Diana's Ex-Chauffer Breaks Silence After 30 Years, Claims He Could Have Saved Her: "I Would Have..."

Princess Diana was traveling in a Mercedes-Benz S280 when it crashed in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris, in the early hours of 31 August 1997. The Princess of Wales passed away from internal injuries. Henri Paul, the driver who perished in the collision, was heavily drunk at the time of the collision, according to investigations. Almost 30 years later, Diana's ex-chauffer recently regretted that if he had been driving that day, she would have been still alive. “I would have taken a bullet for Diana. My job was my life. I was always there for her. I went from having the dream job to having to start again from scratch," Steve Davies claimed in an exclusive with the Daily Mail. 

The former military officer became a vital member of Diana's circle when he joined the royal staff in 1988. He was devoted to Diana following her divorce from Prince Charles. He had even chauffeured her to the famous banquet when the Princess wore her gorgeous black 'revenge dress' in June 1994. He also accompanied Diana and her boys to Alton Towers. After serving dutifully for eight years, he was abruptly laid off in March 1996. Davies described how BBC reporter Martin Bashir's deception ruined his reputation and turned the Princess against him. Davies stated, "I'm not the kind of man who wastes time and energy being bitter or angry, but she died believing I had betrayed her and that's something I can't ever forget or forgive."

Bashir made up a story that Davies was leaking private information about Diana to the media at the time. His motive was to gain the Princess' trust and persuade her into the infamous 1995 Panorama interview. The BBC compensated Davies in May 2024 after the High Court heard his account of being 'tormented' by rumors about why he was terminated. "When Mr Davies approached us, we resolved his complaint promptly by apologizing to him via a statement in court and paid him damages," the publication justified. 

The Guardian reported the driver of the vehicle in which Princess Diana perished may have consumed five alcoholic beverages before the collision. According to tests, Paul's blood alcohol content of 1.74 grams per liter was double the UK's legal limit for drivers. According to the Diana inquest, Paul had consumed two 50ml measures of the aniseed liquor Ricard that evening, as per the testimonies of the bartenders at the Ritz hotel in Paris.

Professor Robert Forrest, a retired clinical chemistry and forensic toxicology expert, told the inquest panel that the chauffeur might have consumed a 'greater' amount of alcohol than that. "The results are unlikely to reflect taking two 50ml doses of Ricard in a couple of hours or so before death," he briefed the jury. "It is likely to reflect the consumption of a significantly greater amount of alcohol than that."