Born:
July 1, 1961;
Passed away:
August 31, 1997 (at age 36).
August 31, 1997, a day that shocked many people from around the world. The last summer evening was marked by a terrible tragedy that shocked the whole of Britain. Lady Diana, Princess of Wales, passed away in a Parisian clinic as a result of a terrible car accident. Her lover, the son of Egyptian billionaire Dodi Al-Fayed, died on the spot from his injuries.
Princess Diana of Wales is one of the most popular and influential women of her time. For her charitable and peacekeeping activities, she won the love and deep respect of people from all over the world.
On this page you will find answers to the following questions: How did Princess Diana of Wales relate to Queen Elizabeth II of England and vice versa? Are the Queen and Mohammed Al-Fayed to blame for the death of Diana of Wales? Would Princess Diana have survived the accident if she had been wearing a seat belt?
What witnesses to the accident say
Brief history of the accident. According to eyewitnesses, the car, a Mercedes with a loving couple inside, reached a speed of about 200 km/h while crossing the Alma Bridge. After which, the car drove into the concrete support of the tunnel. The driver and Dodi Al-Fayed did not wait for the ambulance to arrive; their death was instantaneous. Princess Diana died a few hours later in one of the city’s clinics.
Blame for the death of the Princess of Wales and the son of an Egyptian billionaire was shifted to photographers who zealously pursued the famous couple, hoping for sensational photographs. Escaping from the pursuit of the annoying paparazzi, the driver, named Henri Paul, developed extremely high speed. After some time, a trial was held, where the verdict was made: “The group of photographers is not guilty!” This provoked journalists from many publications to write headlines about the non-accidental death of Lady Diana. One version is a carefully planned murder or simply a conspiracy.
Princess Diana of Wales and Dodi Al-Fayed
Biography of Princess Diana
Diana Frances Spencer was born on July 1, 1961 in Sandrigo Castle (Great Britain) - in one of the royal residences, her parents - John Spencer, Viscount Althorp, was a representative of the old aristocratic family of Spencer-Churchill, and Frances Ruth - Diana's mother.
Among the ancestors of the young princess there were also such representatives of an aristocratic family as the English Queen Mary Stuart on her mother’s side and the illegitimate sons of King Charles II. Also in her family tree is Prince Vladimir the Great.
Princess Dmana as a child
Young Diana’s childhood was not easy; at the age of 6, the noble family, along with her three brothers and sisters, broke up, which is why the princess’s mother and her children moved to London, where she soon got married.
There, the future “queen of hearts” changed several schools under the wise mentorship of famous teachers, but as sources report, Diana was not particularly zealous for science, but was popular with her friends due to her cheerful, complacent character.
The incredible Princess Diana has always been a sincere and inspiring woman
In 1975, after the death of her father, Diana's brother, John Spencer, inherited the earldom and moved the family to Althorp House Castle, a family estate in a London suburb, where Diana first met Prince Charles in 1977, who came to the Spencer estate to hunt.
Who was Princess Diana: watch the video
Who benefited from the death of the Princess of Wales?
The top contenders include the British royal family. In the summer of 1981, the country watched Diana's marriage to the heir to the British crown, Prince Charles. Openness, mercy, excellent taste and refined manners made Princess Diana the favorite of millions of people around the world. This love made her the most famous woman on the planet. Despite this, Lady Di (as people called her) was very unhappy. The alliance with the future king of the British Empire did not bring happiness. It's no secret that Charles cheated on his legal wife from the first day of their life together. The Prince of Wales's chosen one was his longtime girlfriend.
Toward Diana, he was extremely cold. A depressed state due to personal troubles pushed the princess to extreme measures, she also began to have relationships on the side. Such antics found their place on the pages of the tabloid press. The prestige of the British house was undermined. However, the divorce of Prince Charles and Lady Diana took place only after fifteen years of unhappy marriage, a year before the tragedy.
The divorce attracted even more attention to Diana’s person; her love affairs were discussed at every corner, in the smallest detail. The princess's last lover, Dodi Al-Fayed, the son of Mohammed Al-Fayed, an Egyptian businessman whose rumors were highly controversial, was greeted with great distrust and hostility.
The tabloid press was full of similar headlines: “How soon will an Egyptian become the new stepfather of children with royal blood flowing in their veins?” Such articles gave rise to more and more scandals, but Princess Diana did not think of backing down. Everything was going towards the wedding. The death of the Princess of Wales and Dodi Al-Fayed instantly solved all the problems. Naturally, this was immediately seen as a conspiracy coming from the English Queen Elizabeth II herself.
The situation was aggravated by the fact that after Diana's death, the royal court was silent for an inadmissibly long time. The queen decided to bury the princess without the honors due to her, but the rebellious population of the country forced Elizabeth to reconsider her decision. Princess Diana of Wales was buried according to all royal traditions. The coffin was accompanied by Lady Diana's former husband, Prince Charles.
Children
On June 21, 1982, little William, the future heir to the throne, was born. The princess was 21 years old at that time. She had no life experience, no higher education, only the desire to be a good person. Two years later, the royal family added another prince, Harry, in 1984.
Having begun to show her rebellious nature, Diana, contrary to tradition, chose the names of her sons herself, gave birth to children in a hospital, and not in the palace, and sent them to a regular school. Raising her boys, she tried to introduce them to the people, show them the world outside the castle, and give them a carefree childhood full of joy and happiness.
Diana showed herself to be a wonderful mother. She paid due attention to her sons and raised them as her heart told her. Not finding love in her husband, she found it in her children, devoting herself entirely, and who always came first for her.
Another version of the accident
There is an opinion that the attempt was made not on the princess, but on Dodi Al-Fayed himself. Some kind of revenge on his father, through the death of his beloved son. It could have been Mohammed's partners who caught the Egyptian entrepreneur lying. Probably for this reason, he could not obtain English citizenship for so long. Almost 22 years ago, a terrible car accident took the life of an incredible woman named Diana, Princess of Wales. But it is still not known for certain what happened on August 31, 1997 in Paris.
Princess Di's social life
Since the royal wedding, Diana has been given a number of responsibilities, including charity work. None of the royal circles treated this matter like Lady Di. With full dedication and involvement, she helped people and attracted friends and acquaintances from the upper strata of society. Moreover, she moved on. One of the first, Diana began to support patients who at that time were considered rejected by society. We are talking about patients with AIDS and leprosy. Disgust was not about her. The princess hugged, shook hands, talked to them. Simply, it brought some amount of joy and happiness into their lives.
Consequences
The victims remained in the wrecked car. The photographers moved much more slowly, being at a distance from the Mercedes where Princess Diana, the driver, her friend, and bodyguard were driving. After some time they arrived at the scene of the accident. Many immediately began trying to open the doors and help the victims, some took photographs of the scene.
According to some reports, Diana was alive, despite severe injuries. Diana was in the passenger seat on the right, apparently, she was conscious. One of the photographers described her condition, saying that she was bleeding and he tried to get her out of the car, but could not because her legs were stuck. He told her not to lose consciousness, but she didn't say anything.
At first, information appeared in the press that the car containing Diana collided with a pole at a speed of almost 200 kilometers, but later it was announced that the speed of the vehicle before the impact reached just over a hundred kilometers. The car was driving faster than it should. In this section there was a speed limit of 50 km/h. In the late 90s, a French investigation concluded that the Mercedes collided with another car while in a tunnel.
The court investigation lasted 18 months. As a result, in the late 90s. it was concluded that the driver of the Mercedes was at fault for the car accident. According to existing data, he lost control at high speed while driving while intoxicated.
Personal life and hobbies
Diana has been interested in ballet and music since school. In one of her letters, Lady Di shares her hobbies: “The love of my life is dancing. Tap, modern dance, ballet, jazz. I also love to sing, but it’s impossible to listen to me sing, just like to watch me dance. I dance like an elephant. That’s why no one looks at me,” Diana says with regret.
During her marriage to Prince Charles, she performed a dance performance as a birthday present for her husband. Having performed, quite outside the rules, in a revealing dress with the famous ballet dancer Wayne Sleep.
The second dance episode took place at the White House, where Diana and Charles arrived for a visit. An impromptu dance with John Travolta turned into a real psychosis among journalists. Diana knew how to outshine everyone and enjoyed the attention of others. This went against the very modest and inconspicuous girl who, after the wedding, turned into a “star” of the royal family.
According to Prince William, Diana's son, her favorite band was Duran Duran. Their hit song “Planet Earth” brought the group wild popularity in 1981. But this was not the only group that the princess adored. The Swedish group ABBA with the song “Dancing Queen” also found its place in her soul.
Another passion of the princess was fashion. For this, the princess was called a style icon. She could afford to wear any shape (sometimes revealing for her status), colors, accessories and make them trendy.
This shocking behavior of Diana aroused great interest in the media, she was accused and criticized for her shocking antics, but this did not stop Diana from continuing to shine in public.
Memory
The whole world mourned for the universally beloved princess. Diana won the hearts of millions of people with her closeness to the people. In Paris, the city where Diana had her fatal accident, people have turned a replica of the Statue of Liberty's torch into a memorial to Lady Di, as it is located near the scene of the accident. In London, the entire grounds of Kensington Palace were covered with flowers in memory of the princess, and 20 years after her death, her sons erected a monument to her in the place where she lived and raised her children. And several years after the tragedy, a memorial complex was built in Hyde Park in London in memory of Diana.
Each mourner showed his respect for her. In the musical field, songs from such celebrities as Elton John with the song “Candle in the Wind”, the Depeche Mode group “New Dress”, the Russian group Aquarium “4D”, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, Madonna and others were dedicated to her. Many documentaries have also been made about Diana, about her last days of life, about her love story. Various countries such as Albania, Azerbaijan, North Korea, Tuvalu, Armenia, Romania, Moldova have issued postage stamps with the image of the princess honoring her memory. Well, her friends and people close to her shared their memories of her in books.
Diana's kindness and desire to make the world a better place resonated in the hearts of people, not only in Great Britain, but throughout the world.
Unhappy marriage
Unfortunately, life is not a Cinderella fairy tale, where after the wedding everyone lived happily ever after.
Lady Di and the Prince of Wales's marriage hit rock bottom when Charles rekindled his old relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles. Humiliated and insulted, Diana, who never received her husband’s attention and love, began to look for it in others. She secretly dated her riding trainer, James Hewitt, until an incriminating conversation between the lovers was leaked to the press.
Elizabeth II was offended by what happened, because Diana, as a wife, tarnished the monarch and her reputation. The impetus for the subsequent divorce was Lady Di’s interview with the BBC, where the story she told about Charles’s infidelities contributed to her unhappy life. She revealed all the ins and outs of the royal family and palace intrigues. Charles also did not stand aside and gave a number of interviews where he accused his wife of not being of sound mind and called her hysterical.
The Queen was impatient to divorce her son from Diana. Her temper and stubbornness defied persuasion and control. By the end of August 1996, all the papers were signed, and Diana lost her title and some royal privileges.
She felt freedom. But she could not completely abandon life associated with the royal family. The responsibility of the mother of future heirs to the throne made its own adjustments. She continued to engage in charitable work, appear at official receptions, raise her sons and look for love.
