Princess Diana gained international acclaim for her humanitarian endeavors and beauty, earning her the nickname “The People’s Princess.” However, both inside and outside the monarchy, she was continuously t hreatened for her liberal beliefs. Since her public role came with a price, Diana took a peculiar precaution to protect her health when she traveled overseas: she brought a refrigerator full of her blood in case she was attacked or experienced any other medical issues. “Particularly when we were abroad or in the developing world, we would carry a little refrigerator full of spare supplies of Diana’s blood”, former private secretary Patrick Jephson told the Daily Star . “Diana was quite often under the threat of physical danger ,” he added.
Jephson added that in case she required their blood, her security staff also underwent blood tests. “That sure took the glamour out of it. Each of us was tested so the doctors knew which of us could give her blood if she needed it. A part of the job that was easy to forget and then you’d get a sharp reminder.” Jephson served as the former Princess of Wales’ private secretary and equestrian from 1988 until 1996. During that time, she separated from Prince Charles and was disregarded by royalty. The former secretary has yet to forgive the monarchy for how they treated his former boss. He said: “That is a real shame, and I think it doesn’t really reflect well on the royal family .
“She was out there flying the flag for Britain and by any measure doing a great job for the monarchy, but received very little recognition let alone thanks for it at the time. She was a young single mother working hard and she had no supportive network, she had no proper mentoring, the organization was overwhelmingly masculine even though there was a woman at the top of it,” Jephson stated. “I think they did underestimate her,” he added.
This is so sad😭Princess Diana knew the Royal Family saw her as a threat. In a letter she even stated she was concerned they would kill her in a staged car accident and was constantly having people check for tampering in the vehicles she drove in. She knew. pic.twitter.com/S8efkywQgn
— Kendall Rae (@KendallRaeOnYT) June 12, 2018
Diana’s infamous 1995 BBC interview revealed that she was paranoid about her safety and constantly feared being a threat to the royal family. She believed that the monarchy was ‘out to get her’. Jephson revealed that she regretted speaking out about Prince Charles ‘ affair with Camilla Parker Bowles in the well-known BBC interview . According to Fox News , Ken Wharfe, a retired Metropolitan Police inspector, and Diana’s former bodyguard, mentioned that the royal was frequently concerned about traveling by road. “She said to me, ‘I can be killed in a car accident,’” he recalled.
Royal author Ingrid Seward, also mentioned Diana eerily talking about her death while they met at Kensington Palace, “She said, actually, ‘It sounds ridiculous now,’ But I really did believe, genuinely, believe that someone was going to tamper with my car,’” the editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine shared. “She said, I was too much of a problem. They wanted to get rid of me,” Seward added.
Daily Mail royal writer Richard Kay explained that Diana’s fears were fanned by the people around her, “She was prone to these sort of fears, that something might happen to her,” he said. “People convinced her that she was somehow some sort of present danger to the royal family and that she should therefore be very careful.” Diana, Princess of Wales, passed away in the early hours of August 31, 1997, following injuries she had received in a deadly vehicle accident in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris, France.