Princess Diana’s untimely demise left a void in everyone’s life. Naturally, people close to her couldn’t accept the news of her passing after she died in a tragic car crash. Consequently, multiple theories began circulating about the cause of her death, including media reports that suggested her driver Henri Paul was drunk. But, her former butler refused to buy this narrative.
In August 1997, Diana was riding in her vehicle alongside her last lover Dodi Al Fayed , her driver, and her bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones (the only survivor of the accident), and the three of them were killed while trying to escape the chasing paparazzi when Paul lost control of the vehicle due to being under the influence of alcohol and medication, as per the BBC .
But, Paul Burrell, her former butler, painted a different picture when he alleged Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed was the mastermind behind the late princess’s death. According to Burrell, who once worked closely with Diana, Mohamed first gained her trust by offering his store Harrod as a safe haven from the hounding media and then orchestrated every move she and his son Dodi made like a ‘puppet master.’
Paul Burrell speaks exclusively to The Sun on the late Princess Diana and Mohamed Fayed pic.twitter.com/lLlghThqb0
— The Sun (@TheSun) September 30, 2024
Burrell told The Sun that Diana once came up to him to complain about Mohamed’s creepy statement where he said, “I want you to marry my son because, in Egyptian tradition, the father goes first. I’m going to sleep with you.” In addition, the ex-employee implied, “We all concentrated on Dodi and the Princess. But, really, the puppet master was Fayed.”
The butler further said that Mohamed, “above everything else, wanted to be related to the Royal Family. Fayed bought the boat before that holiday for Dodi to be able to entertain her in private. He spent millions trying to court her and his son was just a pawn in his game.”
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
Meanwhile, Diana’s former bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, who was her royal protection officer for six years, said the accident could have been prevented if Dodi and the security wanted. Daily Mail obtained an excerpt of his updated memoir in which he wrote about the negligence of Diana’s security team that led to the accident and eventually the untimely death of the Princess of Wales .
“On behalf of all the professional men and women of the Met’s protection squad, I am still angry beyond words that this team of ‘bodyguards’ let her come to harm,” wrote Diana’s former bodyguard in his book. Wharfe further blamed the Fayed family and lambasted the appointed driver Paul being drunk at the time when Dodi ordered him to sit behind the steering wheel (despite knowing he wasn’t sober). But since he was appointed by the Egyptian family, Wharfe couldn’t speak against their wishes.
Wharfe added in his memoir , “I can say with certainty, drawing on decades of police experience, that Diana’s death was not murder but a dreadful accident that should have been avoided. She was not the victim of shadowy figures who regarded her as an embarrassment to the Establishment but of her boyfriend’s erratic behavior and her bodyguard’s mistakes.”