992 and the marriage ultimately ended in divorce in 1996.

The people’s princess, as she was affectionately called, was one of the most loved members of the Royal family.

Princess Diana died following a car crash in Paris in the early hours of August 31, 1997. She was 36 years old.

On 30 August 1997, the Princess of Wales arrived in Paris with Dodi Al-Fayed, the son of Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed. They had stopped in Paris en route to London, having spent the preceding nine days together on board the ‘Jonikal’, a yacht owned by Mohamed Al-Fayed, on the French and Italian Riviera. 

The couple had planned to stay overnight at the apartment owned by Mohamed Al-Fayed, in rue Arsène Houssaye – a short distance from the hotel. At around 12.20 am on August 31, 1997, they left Ritz Hotel for the apartment in a Mercedes S280. They left from the rear of the hotel to avoid the attention of the paparazzi. 

Diana and Dodi were the rear passengers in the car, driven by Henri Paul, the Acting Head of Security at the Ritz Hotel. Trevor Rees-Jones, Dodi Al Fayed’s bodyguard, was in the front passenger seat.

As soon as the car left the hotel, a group of paparazzi began to dangerously tail the car. Minutes later, in an effort to dodge the paparazzi, the driver lost control and the Mercedes collided with the thirteenth central pillar in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel. All the occupants, including Diana, sustained grievous injuries in the collision.  

The driver of the car, Henri Paul, and Dodi Fayed died on the spot, while the princess succumbed to her injuries in a nearby hospital, a few hours later. Her bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones survived the crash. 

The death of Lady Diana, “The People’s Princess” – as she was affectionately known, sent the world into a tizzy and deep mourning.  

Official investigations into the case were initiated by both the British and French authorities. 

The two-year French investigation, which concluded on September 3, 1999, delivered the verdict that the crash was accidental and also dropped all charges against the 10 paparazzi who had been widely blamed for provoking the high-speed chase.

On 6 January 2004, six years after Diana’s death, Britain’s royal coroner Michael Burgess opened his long-awaited inquest into the deaths. He assigned Sir John Stevens, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, to launch a full investigation and examine the conspiracy theories that have been floating around princess’s deaths for the past six years.

In December 2006, the Metropolitan Police reported its findings in Operation Paget, quashing almost all the conspiracy theories it investigated. The inquest finally announced its conclusion in 2008. The inquest jury ruled Diana’s death was an accident caused by the ‘grossly negligent driving’ of Henri Paul – who had been three times over the French drink-drive limit – and the pursuing paparazzi. It also mentioned Diana’s not wearing a seat belt as a factor in her death.   

Princess Diana in ‘The Crown’ season 4 on Netflix

English actress Emma Corrin portrays Princess Diana in Netflix’s hit series ‘The Crown’ – the historical drama series about the reign of Queen Elizabeth II created and principally written by Peter Morgan. The series is produced by Left Bank Pictures and Sony Pictures Television for Netflix. 

The sensational biography of Princess Diana

Andrew Morton has written the sensational biography of Princess Diana with her cooperation.

Now, twenty-five years on, biographer Andrew Morton has revisited the secret tapes he and the late princess made to reveal startling new insights into her life and mind. In this fully revised edition of his groundbreaking biography, Morton considers Diana’s legacy and her relevance to the modern royal family. An icon in life and a legend in death, Diana continues to fascinate. Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words is the closest we will ever come to her autobiography.

When Diana: Her True Story was first published in 1992, it forever changed the way the public viewed the British monarchy. Greeted initially with disbelief and ridicule, the #1 New York Times bestselling biography has become a unique literary classic, not just because of its explosive contents but also because of Diana’s intimate involvement in the publication. Never before had a senior royal spoken in such a raw, unfiltered way about her unhappy marriage, her relationship with the Queen, her extraordinary life inside the House of Windsor, her hopes, her fears, and her dreams.

Conspiracy Theories Abound

But even after two decades of the princess’s death, conspiracy theories around her death continue to circulate unabated. 

Theory No. 1 – The British royal family orchestrated Diana’s death

One of the theories suggests that Diana and Dodi’s had to pay the price for their intimate relationship. The public sighting of the couple was making the British Royals uneasy. 

Dodi’s father, Mohammed Al-Fayed alleged that the car crash, which killed his son and Diana, was orchestrated by the United Kingdom Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) – commonly known as MI6, under the directions of the Duke of Edinburgh as the royal family was prejudiced against his son because he was an Egyptian Muslim. According to Mohammed, the royals wanted to stop Diana from marrying Dodi so that Prince William (the future king), and Prince Harry would not have a Muslim stepfather. 

According to Mohammed Al-Fayed, Dodi was planning on proposing to Diana on the night of the fatal crash. He had ordered a ring for Diana which was delivered to his suite at the Ritz Hotel.

 Theory No. 2 – Diana was pregnant 

Mohammed Al Fayed claimed that Diana and Dodi called and informed him, one hour before the crash, that Diana was pregnant and that the couple would announce their engagement days later. Dodi had also told Mr. Al-Fayed that he had bought the ring.

Mr. Al-Fayed accused the mortuary staff of taking Diana’s “guts out to completely falsify the body” and concealing that she was pregnant. She was embalmed to “corrupt the body”. 

However, Operation Paget, while testing Diana’s blood sample lifted from the wrecked Mercedes, found no trace of HCG hormone that indicates pregnancy.

Theory No. 3 – Henri Paul plotted the murder 

Some conspiracy theories raise the needle of suspicion on Henri Paul who was driving the car at the time of the fatal crash. Paul was also the security manager at the Ritz Hotel, owned by Mohamed Al-Fayed. 

Former British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) officer, Richard Tomlinson had claimed that Henri Paul was paid by MI6 to assassinate Diana and Fayed. Tomlinson based his claim on the disproportionate amount of money in Henri’s bank accounts at the time of his death, which he believed was paid by MI6. 

Theory No. 4 – The mysterious white Fiat Uno

A white Fiat Uno reportedly followed the couple’s Mercedes into the tunnel. As per the Operation Paget report, there is forensic evidence that at some point both cars had a glancing contact. However, the French investigation did not identify this car or the driver.

The white Fiat Uno was believed to be driven by the well-known French photojournalist, James Andanson. Mohammed Al-Fayed had claimed that Andanson was an MI6 agent and he carried out the murders at the behest of the security services, by using a strobe light to blind Paul.

Operation Paget accepted Andanson’s statement that he was home with his wife at the time of the crash.  

Andanson was found dead in his car in the French countryside in 2000. Though the police ruled it a suicide, Fayed claimed he was killed for the role he played in the alleged assassination of Diana and Dodi.

Theory No. 5 – The bizarre bright flash before the Mercedes entered the tunnel

An eyewitness who was driving through the tunnel ahead of Diana’s Mercedes claimed to have seen a big bright flash at the site of the crash. 

French eyewitness, François Levistre told Operation Paget that he was driving through the tunnel, accompanied by his wife. He was ahead of the Mercedes car and in his rear-view mirror saw a ‘big white flash’ as a motorcycle cut across the Mercedes, followed by the collision. He believed this may have been an ‘assassination attempt’ or a ‘gangland hit’. He then saw a motorcycle with two people aboard pass him and exit the underpass.

This kicked off the “big white flash” allegation with Richard Tomlinson, a former MI6 agent, claiming he had witnessed similar strobe light flashes in his training, used to disorientate drivers as a method of vehicular assassination. 

Theory No. 6 – Diana herself believed she was going to be killed by the royal family

Princess Diana feared that she would be killed by the royal family and she had also shared her fears in notes and phone calls to her friends and lawyers, months before her fatal car accident in Paris.

She had penned down her fears in a letter and had apparently given it to her then butler, Paul Burrell, for safekeeping. The letter, presented by Paul to Operation Paget, read – 

“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. My husband is planning an accident in my car, brake failure, and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for Charles to marry Tiggy.”  

The letter further claimed that both Diana and Camilla Parker-Bowles were being used as a decoy by Charles, who actually wanted to marry Tiggy Legge-Bourke, Prince William, and Harry’s nanny.

The letter appears eerily prophetic considering she wrote the letter ten months before her death and she died in a fatal car crash. 

Sinister theories refuse to die down, despite British inquest rulings the death as an accident, Lady Diana’s death remains deeply shrouded in the mystery of time.