Lady Diana died on August 31, 1997 in a car accident in Paris. The vehicle of the 36-year-old princess and her companion Dodi Al-Fayed was trying to flee from paparazzi when the collision took place.
What happened on August 31, 1997? After a dinner at the Ritz in Paris, Lady Diana and the businessman Dodi Al-Fayed slip away from the palace by a discreet entrance in a new car. The billionaire’s car and that of his bodyguards take the usual exit to serve as a decoy to the paparazzi who have followed the couple since their arrival in Paris. But some photographers aren’t fooled and spot the new vehicle. On board are the Princess of Wales, Dodi Al-Fayed, her bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones and driver Henri Paul. To escape his pursuers, the car travels at more than 100 km/h on a lane on the banks of the Seine limited to 50 km/h. In the Alma bridge tunnel, she hit the right wall, swerved and ended up running against a pillar. Dodi Al-Fayed and the driver are killed instantly. Trevor Rees-Jones is seriously injured. As for the Lady Diana, she is rushed to the hospital, but her heart stops several times in the ambulance. Suffering from significant internal bleeding, she was declared dead 4 hours after the accident at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital. The various investigations highlight the fact that the driver was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the events and that the occupants of the car had not fastened their seat belts. On the other hand, the paparazzi who pursued the vehicle benefited from a dismissal.
Diana Frances Spencer, known as “Lady Diana”, is a British aristocrat, wife of Prince Charles of Wales and mother of the two heirs to the throne of England, William Duke of Cambridge and Henry of Wales. A complex personality, but adored by the British, his controversial death in a car accident in Paris helps to maintain the myth and perpetuate his legend.
Born July 1, 1961 in Sandringham into a family of traditional British nobility, Diana Spencer became Princess of Wales in 1981 after her arranged marriage to the heir to the throne of England, Prince Charles. Hardly supporting the constraints of a court life and the sadness of a loveless marriage, the Princess of Wales quickly slipped into depression and attempted suicide shortly after the birth of her first son in 1982. The ruin of the princely marriage , materialized by numerous adulteries committed by one and the other of the parties, was initially stifled by the British press, but finally burst into the open in the early 1990s. The Prince and Princess of Wales ended up separated in 1992 and then officially divorced in 1996.
Despite the failure of her marriage and until her death in 1997, Lady Diana showed a remarkable commitment to many humanitarian causes. Thus, she put her notoriety at the service of the fight against HIV from 1987 and committed herself ardently against the use of anti-personnel mines during a highly publicized trip to Angola in 1997. It was partly her action that favored the signing of the Ottawa Treaty on December 3, 1997, prohibiting the use of anti-personnel mines.
Lady Diana: key dates
- July 29, 1981: Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana
- In the presence of 2,500 guests gathered at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, the heir to the throne of Great Britain, Prince Charles, 32, marries Lady Diana Spencer, 19. The event is televised worldwide, and an estimated 600 million viewers watched the ceremony. They had two sons and divorced in 1996.
- August 31, 1997: Death of Lady Di
- Diana, the ex-wife of the Prince of Wales, dies at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, after being the victim of a car accident in the tunnel of the Alma bridge. His companion Dodi al-Fayed, a wealthy Egyptian, was killed instantly, as was the driver, Henri Paul, who was driving fast to sow paparazzi. Only Diana’s bodyguard Trevor Rees Jones survived. two million people will follow his funeral.
- September 6, 1997: Princess Diana’s funeral
- Two million people take to the streets of London to pay their last respects to Princess Diana. During the ceremony, Elton John performing “Candle in the Wind”. In the afternoon Diana is buried at the Spencer family homestead in Althorp, North London.