Prince Harry has called his mother’s sudden death in a car crash in 1997 “a wound that festers” in his life, while his older brother Prince William has described it as “a pain like no other pain.” Princess Diana had then separated from then-Prince Charles five years before the accident and divorced from him for one.
On her last day, Princess Diana was with her partner at the time, 42-year-old Dodi Fayed, a film producer and son of billionaire Harrod’s owner Mohamed Al Fayed, as Christopher Andersen recounted in the book “The Day Diana Died.”
The couple had come to Paris from Sardinia on August 30, 1997, after spending more than a week together around the Mediterranean. When they left Dodi Fayed’s Paris apartment in a Mercedes-Benz driven by Henri Paul- deputy head of security at the Ritz- they were accompanied by bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones.
When their car entered the Pont de L’Alma tunnel, Paul lost control of the vehicle after which the vehicle collided into the tunnel’s 13th pillar, resulting in a devastating collision that killed both Paul and Dodi Fayed at the scene.
Princess Diana remained alive as first responders arrived on the scene of the crash.
“We took her out of a car, put her on a stretcher, and at that moment the doctor said she was in cardiac arrest. So we gave her CPR, and after 20 seconds she regained consciousness and we transferred her to the ambulance,” a first responder had then said as per Associated Press.
The car crash occurred as per royal expert Christopher Anderson owing to a number of photographers pursuing the Mercedes-Benz on motorcycles. After chasing after the car, the paparazzi reportedly remained at the scene of the accident, photographing Diana in her final moments.
“I think one of the hardest things to come to terms with is the fact that the people that chased her into the tunnel were the same people that were taking photographs of her while she was still dying on the back seat of the car,” Prince Harry told BBC.
“William and I know that. We’ve been told that numerous times by people that know that was the case,” he added.
“Those people that caused the accident, instead of helping, were taking photographs of her dying,” he asserted.
