If the paparazzi had not discovered that the princess and her lover Dodi al-Fayed had arrived at The Ritz on Place Vendôme, and barricaded all the entrances to the luxury hotel, the couple could have dined in peace and quiet. If Dodi al-Fayed had not been panicked by the swarm of photographers, and suddenly wanted to leave the hotel, the couple would not have been in the car that sped off towards the tunnel under the Pont d’Alma, with the photographers in tow. If the driver, Henri Paul, had not been drunk, he might not have lost control of the car, which was doing 110 in a 50 zone when it disappeared into the tunnel, crashing into one of the underground pillars. If Diana had been wearing a seat belt, her body would have been able to withstand the impact better. THE LAST MINUTES: This photo from the Hotel Ritz surveillance camera in the early hours of Sunday, August 31, 1997 is one of the last of the princess alive. Dodi puts his arm around her as they talk to driver Henri Paul. Paul and Dodi died instantly in the car accident. Diana died at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital a few hours later. Only Diana’s security guard Trevor Rees-Jones survived the accident. Photo: APTV / AP When something violent happens, like Princess Diana’s death, it is tempting to look for an equally violent cause. It seems too small that the cause should be bad luck, carelessness, and quick and poorly thought-out decisions. Many will not only ask themselves how an accident like this could happen, but also why. For the past 25 years, large crowds of Diana supporters have found the answer to this question in a conspiracy theory that it was British intelligence and Prince Philip who joined forces and killed the princess. It must have happened because a car or a motorcycle blinded Henri Paul, and that this caused the collision. Although several independent investigations have concluded that Diana’s death was an accident, the conspiracy theory refuses to die. The reason for such a plot is said to have been that the British establishment felt threatened by Diana, and especially by her relationship with Dodi al-Fayed. MOST PHOTOGRAPHED: Princess Diana was the most photographed woman of her time. Press photographers and paparazzi photographers followed her everywhere, whether she wanted to or not. She was the livelihood of several of the photographers. Photo: EMILE WAMSTEKER / AP Most of the threads in this conspiracy theory can be traced back to Dodi’s father, the Egyptian-British billionaire Mohamed al-Fayed. He has claimed that the princess and Dodi were engaged, that Diana was pregnant with Dodi’s child, and that powerful forces did not want the future king of England to have a Muslim stepfather. For al-Fayed, who for decades had worked his way into the British upper class, the prospect of Diana as a daughter-in-law had been the prospect of final victory. It was a dream and a plan he continued to cultivate and cling to even after it became an impossibility: It was the way he thought it should and should be. BROKEN DREAM: Billionaire and father Mohammed Al Fayed in front of the statue he had made by his son Dodi and Princess Diana. The statue is in the exclusive department store Harrods, owned by Al Fayed. The statue, called “Innocent Victims”, shows Dodi and Diana dancing under the wings of an albatross. Photo: Alessandro Abbonizio / AFP But al-Fayed’s story would not have become so widespread if it had not fallen into a soil that was plowed up and ready for just this kind of narrative. Many of those who loved Diana felt that they had taken her side against the insensitive and hostile royal family. Then it was natural to believe that they would be to blame for everything bad that happened to her, including her death. Diana herself had prepared the grounds for such assumptions, as she herself feared that she was being watched by her in-laws. She had wondered aloud whether they wanted to take her away, and had her apartment searched twice for surveillance equipment. None of the examinations showed signs of anything unusual. DEMANDING FAMILY: Princess Diana never felt embraced by the British royal family. Here it is assembled in the summer of 1986 and everything looks fine from the outside. Prince William stands between Charles and Diana. Ten years later, the couple were divorced. Photo: Anonymous / Ap A side effect of the conspiracy theories is that those who believe in them miss the real story, which is a thriller in itself. The report from the official investigation after the accident, the so-called Paget report from 2004, is 871 pages long and is freely available on the internet. It describes in detail how British police pursued all theories that the princess’s death could have been murder, interviewed everyone who had been near the accident, and succeeded in placing the main characters in the right place when the accident took place. Among other things, they debunk a tenacious myth, namely that Paul was blinded by the driver of a white Fiat Uno – a car which was said to have been owned by a photographer connected to the French security services. INVESTIGATION: French police work at the wreckage of the car Diana was in when she, her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and their driver Henri Paul died in the car accident on 31 August 1997. The car crashed shortly after midnight in a tunnel by the river Seine. Photo: JEROME DELAY / AP Operation Paget chronicles the hunt for this car and its real owner, and reveals an interesting story of how the car was repainted by its real owner just days after the investigation, by an owner who in no way wanted to be drawn into the investigation. It ends, like so many investigations, in a strange and very human story. But it does not end, in this case, in a story about something criminal. Because sometimes the world is just so bad that even a much-loved princess, the mother of two little boys, is just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
ttn-69
The conspiracy theory has long since been debunked, but lives on. – Speech
