The world wasn’t prepared for Princess Diana’s death. The late Princess of Wales died in a tragic car crash in August 1997 at the age of 36 in Paris alongside her then-boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed . But, surprisingly, she predicted her own death and its cause in an investigation note called “Mishcon Note” two years before her passing, according to a report by The Daily Beast.
The startling revelation was made in the four-part Discovery+docuseries The Diana Investigations in which Diana’s death was investigated by the British and French officials. On October 30, 1995, Victor Mishcon, the personal legal representative to Princess Diana, discussed with the late princess and her personal secretary Patrick Jephson.
During their conversation, Diana told Mishcon that she’s heard from some “reliable sources,” that she refused to name, that plans have been made to either “get rid of her” or injure her to an extent that she would become “unbalanced” by April 1996. The means, as Mishcon wrote in his note, would be a car accident via brake failure or some other technique.
Princess Diana’s death in a car crash in 1997 shocked the world and ignited a global debate about how and why she died. Investigating Diana: Death in Paris -a 4 part docu-series- tells for the first time the story of the two police investigations into her death. 📺Sunday at 9pm pic.twitter.com/KjwxLNENVX
— Channel 4 Press (@C4Press) August 20, 2022
And rightly so because less than two years later, Diana was killed in the car crash in Paris’ Pont de l’Alma tunnel. The then-couple, Diana and Al Fayed were headed to the Egyptian’s apartment while trying to escape the hounding paparazzi awaiting them. The driver Henri Paul was reportedly under the influence of alcohol and prescribed medications when he slammed the Mercedes into a pillar going 65 mph, which was twice the speed limit.
Though it was said that Paul losing control of the vehicle was the apparent cause of death, it wasn’t until January 6, 2004, that the investigations began into the matter by the British Metropolitan Police. The case was headed by John Stevens, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, under the name ‘Operation Paget,’ and the Mishcon Note played a crucial role.
Today marks 27 years since Princess Diana died at the age of 36 in Paris when the car she was in crashed while being chased at high-speed by paparazzi. Two years later, heralded magazine editor, @TinaBrownLM , asked me to investigate persistent conspiracy theories about foul play… pic.twitter.com/ZFV7YdyOVo
— Gerald Posner (@geraldposner) August 31, 2024
Al-Fayed’s father and billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed’s attorney, Michael Mansfield, said in the docuseries, “The most important thing about that report, and the wait-a-minute moment, light shining through the darkness suddenly, was the Mishcon Note,” adding that it had been “put in a safe at New Scotland Yard.” It was then handed over to Sir Paul Condon, Stevens’ successor.
Though the letter spoke volumes in terms of Diana’s death, Mishcon at the time thought the princess was only saying this because she was “paranoid and [Mishcon] hadn’t held much credence to it,” Stevens recalled while meeting Mishcon about a month before he died in the spring of 2005.
However, Mishcon’s note echoes another chilling letter in which Diana wrote the same and prophesied the tragedy as claimed by her former butler Paul Burrell. In his 2003 book A Royal Duty, Paul Burrell recounts that Diana, ten months before her untimely demise, accused her ex-husband Prince Charles of planning ‘an accident’ in her car, causing brake failure and a serious head injury to clear the path for him to marry Tiggy [the children’s nanny], according to the Daily Mail.