The Life and Death of Princess Diana

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Speaker 2 I'm Lester Holt and this is Dateline.

Speaker 2 Princess Diana.

Speaker 4 She's fascinated the world all over again.

Speaker 2 Courtesy of the Crown.

Speaker 8 The Crown, of course, is getting a lot of buzz.

Speaker 9 Royal drama dominating the headlines.

Speaker 6 It's the Diana years.

Speaker 2 But is the Netflix portrait the true portrait?

Speaker 10 Some of it's been fictionalized. This is not a documentary.
There's a great many people involved in rural life that think it's just strayed far too far from the truth.

Speaker 2 Now, the riveting real story.

Speaker 11 She stood up to this huge institution of the British monarchy.

Speaker 12 She often talked about dark forces but

Speaker 13 there were allegations of conspiracy to murder.

Speaker 9 What did you see as you entered the tunnel?

Speaker 10 Prince Harry was going to make sure that history was not repeated.

Speaker 14 Basically saying, back off, you're hounding her like you hounded my mother.

Speaker 15 She was betrayed by so many people.

Speaker 9 We only knew half the story.

Speaker 2 Here's Andrea Canning with The Life and Death of Princess Diana.

Speaker 9 It was getting late in the city of light that last Saturday in August 1997.

Speaker 9 But sidewalk cafes in Paris were still bustling. The Moulin Rouge was a glow.

Speaker 9 Riverboats along the Seine were teeming with tourists, and the paparazzi were out in full force because a special visitor was in town. In fact, the most famous woman in the world, Princess Diana.

Speaker 9 For years, cameras had tailed her like sharks follow blood.

Speaker 9 And now, on this late August night, the hunt was still on.

Speaker 9 As Diana and her new lover, Dodi Alfayed, sped away from the paparazzi who were in hot pursuit.

Speaker 9 Suddenly, the driver made an unexpected turn into that tunnel, the Pont de Llama Tunnel.

Speaker 17 Breaking news coverage.

Speaker 17 Indeed, Princess Diana has died tonight.

Speaker 9 It's been more than two decades since that fateful night. Yet, Princess Diana remains as famous in death as she was in life.

Speaker 9 And as the focus of season four of the Netflix series, The Crown, she's squarely on everyone's minds once more. Being a princess doesn't always have a fairy tale ending.

Speaker 19 She would probably be the first to agree with that.

Speaker 9 Certainly, the crown makes for captivating television. A wrenching portrait of a tortured marriage, a woman overwhelmed by the royal machine.
But how much of it is true?

Speaker 9 Tonight, we tell the real story. We go behind the palace gates and reveal that behind every iconic image of Diana, there is a story, often a secret.

Speaker 20 Diana and Dodie didn't have this full-fledged romance that people think. Definitely not.

Speaker 9 Secrets she shared only with a select few.

Speaker 15 I had to protect her. Our relationship was a very private one.
It was a secret one.

Speaker 9 She was beautiful, magnetic, but also misunderstood.

Speaker 7 Diana wasn't paranoid.

Speaker 4 She wasn't damaged goods.

Speaker 12 She was very unhappy. with the state of her marriage.

Speaker 9 Even now, questions still swirl about her marriage, her battles with the monarchy, her secret love affairs, and what really caused that horrible crash in Paris.

Speaker 13 We had to look at whether there was a real reason why someone would want to murder Princess Diana that night.

Speaker 9 Over the next two hours, we'll hear from close friends, confidants, insiders, people who worked for her and reported on her, who offer intriguing insights about the woman who will always be remembered as the people's princess.

Speaker 9 Diana Frances Spencer was born into aristocracy in 1961. The daughter of an earl, she was raised at his country estate called Althorpe.

Speaker 9 We got a look inside Diana's stunning childhood home. Her brother Charles and his wife gave NBC Cynthia McFadden a tour.

Speaker 23 This is a room that I associate really with Diana tap dancing. And as a sort of teenager, she used to do endless tap dancing in here.
And

Speaker 23 that's my main connection in this house of her.

Speaker 9 Inside the grand house, it was not always warm and friendly. The parents divorced and her mother lost custody of the children.
But their father remarried a woman named Rain Spencer.

Speaker 9 Diana and her brother called her Acid Rain, and she kept them at arm's length in one of the giant estate's smallest rooms.

Speaker 23 We were put up in the attics in...

Speaker 23 For a house like this, I'd I'd say very, very, very modest rooms, but you know, it's just the way it was.

Speaker 9 Diana's unhappy childhood would later manifest itself in a big way.

Speaker 24 She was very, very needy.

Speaker 9 Penny Jr. has written extensively about the royals, including books on both Prince Charles and Diana.

Speaker 24 She was constantly looking for love. The love that she felt she had never had from her mother.
And that actually tainted her entire life.

Speaker 9 During her teen years, Diana started to blossom. James Coldhurst, who was a dateline consultant, met her on a ski trip.

Speaker 19 She just blended in with the whole group. She had a very good sense of humor.
She was amusing. She got plenty of attention.

Speaker 9 The first time Diana met Charles was in the late 1970s at Allthorpe. Diana was just 16 at the time.
The future king was actually dating her sister.

Speaker 22 The crown got that part right.

Speaker 9 But the meeting didn't happen while Diana was dressed in costume for a play in reality charles had come to allthorpe for a day of shooting and diana was a spectator sparks did not fly

Speaker 9 at age 17 diana moved to london and later worked at a nursery school not exactly glamorous

Speaker 9 But few knew that the world's most eligible bachelor was on a mission, not entirely of his own choosing.

Speaker 15 It was time he was under pressure.

Speaker 9 Richard Kaye is the editor-at-large large for the London Daily Mail. He later became close friends with Diana and also covered Prince Charles.

Speaker 15 He felt pressure from his family, pressure from his friends, pressure from himself. He knew that his duty was to have a son to secure the House of Windsor.

Speaker 15 That was his job, so he had to find someone with whom he could have a family.

Speaker 9 Someone like Lady Diana Spencer.

Speaker 24 And at that time, it was absolutely imperative for the heir to the throne to marry an aristocrat who was not a Roman Catholic and who was a virgin. She was on paper absolutely 100% perfect.

Speaker 9 So perfect that behind the scenes Charles and Diana's grandmothers were helping move things along.

Speaker 15 Diana's grandmother was the Queen Mother's best friend so the stars were in alignment if you like. I mean Diana was almost plucked and chosen for Charles.

Speaker 9 The two began dating in that royal kind of way.

Speaker 15 When she referred to him, she had to call him sir.

Speaker 15 It was a really different kind of dating that anyone else would do.

Speaker 9 The British press was eager to discover just who Prince Charles might marry. And here is the very first public photo of Diana back then.
She was just 19.

Speaker 9 There's an intriguing story behind that historic shot. from Arthur Edwards, the newspaper photographer who snapped it.

Speaker 9 We found Edwards in London, and he still remembers that day back in 1980 when he got a tip from someone attending Charles's polo match who told him.

Speaker 25 He's here today with a girl called Lady Diana Spencer. So I walked around the polo field.

Speaker 28 I saw this girl and she was wearing a necklace, a D-necklace.

Speaker 26 So I said, excuse me, are you Lady Diana Spencer? Yeah, I said, may I take your photograph, please? She said, yeah, and she posed that for me.

Speaker 9 This casual photograph is what introduced young Lady Diana Spencer to the world. There would be thousands more pictures to come, of course.
And Diana's life would never be the same.

Speaker 2 When we come back.

Speaker 29 In love.

Speaker 17 Of course.

Speaker 17 Whatever in love means.

Speaker 1 Engagement or arrangement.

Speaker 15 He appeared to have someone else he was interested in.

Speaker 2 The romance that captivated everyone, except for the couple at the center.

Speaker 24 Diana flew into a complete rage. She said, I can't go through with this.

Speaker 9 Charles and Diana's courtship went by in a flash. Overnight, it seemed, they were engaged.
The world met the couple for the first time at a photo op.

Speaker 9 It was memorable.

Speaker 18 Just delighted and happy. And I'm amazed that she's been brave enough to take me on.

Speaker 17 And I suppose in love.

Speaker 17 Of course.

Speaker 17 Whatever in love means.

Speaker 9 The real story behind that rather awkward interview actually goes much deeper.

Speaker 9 Charles was hesitant to propose to Diana, so much so that his father, Prince Philip, sent him a letter.

Speaker 15 Philip was saying to him, Look, you've been seeing this girl. You can't lead her up the garden path, so to speak.

Speaker 15 Either marry her or let her go, otherwise, she's going to be a very damaged young woman.

Speaker 9 Charles, under pressure to fulfill his royal duties, and Diana, just 19 years old, decided to take the plunge into what was essentially an arranged marriage.

Speaker 24 She was very much in love with him, and I think he was not yet in love with her. He was bounced into asking Diana to marry him before he was ready.

Speaker 9 Charles was almost 13 years older than Diana, more worldly, more educated. Even so, the two told the media they were the perfect match.

Speaker 18 What do you think we've got in common?

Speaker 31 Sense of humour.

Speaker 31 Every outdoor activity, except I don't ride.

Speaker 31 Do you remember that?

Speaker 31 Lots of things, really.

Speaker 9 But in reality, Diana and Charles didn't seem to have much in common.

Speaker 24 She didn't like horses and dogs. She hated all those kind of sporting activities that he went in for.

Speaker 24 And she was a young 19, 20-year-old who was into romantic fiction and shopping and lunching and mucking about with her mates.

Speaker 9 And right away, Diana discovered someone who was important to Charles, a person from his past. There was another woman in this dynamic, Camilla Parker Bowles.
Yes.

Speaker 15 Parker Bowles was a confidant of Prince Charles's and a lover of his long before he met Diana, but she and Charles remained good friends.

Speaker 32 There was this sense, I think, from almost the beginning that Charles wasn't entirely Diana's own.

Speaker 9 Camilla Tommini is NBC News's royal expert.

Speaker 32 Charles had insisted that his relationship with Camilla had been platonic, but I think there was a sense that Diana quickly realised that mentally Charles wasn't completely with her 100%.

Speaker 9 Most people have long believed that Camilla Parker Bowles was the villain in this story. But Camilla, early on, actually supported Diana, advised her about Charles and royal life.

Speaker 24 And she liked Diana and thought that she would be a lovely wife for him. So she was very friendly to her.
And Diana was very friendly to Camilla.

Speaker 9 But Diana, just 19, was insecure, says her friend Richard Kay.

Speaker 15 She was a naive young girl. Charles was her first proper man in her life, but he appeared to have someone else he was interested in too.
It would have made anyone question themselves.

Speaker 15 She was beautiful, gorgeous, fantastic to have on your arm, but maybe she struggled to have a rigorous conversation with him.

Speaker 9 So Diana was giving Charles more the beauty and Camilla was giving him more of the brains.

Speaker 15 I think that's it.

Speaker 9 Then, just weeks before the wedding, Diana's concerns about Camilla suddenly exploded in an incident that wasn't reported at the time.

Speaker 15 She came across a present between Charles and Camilla. What was it? It was a bracelet.

Speaker 9 Inscription?

Speaker 15 It had G and F on it. G was the name Gladys, which was the nickname that Charles had for Camilla.

Speaker 9 F stood for Fred, which was Camilla's pet name for Charles.

Speaker 24 Diana flew into a complete rage and stormed out of the room. Diana got it into her head that Camilla and Charles never stopped having an affair and she she became absolutely obsessed by Camilla.

Speaker 24 Charles realized during the engagement that there was something really badly wrong, and he didn't have the courage to call a halt to it.

Speaker 9 Thrust into the royal spotlight and now concerned about Camilla, the pressure on Diana, according to author Penny Jr., was beginning to take its toll.

Speaker 24 Diana changed literally overnight. Having been this sunny, easy, happy-go-lucky, smiley girl, she turned into this dark,

Speaker 24 at times, girl who went into rages, absolute rages. Temper tantrums, tears, jealousies, kicking furniture, and he just didn't know how to cope.

Speaker 9 By now, the wedding was just weeks away.

Speaker 11 At every turn, she was sort of trapped in a different way.

Speaker 9 Sarah Ellison of the Washington Post has written extensively about Princess Diana and her relationships. Diana later said that she actually wanted to get out of getting married to Charles.

Speaker 23 No one has ever called off a royal wedding. They were never not going to be married.

Speaker 33 Lady Diana is regarded here as just about the perfect bride.

Speaker 24 Diana had lunch with her sisters. She said, you know, I can't go through with this.
I want out. I don't want to do this.
And her sisters jokingly said, too late. Your face is on the tea towels.

Speaker 24 And of course, you know, that was the problem. It was too late.

Speaker 33 More than 60 BBC television cameras will produce pictures for a worldwide audience of about 700 million.

Speaker 9 The royal wedding would indeed go on, whether the bride and groom wanted it or not.

Speaker 34 Coming up,

Speaker 2 a surprise at the ceremony.

Speaker 15 Dialogue managed to spot Camilla Parker Bowles.

Speaker 29 And a few more on the honeymoon.

Speaker 24 Charles opened his diary, and there was a photograph of Camilla in it. I mean, how stupid is that?

Speaker 35 When dateline continues.

Speaker 33 The British royal family celebrates the wedding of the Prince of Wales.

Speaker 9 Summer 1981. Lady Diana Spencer was about to become Princess Diana.
in one of the most eagerly anticipated weddings in the world.

Speaker 33 Good evening from London, where we have come to cover the royal wedding.

Speaker 33 Charles Prince of Wales takes the lovely lady Diana Spencer as his bride.

Speaker 24 The royal wedding was fantastic. It was British pomp and pageantry at its best.

Speaker 24 A lot of people could see the carriage procession in a glass coach. I mean like Cinderella.

Speaker 9 I was nine years old. I set my alarm 4 a.m.

Speaker 9 Got up to watch the wedding. I was one of 750 million people watching that wedding.

Speaker 15 Yeah, it was like a fairy tale. And Dinosaur fulfilled all our childhood notions of what a fairy tale princess should look like.

Speaker 9 But there was something else going on at the wedding. A story no one knew.
Diana just happened to spot one particular face.

Speaker 15 Diana managed to spot Camilla Parker Bowles and she saw her as she was going up the aisle.

Speaker 9 Did she ever talk to you about that moment?

Speaker 15 She's just said, I knew from that moment that this woman was never going to go away.

Speaker 9 But the show went on in front of hundreds of millions around the world.

Speaker 36 Now Prince and Princess of Wales, possibly the future king and queen of England.

Speaker 9 Before leaving on their honeymoon, Charles and Diana gave everyone another picture-perfect moment.

Speaker 15 The photographers, who were sort of in a pit below the palace, shouting up to them, kiss her, kiss her, sir, kiss her. And the crowd picked up on this and kiss, kiss.

Speaker 15 And Diana said, you know, why not?

Speaker 15 It was an electrifying moment.

Speaker 9 The royal newlyweds set off on a romantic cruise.

Speaker 9 But in the honeymoon suite, it wasn't smooth sailing.

Speaker 24 Charles opened his diary and there was a photograph of Camilla in it.

Speaker 24 I mean, how stupid is that? He wore some cufflinks that had C's entwined on them that Camilla had given him. Again, how stupid.

Speaker 9 For Diana, it went from bad to boring.

Speaker 24 He read books.

Speaker 24 She wanted to lie on the sundeck with him, canodle with him, drink lovely cocktails with him.

Speaker 10 I know she didn't want him to be buried in a book, but that was his idea of a lovely holiday.

Speaker 37 How'd you guys fulfill moral as a place?

Speaker 21 That was ideal.

Speaker 9 Back from their cruise, the newlyweds once again put on a happy face.

Speaker 38 How are you enjoying married life?

Speaker 16 Highly recommend.

Speaker 9 But behind the photo ops, a very different story was playing out.

Speaker 24 Their interests simply did not coincide, but they didn't know this until it was too late.

Speaker 9 It may have been a marital mismatch, but their adoring public couldn't get enough. Diana was immediately embraced as the new princess.

Speaker 15 People, I think, began to realize that this was a very spirited young woman. She was going to be somebody, and she was going to make the monarchy something very interesting.

Speaker 9 Diana's star became a supernova. They called it Diana Mania.

Speaker 16 She is turning out to be one of the most popular and most sought-after members of the royal family.

Speaker 24 Diana found herself a superstar absolutely overnight.

Speaker 37 It was very easy to see that she was very different from other members of the royal family almost immediately that you started to photograph her, let alone talk to her.

Speaker 9 Photographer Jane Fincher covered Diana from the beginning.

Speaker 10 She was so much more casual and informal and

Speaker 37 dare I say it, human. She wasn't frightened to show she was human and that was very evident straight away.

Speaker 9 Diana was a natural in the spotlight and she did it in style.

Speaker 27 We can get all these pieces out.

Speaker 9 Bruce Oldfield was one of Diana's fashion designers.

Speaker 27 This was the place where we made all the dresses for the princess back in the 80s. She'd say, oh, I'll come down and have a look at fabrics.
She was very game, you know, to do all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 27 She understood what a good dress could do. She knew that it had power and she knew it would get on the front page.

Speaker 9 Power that enabled Diana to change the culture.

Speaker 32 Growing up as a British girl, you know, in the 80s and 90s, everyone's mother was going and getting Princess Diana haircuts.

Speaker 32 I remember that my mother particularly sort of wearing skirt suits and jackets and emulating this very elegant look look that Diana used to portray.

Speaker 9 But soon, Diana would feel the heat from life in the royal spotlight.

Speaker 24 She was unworldly.

Speaker 9 She was a schoolgirl, basically.

Speaker 24 I think it was just way, way too much for her.

Speaker 9 And way too much for Prince Charles, who would soon discover some troubling secrets about his new bride.

Speaker 40 Coming up, from joy

Speaker 2 to despair.

Speaker 9 Do you believe that that was a suicide attempt?

Speaker 19 That was an attention seek.

Speaker 2 Then, a dangerous affair.

Speaker 15 Her bodyguards knew about it. Charles knew about it.
They were playing with fire.

Speaker 9 In the early days of their marriage, Charles and Diana looked every inch the picture-perfect royal couple.

Speaker 9 What was going on behind closed doors was a whole lot different than the Diana we were seeing.

Speaker 15 It was, and the world and the media just didn't know.

Speaker 9 Didn't know that behind palace gates, Diana was often miserable.

Speaker 24 She had terrible mood swings, terrible rages, terrible tantrums, terrible jealousies.

Speaker 9 while Charles was often distant.

Speaker 15 And what she found at home was not the loving home life that she wanted. She wanted a husband to take her in his arms and embrace her and tell her how marvelous she'd been.

Speaker 15 And Charles was either too busy or too uninterested to do that.

Speaker 9 Feeling neglected by her husband, Diana struggled to adapt to the rigors of royal life.

Speaker 19 The exuberance that had been there before was not thriving. She really didn't want to let the Queen down.
She really wanted to do the job.

Speaker 9 James Coulthurst and Diana's other friends around London saw firsthand that she needed help. So they arranged lunches in hopes of cheering her up.

Speaker 19 The general sense was maybe we'd try to regenerate some of the contact with the past and just see if that could help support her.

Speaker 9 With Coulthurst's help, Diana seemed to become more comfortable and started to excel in her charity work.

Speaker 15 Here she was with a whole bunch of people who valued her and that did so much for her self-esteem.

Speaker 9 Was filling the void that she wasn't getting at home.

Speaker 15 Completely filling the void.

Speaker 9 But even then, behind the scenes, there was conflict. Diana's choice of causes wasn't always in sync with her powerful mother-in-law, the queen.

Speaker 15 She felt that the monarchy was sort of stuck in the past and that she, Diana, was trying to change it by doing things like AIDS and leprosy and diseases which were unfashionable.

Speaker 9 To a monarchy wrapped in tradition, Diana may have been a rebel with too many causes.

Speaker 15 She felt that somehow the queen didn't appreciate what she was doing. She used to refer to her only to me as the top lady.
She never called her the queen or her majesty.

Speaker 9 One day, the top lady and the princess had a conversation, which Diana shared with her head of security, Ken Worf.

Speaker 12 And she said, I want to get involved in finding a cure for AIDS.

Speaker 12 And she said the queen sort of put her head back and sort of then said, well, why don't you get involved in something nice?

Speaker 9 Diana persisted, and her compassion quickly made her the most popular member of the royal family, casting a long shadow over her new husband.

Speaker 9 Ken Whorf told us about a conversation in which she offered to accompany Charles on one of his official visits.

Speaker 12 She said, well, do you want me to come with you?

Speaker 7 No,

Speaker 3 he said.

Speaker 12 They'll only be interested in you.

Speaker 1 Charles had his nose put out of joint.

Speaker 24 He delivers his speech, and the papers the next day are filled with what his wife was wearing. Could she perhaps be pregnant? Has she got a new hairstyle? Nothing about the speech.

Speaker 9 The Crown tackled this source of friction in their marriage. Charles's resentment of Diana's star power.

Speaker 9 With Diana's soaring popularity came increased leverage as she struggled to cope with the constraints of the monarchy.

Speaker 32 Diana was pioneering because she did break down these preconceived ideas about royal protocol, proving that she is one of us and not one of them.

Speaker 9 Diana may have been carving out a new role for herself, but there was still one traditional job that she absolutely had to do: produce an heir.

Speaker 42 Her Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales, has given birth to a baby son. God save the Queen.

Speaker 9 June 1982, Prince William was born.

Speaker 43 Obviously relieved and delighted. Smile is

Speaker 43 rather a grown-up thing, I find.

Speaker 9 And two years later, a little brother.

Speaker 44 His name is Henry Charles Albert David, but they're going to call him Harry.

Speaker 9 Once again, to outward appearances, they seem the perfect family.

Speaker 9 What few knew at the time was that the marriage was fracturing, and Diana, at least to Charles, seemed unstable.

Speaker 9 In fact, when she was pregnant with Harry, Diana threw herself down a flight of stairs. Do you believe that that was a suicide attempt? What was that?

Speaker 19 I think she might have been dispirited at the time. She might have just tripped.
That was an attention seek. I certainly don't see it as a suicide attempt.

Speaker 9 Whatever it was, the palace never went public with it. Same with an issue in Diana's past that had now resurfaced.
Bulimia.

Speaker 15 And the bulimia, I believe, was a consequence of her royal life and not being able to cope with it.

Speaker 9 Did she talk to you about the bulimia? She did.

Speaker 15 She said it was awful. She would gorge on ice cream, bowls of breakfast cereal with lots of cream and milk, and then immediately go and throw up.

Speaker 9 This season of the crown portrayed Diana's struggle with bulimia. In real life, it was a tremendous strain on the royal couple.

Speaker 24 Charles didn't know how on earth to cope with it. Charles organized for her to see a psychiatrist, and she would say she's better, she didn't didn't need him anymore.

Speaker 24 Charles was sympathetic to start with, but

Speaker 24 when he met these tantrums day after day after day, he became

Speaker 24 immune to it. And it was a real vicious circle.
She was craving love and attention, but by her behavior, was pushing him away.

Speaker 9 Two years after Prince Harry was born, Diana began taking riding lessons from a British cavalry officer named James Hewitt.

Speaker 9 This photo of them later became notorious when Hewitt revealed he and Diana had an affair.

Speaker 17 In my mind, it was never her intention

Speaker 17 to

Speaker 17 fall in love with me, and it was certainly not my intention to fall in love with Diana.

Speaker 9 Do you think that James Hewitt was kind of everything that Charles wasn't? Like an escape for her?

Speaker 11 I think absolutely he was an escape for her, but also he didn't judge her. He didn't have any kind of expectation for her.

Speaker 9 The affair with Hewitt carried real risks for Diana. Risks peculiar to a princess.

Speaker 15 It is treasonable for the wife of the heir to the throne to have an affair with someone. I think

Speaker 15 it's on the par of being accused of being a traitor. They were playing with fire.
Her bodyguards knew about it.

Speaker 4 Did Charles know about it?

Speaker 15 Yeah, Charles knew about it.

Speaker 9 But perhaps he was inclined to look the other way and toward Diana's old nemesis, Camilla Parker Bowles.

Speaker 15 Camilla pretty much was a constant feature of Charles' life.

Speaker 9 How did Diana really feel about Camilla?

Speaker 15 Well, she called her the Rottweiler for a start, which

Speaker 15 gives you an idea of what she thinks about it. I mean, a Rottweiler is one of those dogs which, when it holds onto something, it never lets go.

Speaker 9 The once fairy tale royal marriage was now on the rocks. And later, Diana would share all her dark secrets outside the palace gates in a way no one ever saw coming.

Speaker 11 Coming up, there were people who were listening and watching and keeping tabs on her.

Speaker 2 Spies at the palace, Diana launches a plot of her own.

Speaker 35 When Dateline continues.

Speaker 9 Spring 1987. An indelible image appeared of Diana at a London hospital.
A simple handshake that would never be forgotten. It was during the height of the AIDS epidemic.

Speaker 32 It had been mislabeled as a gay disease. It had been misunderstood as something that could be caught by shaking hands, by kissing, by hugging.

Speaker 9 That day, Diana helped change the world's thinking.

Speaker 32 She knew she would guarantee to get it on the front pages to say, it's all right, you know, I'm not worried about my own personal safety, so why should you be, was really a seminal moment.

Speaker 9 But privately, Diana was waging another battle, this one on the home front, trying to cope with her troubled marriage.

Speaker 24 Diana was pushing Charles away. Charles was getting more and more profoundly depressed.
He didn't confide in anyone. But there were one or two people who had remained in his circle.

Speaker 24 So they went to Camilla and they said, listen, we think Charles needs you. And she gave him a ring and the friendship reignited.

Speaker 9 That phone call also reignited their romance, which was not exactly a secret.

Speaker 16 London newspapers this morning continue to speculate about Charles's friendship with a longtime lady friend.

Speaker 9 But reporters weren't privy to a deeper issue boiling beneath beneath the surface. Diana wasn't just worried about losing her husband.
She had far bigger concerns about Camilla entering the picture.

Speaker 19 A big fear was this is not a substitute mum for the boys, that they would try to sideline Diana and that Camilla might use up her post.

Speaker 9 That was a fear of Diana's mother. Big fear.

Speaker 1 A big fear.

Speaker 9 Diana became convinced the palace was quietly plotting to move her aside because she wasn't fit to raise the young princes. She believed she was being watched and her phones tapped.

Speaker 9 Who was keeping tabs on Diana?

Speaker 11 I think the government was just watching her for her own safety, but I do think that when things became so contentious between her and Charles, there were people who were listening and watching and keeping tabs on her.

Speaker 9 Diana called them the grey men. Some people openly questioned whether she was imagining them.

Speaker 19 I don't think they were all imagined.

Speaker 19 I think there was a group that maybe thought they were doing the right thing and may have convinced themselves that she wasn't suitable for the role and therefore needed to be removed.

Speaker 19 They might have done that.

Speaker 9 Who are these people?

Speaker 19 Unknown, they're unidentified. But she had a very strong sense there was a group, not necessarily with sanctioning by Prince Charles, but wishing to do him well.

Speaker 9 By now, rumors of Diana's problems and instability were appearing in the press.

Speaker 9 Diana wanted to set the record straight by telling her version of the story in a way that she could control and without the palace finding out.

Speaker 9 She knew of an author named Andrew Morton who had written a book on Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, and had also started one on Diana. So a daring plan was launched.

Speaker 9 Diana agreed to answer questions written by Morton.

Speaker 28 It was her first excursion into confronting the demons inside herself. And so it was a cathartic experience for her.

Speaker 9 Colthurst would act as the go-between, taking Morton's questions to Diana and then secretly recording her answers.

Speaker 19 The point was to separate her from it because blame was her big thing. She didn't want to be blamed for it.
And so, fine. Someone had to be a fool guy if it came out.

Speaker 9 That would be you. Yes, yes.
This could tarnish the monarchy.

Speaker 19 Not doing it would have, because I think there would have been the uncontrolled release. of anger and I think that would have been much more serious.

Speaker 9 So Coulthurst pedaled over to the palace and and behind closed doors, tape rolled. Diana let loose about everything,

Speaker 9 including her arranged marriage to Charles.

Speaker 39 So he said, will you marry me?

Speaker 46 And I and I laughed.

Speaker 39 I remember thinking, you know, this is a joke, so that's your case.

Speaker 9 She even addressed her alleged suicide attempts and frequent bouts of bulimia.

Speaker 39 Anything I could find, I would gobble up and be sick two minutes later.

Speaker 9 After each recording session, Coulthurst delivered the tape to Andrew Morton.

Speaker 28 She vividly brings out the despair she felt, phrases like, I was a sacrificial lamb when she married Prince Charles.

Speaker 9 It would be months before the world would finally hear Diana's explosive story. But the fuse had been lit.

Speaker 34 Coming up,

Speaker 2 Charles goes public and returns fire.

Speaker 24 It was a terrible miscalculation.

Speaker 2 And Diana's revenge, a dish best served cold, a dress best worn short.

Speaker 25 The picture was all about Diana.

Speaker 9 It was just a simple snapshot. A solitary Diana sitting in front of the Taj Mahal.
There's a story behind this famous photo. A not-so-secret signal about the state of the royal marriage.

Speaker 9 It was February 1992. The royal couple was in India on a rare trip together.

Speaker 15 They were clearly unhappy in each other's company.

Speaker 9 Diana's friend and journalist, Richard Kay, reported on the trip.

Speaker 15 Diana famously went to the Taj Mahal, which is one of the most romantic buildings on the planet. And Charles, who had said that one day he wanted to bring his wife to this place, didn't go.

Speaker 15 Diana was there alone.

Speaker 9 You think she did that on purpose? She knew what she was doing.

Speaker 15 And that picture, I mean, just said it all. It was one of the most significant photographs of the entire marriage because it showed this picture of an unloved, beautiful young woman.

Speaker 9 A lonely wife.

Speaker 15 A lonely wife sitting in front of this monument to love.

Speaker 9 Two days later, Diana put an exclamation point on that picture with yet another defining moment in what the media was now calling the War of the Waleses.

Speaker 9 It happened after one of Charles's polo matches when Diana presented him with the winning prize.

Speaker 15 As he went to kiss her,

Speaker 25 she turned her head away

Speaker 25 and ended up kissing her on the ear and he was bloodred with outrage.

Speaker 25 And it was a page one picture, but for the wrong reasons.

Speaker 15 She knew the impact that picture was going to have.

Speaker 9 She was publicly documenting her sort of kiss off to Charles.

Speaker 15 She was.

Speaker 9 Soon after, the world got the real story behind the pictures. The whole messy saga of Charles and Diana's 11-year marriage.

Speaker 9 In June of 1992, her explosive interviews were published in Andrew Morton's groundbreaking book. Diana's public disclosure was a bombshell that rocked the monarchy.

Speaker 9 And remember, at the time, there was no internet, no social media. The main source of news came from newspapers.

Speaker 9 And here in London, where there are several dailies and tabloids, Diana's troubled marriage made for blaring headlines.

Speaker 33 Diana, front page news throughout the world,

Speaker 43 trapped in a loveless marriage.

Speaker 16 She has suffered serious bouts of depression.

Speaker 33 Princess Diana wrote down in tears. Slashed her wrists with razor blades.

Speaker 9 She doesn't come out of it very well, I don't think.

Speaker 9 There had never been anything like it in the history of the monarchy.

Speaker 32 The royal family has always had the mantra, never explain, never complain. Keep it zipped.
Well, she drove a coach and horses through that theory.

Speaker 32 Putting everything into a book, book, wearing your heart so firmly on your sleeve you can see it beating.

Speaker 24 I think Charles was flabbergasted when Diana went public with all of this. And I think he was devastated.

Speaker 9 Soon, letters were pouring into the palace.

Speaker 19 She had letters of support, mainly from women, but masses of them.

Speaker 9 Did it accomplish what she wanted, where she wouldn't be sidelined, she could protect her sons?

Speaker 19 I think history has shown that absolutely was the case. She retained her two sons and her role was certainly not reduced after that.

Speaker 9 But when it came to her marriage, Diana's book only hastened the inevitable.

Speaker 16 It is announced from Buckingham Palace that with regret the Prince and Princess of Wales have decided to separate.

Speaker 9 Of course it was only a formality. The two had already been living separate lives.
Then Diana decided to make another change.

Speaker 38 Over the next few months, I will be seeking a a more suitable way of combining a meaningful public role with hopefully a more private life.

Speaker 9 The most popular woman in the world was withdrawn from public life.

Speaker 9 Diana went into semi-seclusion, allowing her to spend more time with her young sons, William and Harry, as they recalled in a 2007 interview with NBC News.

Speaker 47 As children to sort of spend time with her, but the time that we did spend with her was amazing. And as a mother, just, you know, as anybody would say about their own mother, just amazing.

Speaker 48 One of the memories that we had was when we went to America and we went to Disney World.

Speaker 9 But Diana couldn't protect the young princess from all the fallout from the War of the Waleses.

Speaker 48 There were many times that we just sort of, you know, had to cheer her up and tell her that she was, you know, the best thing ever.

Speaker 47 It would just come out in conversation. She was under a lot of pressure throughout her life.

Speaker 9 Pressure that seemed to increase after her separation from Charles. Diana's security chief, Ken Whorf, says she expressed concern for her own safety.

Speaker 12 She often talked about dark forces, but I didn't quite know where these dark forces came from. And she had put on paper in letters to people that she was concerned and worried about certain things.

Speaker 9 He says Diana's fears also caused her to seek out a new circle of friends.

Speaker 12 Diana was introduced to a set of what I call mystic madness people, the tarot card readers, the sort of modern-day crystal ball gazers.

Speaker 12 I said, you know, why are you wasting your money seeing these people? Because actually, they're not going to predict what's going to happen.

Speaker 9 One of Diana's new friends around this time was a self-described healer named Simone Simmons.

Speaker 20 We were like best friends. She would read the runestones for me, and I would read the tarot cards for her.
So we used to give each other readings.

Speaker 9 Simone soon became a constant in Diana's life.

Speaker 20 We'd have marathon phone calls. One was eight hours.

Speaker 9 Simone says Diana also sent Christmas cards and left phone messages like this one.

Speaker 9 By now, Prince Charles was back with old flame Camilla Parker Bulls. The prince had never publicly responded to Diana's bombshell book.

Speaker 9 But in 1994, to mark the 25th anniversary of his appointment as Prince of Wales, Charles allowed an ITV crew to follow him around at a time when his public image needed a boost.

Speaker 9 But the plan backfired when Charles was asked, had he been faithful in his marriage? His answer made news around the world when he replied, yes, until it became broken down.

Speaker 24 It was a terrible miscalculation. The media didn't help because they did immediately sort of focus on yes, yes, adultery.

Speaker 9 And Diana's response to Charles's big moment was this.

Speaker 18 The princess wasn't watching. She was at an art gallery.

Speaker 9 Once again, upstaging her husband on the very night of his contrite confession by wearing what came to be called the revenge dress.

Speaker 25 The next day, the headline was all about the interview, but the picture was all about Diana.

Speaker 9 And there was still one more bombshell coming in the War of the Waleses.

Speaker 9 This would be the biggest of them all.

Speaker 35 Coming up, Diana's turn to tell all.

Speaker 15 It was very powerful TV.

Speaker 2 Razor-sharp remarks, then lightning-quick remorse.

Speaker 20 Diana really, really regretted the interview.

Speaker 41 She's being sacked. She's been fired from the Royal Firm.

Speaker 35 When dateline continues.

Speaker 8 Hi there. My name is Annie Elise, aka your True Crime BFF and host host of the podcast Serialously.

Speaker 8 I have been a true crime enthusiast forever, but I wished somebody would break down the cases for me like a friend, giving all the details and discussing every twist and turn.

Speaker 8 So I decided to create a podcast that does just that.

Speaker 8 I do the deep dives in these cases, so you don't have to, diving into all the raw details, saying what we're all thinking, and in a conversational way. So join me and let's talk all things true crime.

Speaker 8 Serialessly with Annie Elise. New episodes drop every Monday and Thursday wherever you get your podcasts.

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Speaker 3 Here's a quick podcast for all you true crime fans: the case of the missing Reese's.

Speaker 4 It was me at the store with my mouth. Motive?

Speaker 3 Um, there Reese's. What was I going to do?

Speaker 6 Stop myself?

Speaker 4 Tune in next time to see if I do it again. Spoiler, I will.

Speaker 7 Wow, that had everything.

Speaker 4 Reese's, suspense, Reese's.

Speaker 9 November 1995. The War War of the Waleses had reached a new level of intensity as the royal couple's marital woes continued to play out in public.

Speaker 9 According to Chief Bodyguard Ken Worf, Diana felt she was the target of a smear campaign. She believed it was being orchestrated by the palace, which deployed surrogates to discredit her.

Speaker 12 Friends of the Prince of Wales went on public television to say that Diana was paranoid, that she was bulimic, and even a friend of the Queen had said that Diana was damaged goods.

Speaker 12 Heavy stuff because whoever was watching is going to believe that because it was on national television.

Speaker 4 But that wasn't true.

Speaker 12 Diana wasn't paranoid. She wasn't damaged goods.
She was very unhappy with the state of her marriage.

Speaker 9 Diana was used to being the most popular royal and knew she had the power to fight back.

Speaker 12 So Diana thought, well, how the hell am I going to counteract that?

Speaker 29 Well, there's only one way to do that.

Speaker 12 Is that for me to tell them myself?

Speaker 9 So Diana took to television and appeared on the BBC programme Panorama with journalist Martin Bashir.

Speaker 15 It was very powerful TV. But while saying many of the things she did say, which I thought were perfectly fair, she used it as an opportunity to attack Prince Charles's fitness.

Speaker 15 to be monarch, to be a future king. That was a major, major problem.

Speaker 9 And according to her friend Simone Simmons, Simmons, Diana even got a negative review from 13-year-old son William.

Speaker 20 Diana really, really regretted the interview.

Speaker 9 All these years later, the interview is stirring up new controversy with allegations that Martin Bashir obtained it under false pretenses.

Speaker 9 Diana's brother says that Bashir tried to gain Diana's trust by presenting her with forged documents that implied Palace employees were spying on her.

Speaker 9 The BBC previously conducted an internal investigation and cleared Bashir of wrongdoing.

Speaker 9 Now the BBC has initiated an independent investigation and says it will do everything possible to get to the bottom of this. Martin Bashir has not commented on the current investigation.

Speaker 9 But no matter how the interview came about, its impact at the time was undeniable.

Speaker 9 The Queen was so upset by it, she told the royal couple they needed to do more than simply separate.

Speaker 18 Queen Elizabeth's command came in a letter to the children telling her son and daughter-in-law it's time to stop squabbling and get a divorce.

Speaker 9 Improbable as it may seem, Simone says Diana was shocked.

Speaker 20 She was absolutely

Speaker 20 distraught. After the Queen had given the orders, her eyes were like pandas.

Speaker 20 She'd been crying so much.

Speaker 9 But the Queen had spoken, and it was, of course, front-page news in the London tabloids. Nine months after the interview, in August 1996, the royal divorce was final.

Speaker 51 It is estimated that Diana will get about $26 million as a settlement as part of the deal.

Speaker 9 The stunning settlement made even bigger headlines, but the real story was behind the numbers.

Speaker 15 As part of her negotiating position, Diana and her lawyers said that she would give up her royal status. I think that was a bad thing.

Speaker 29 She will cease to be Her Royal Highness.

Speaker 41 Effectively, she's being sacked, she's been fired from the royal firm, and that's a public humiliation.

Speaker 9 Diana not only lost her royal status, she also relinquished something even more important, her royal security.

Speaker 9 It was a critical decision which her former chief bodyguard Ken Whorf had long cautioned her not to make.

Speaker 12 Whatever you want to do, you will always be Diana the Princess of Wales. The one thing that you shouldn't give up is your security.
I urge you strongly not to do that.

Speaker 12 There's only one person that could, in my view, that could have insisted that she retain her security, and that would have been the Queen herself.

Speaker 12 If the Queen had insisted that she retain that security, well, we wouldn't be having this discussion because Diana, in my view, would have been alive today.

Speaker 9 But the Queen did not insist. Diana's security detail stood down.

Speaker 12 Then, in my view, the tragedy was almost inevitable.

Speaker 2 Coming up, the man who stole her heart.

Speaker 20 She said, I think I've met my Mr. Wonderful.

Speaker 2 And the man who would share her fate.

Speaker 15 Doty Fire came along at a critical moment in Diana's life.

Speaker 33 3. Faring.

Speaker 9 January, 1997. One of the most memorable images in a life filled with them.
Diana, in a protective visor and body armor, walking a minefield in Angola.

Speaker 9 Her mission, to publicize an organization seeking to rid the world of landmines.

Speaker 9 I am committed to supporting, in whatever way I can, the international campaign to outlaw these dreadful weapons.

Speaker 9 Five months divorced, no longer officially a royal, but still beloved the world over as Princess Diana. She was still using her clout for causes she believed in, but had cut back to just a select few.

Speaker 32 Diana decided that she was going to enjoy her newfound status and change herself into a foot loose and fancy-free figure of charitable endeavor.

Speaker 32 Wanting to embark on new relationships, yes, wanting to have a bit more autonomy.

Speaker 9 Diana was in her mid-30s, single, unattached. She spoke frequently with her journalist friend Richard Kay about the difficulties of finding that special someone.

Speaker 15 She was betrayed by so many people, let down by lots of people, including of course and famously Prince Charles. And she was constantly

Speaker 15 looking not just for love, but for affection and

Speaker 15 trust in people.

Speaker 9 One day at a chance meeting at this London hospital, Diana finally seemed to find what she was looking for. She was introduced to a heart surgeon named Haznat Khan.

Speaker 20 Haznat Khan, that's when she phoned me up to say, I think I've met my Mr. Wonderful.
And their eyes met, and she said, it was like drowning in a sea of chocolate velvet in his eyes.

Speaker 9 Their relationship was very discreet.

Speaker 11 They would have these sort of secret meetings in the hospital, and the hospital staff was quite concerned that she was going to be found out because she still brought so much attention with her.

Speaker 9 He just wanted to be a doctor.

Speaker 11 He was at this point a sort of junior surgeon at the hospital and was working all the time. She would go around his apartment and do the washing up of his dishes and things like that.

Speaker 11 She used an assumed name when she called him Armani. Armani.

Speaker 9 Diana was so smitten with Dr. Khan that she even went to Pakistan to meet his family.

Speaker 11 She wanted to marry him, but she knew there's no greater fear that a Pakistani mother has than sending her son to a British boarding school and having him come back with an English girlfriend.

Speaker 30 Let alone Princess Diana.

Speaker 11 Right, I mean she had this idea that they were going to have a normal life, but her idea of normal is not actually that normal. And I think that he kind of recognized that and found it very difficult.

Speaker 9 Diana told her close friends that Naddy, as she called him, was the love of her life. She was even willing to leave London for him.

Speaker 15 She looked into living in South Africa, Australia, and wondered whether it would work. But Carlin had a career path.
I mean, he was doing important work, he had plans.

Speaker 9 So, saving people's lives won out over Diana?

Speaker 15 I guess so. But it didn't last because, frankly, it couldn't last.
This guy is devoted to his career. The idea that he could become

Speaker 15 Mr. Princess of Wales, if you like, was just ridiculous.

Speaker 9 The couple broke it off in July 1997.

Speaker 9 A few weeks later came an invitation from Egyptian billionaire Mohammed Al-Fayed, a prominent figure in London who owned the famous Herod's department store.

Speaker 9 He was vacationing on his yacht in the Mediterranean and asked Diana to join him. Al-Fayed's son, Dodie, would be there too.

Speaker 15 Dodie Fayed came along at a critical moment in Diana's life, and she was looking for something different. Very quickly, they were involved in a holiday romance.

Speaker 9 Her love affair with Dr. Khan had been a closely held secret.
Her fling with Dodie was anything but

Speaker 15 photographs were taken of them, and Diana did not disavow this relationship. She made it crystal clear to me.
He's an unmarried man, and I'm a divorced woman. Why shouldn't I see him?

Speaker 15 Yes, I'm very happy. He makes me happy.
I mean, that was the message she sent out.

Speaker 9 A message, insists Diana's close friend, Simone Simmons, that was meant for one person in particular.

Speaker 20 She thought it might get Haznat back because he'd be jealous. Diana had the emotional maturity of a 13 to 14 year old.
Oh, let's get him jealous and it's going to make him want me even more.

Speaker 20 That was Diana.

Speaker 9 Whatever Diana's intent, those pictures on the yacht triggered a media feeding frenzy to snap the next big shot of her apparent new romance.

Speaker 9 And soon it would set into motion a deadly series of events that would spread shock and grief around the world.

Speaker 34 Coming up.

Speaker 27 The paparazzi closed in on them like a pack of wolves.

Speaker 44 What happened that fateful night?

Speaker 9 What did you see as you entered the tunnel?

Speaker 53 There was an accident. There was smoke in the tunnel.

Speaker 2 Inside the fight to save Diana.

Speaker 35 When Dateline continues.

Speaker 9 On the last day of her life, Diana arrived in Paris, fresh off the yacht with Doti Al-Fayed. Interest in the couple was beyond intense.

Speaker 27 They were being pursued very, very aggressively by the paparazzi.

Speaker 9 The late Christopher Dickey was Paris bureau chief for Newsweek magazine at the time. He was there when Diana and Dodi blew into town.

Speaker 9 This whole scenario just created a feeding frenzy for the paparazzi.

Speaker 27 They were intent on getting another picture. They wanted to get Dodie and Diana together wherever they could get them and they would pursue them no matter where.

Speaker 9 On the night of August 30th, Dodie and Diana went to dinner at the Ritz Hotel owned by Dodie's father. A security camera captured their arrival.

Speaker 9 Later that evening, Diana called her close friend, Richard Kay.

Speaker 9 It was the last conversation they would ever have.

Speaker 15 And I could tell from her voice that she was tired. She was anxious about getting home.
She was missing William and Harry. She hadn't seen them for several weeks.

Speaker 9 Also anxious were the crowds and paparazzi waiting outside the hotel for Diana and Dodi to appear. Among all the photographers was Pierre Sue, eager to snap a shot and cash in.

Speaker 54 Maybe one picture would go over $100,000 at the time, which would be like $300,000 today.

Speaker 9 With that kind of money on the line, Sue and his fellow paparazzi were prepared to stay there all night. But later that evening, the couple changed plans.

Speaker 9 After finishing dinner here at the Ritz Hotel, Diana and Dodie decided to go to his apartment.

Speaker 9 To avoid the swarm of paparazzi that had gathered in front of the hotel, Dodie and his father hatched a plan to secretly slip away by leaving from the back.

Speaker 9 Dodie was eager to leave the paparazzi behind, especially after the media frenzy of of the last few weeks, according to his bodyguard Trevor Reese-Jones.

Speaker 55 The attention of the press in Paris was more aggressive, a more aggressive attitude than anything we'd seen that summer.

Speaker 9 But that night, Jones believed Dodie's escape plan was half-baked.

Speaker 55 He wished to leave from the rear of the hotel against our wishes with no security at all. And I had to put my foot down and say, that's not going to happen.

Speaker 48 I'll be going with them.

Speaker 9 The hotel's acting director of security was a man named Henri Paul. He was off duty that night, but was called in to drive Dodi and Diana's Mercedes-Limo.

Speaker 9 So shortly after midnight, along with Trevor Reese Jones, they slipped out to the back alley where the limo was waiting and took off.

Speaker 55 My last memory is of a car pulling away and noticing a couple of paparazzi vehicles following.

Speaker 27 The paparazzi closed in on them like a pack of wolves.

Speaker 9 They managed to catch them on camera at a nearby stoplight. Trevor Reese-Jones riding shotgun with Henri Paul behind the wheel.

Speaker 27 So he will put the pedal to the metal

Speaker 27 to outrun Paparazzi on motorcycles.

Speaker 9 The Mercedes raced toward the entrance of the Pont de Lma tunnel.

Speaker 32 The car was being driven too fast.

Speaker 27 They were driving close to 100 miles an hour.

Speaker 32 She wasn't wearing a seatbelt.

Speaker 27 They hit that bump. They're more or less airborne.

Speaker 9 In the blink of an eye, they smashed head-on into the 13th 13th pillar.

Speaker 9 Moments later, Frederick Maille, an emergency room doctor, and his partner, Mark Butt, approached the tunnel from the other side. They took us back to the scene.

Speaker 9 What did you see as you entered the tunnel?

Speaker 53 We saw that there was smoke in the tunnel, and I said, well, maybe there's a fire, but as we pulled down here, we could see that there was an accident that had just happened.

Speaker 9 And it was a bad one.

Speaker 56 the accident was really severe so severe dr mae immediately sprang into action you have to be really quick to do the first assessment two people are not reacting so i assume they are dead and the two others are reacting breathing shouting

Speaker 9 dotie and the driver henri paul were dead but trevor reese jones was somehow clinging to life as was diana who was trapped in the back seat did the woman in the back say anything?

Speaker 56 This woman didn't say anything. She was unconscious.
Her head was down like that and she had difficulty to breathe. When I looked at her, she was still a very beautiful woman.

Speaker 9 In the chaos, neither Dr. Maillet nor Mark Butt realized who it was.

Speaker 53 I just think that it's somebody well known, like a prince or something, and his girlfriend or wife or something like that.

Speaker 9 By now, photographer Pierre Sue had arrived. Just as he was preparing to snap some photos, police showed up and ordered him out of the tunnel.

Speaker 9 But he still managed to get dramatic shots from the outside looking in.

Speaker 54 I had a little telephoto lens. I took pictures of anything I could see.

Speaker 9 Meanwhile, Dr. Maillet was desperately trying to help Diana in any way he could.

Speaker 56 I tried just to comfort her. I said I was a doctor, that the ambulance were on their way and everything would be all right.

Speaker 9 Soon, the media arrived and the story was on TVs across the world.

Speaker 17 We've been following the car accident this evening in Paris, France.

Speaker 27 Princess Diana. Newsweek had gone to bed because it was a long weekend.
The press run was running and it was a question of would someone shout out, stop the pressure.

Speaker 7 Stop the presses.

Speaker 4 Did you?

Speaker 27 Yes, they did, but they were going to do it on the basis of what I could report.

Speaker 9 Dickie rushed to the tunnel where the mangled Mercedes was being towed out. Diana had already been taken to the hospital.
Anxiously waiting for her was French diplomat Sammy Nair.

Speaker 9 He was there when the ambulance arrived as he told us in his first interview for American TV. When those doors opened to that ambulance, inside was Princess Diana.

Speaker 50 I remember one thing that moved me a lot

Speaker 50 that really touched me.

Speaker 50 She was lying there. She looked serene.
There was something angelic about her.

Speaker 9 Inside the ER, a team of doctors desperately tried to save her, but Diana was failing fast.

Speaker 50 All the information that we were getting was the same.

Speaker 50 They are massaging her heart.

Speaker 4 They are trying to save her.

Speaker 9 But their frantic efforts were futile. Princess Diana was pronounced dead at 4 a.m.

Speaker 9 Her death was kept secret for two more hours until the royal family, especially Prince Charles, Charles, could be notified.

Speaker 24 He was absolutely devastated. His first thought was for his children, obviously, but he also knew that he would be blamed.

Speaker 24 The public would think that if he hadn't divorced Diana, they would still be happily married. The fairy tale would have gone on.

Speaker 17 Princess Diana has died in a hospital in Paris, France.

Speaker 9 The only survivor was Trevor Rees-Jones.

Speaker 55 I feel no guilt into the actions that we took that night.

Speaker 48 The guilt I feel is I survived.

Speaker 9 Soon, millions would be in mourning, not only in the UK, but around the world.

Speaker 9 But there was one rather prominent person who needed prompting to pay her respects.

Speaker 34 Coming up,

Speaker 2 where was the Queen?

Speaker 15 There was a lot of resentment. We needed to hear from her.

Speaker 2 An astonishing outpouring, still powerful, years later.

Speaker 27 The whole world stood still.

Speaker 15 It was heartbreaking, wasn't it?

Speaker 3 Hey, this is Will Arnett, host of Smartless. Smartless is a podcast with myself and Sean Hayes and Jason Bateman, where each week one of us reveals a mystery guest to the other two.

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Speaker 3 So join us for a genuinely improvised and authentic conversation filled with laughter and newfound knowledge to feed the smartless mind. Listen to Smartless Now on the Sirius XM app.

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Speaker 9 The morning after

Speaker 9 Diana's shocking death was just beginning to resonate around the world.

Speaker 9 By now, Prince Charles had arrived in Paris, greeted by a horde of photographers, including Pierre Sue.

Speaker 54 And I looked at him through my telephoto. I saw somebody shattered.
I could see the despair of that man. I hope I will never take a picture like this again.

Speaker 9 Later that day, Diana's body would be flown back to London for the funeral and burial.

Speaker 9 But photographer Arthur Edwards, whose picture 17 years earlier first introduced Diana to the world, would now take his last photo of her.

Speaker 26 As I coughing come out, it started to hit me and I realized that this was the big moment I had to get this picture.

Speaker 29 And I started to cry.

Speaker 9 Diana's old friend and confidant, James Coulthurst, was watching it all on television. where he got the tragic news like everyone else.

Speaker 19 Well, it was a tragedy, absolute Absolute tragedy. It was a sad, sad that it happened, and for me, it was the loss of a chum.
We've been through a lot.

Speaker 9 You changed her life.

Speaker 19 She changed her life.

Speaker 9 Later that morning came the public outpouring, and it was unlike anything in the history of the monarchy.

Speaker 57 Outside St. James Palace, thousands waited, some for as long as seven hours.

Speaker 27 The whole world stood still. It was a collective, massive, massive global sense of mourning

Speaker 37 royal photographer jane fincher was one of thousands who flocked to kensington palace to pay her respects to diana i picked some flowers from my garden and as i walked up to kensington palace i just burst into tears but i wasn't prepared for it i think it was the smell the smell of the flowers was incredible

Speaker 57 So many here in London who have made the trip to leave something in her memory, a card, flowers, or a flickering candle.

Speaker 27 It was mainly the sense of the loss of a magical figure.

Speaker 32 She was our princess, wasn't she?

Speaker 10 The people's princess. It's as simple as that, really.

Speaker 45 For the country, for everybody.

Speaker 9 She had so much to give. She was so brave.

Speaker 32 She's one of the most loved people in this country.

Speaker 4 It is just a shame.

Speaker 9 But one person had yet to pay her respects. The Queen, who was conspicuously absent in Scotland with the two young princes.

Speaker 9 The Queen's initial silence seemed to send a loud message about the monarchy's coolness toward Diana and her remarkable popularity.

Speaker 15 There was a lot of resentment after Diana's death that the Queen was somehow not with her people in London, and pressure built. The mother of the nation is the Queen.
We needed to hear from her.

Speaker 9 Something needed to be done. So Prime Minister Tony Blair and other government officials discreetly but firmly urged the Queen to come to London.

Speaker 27 Tony Blair had to basically say,

Speaker 27 look at your people. Look at those flowers outside of Kensington Palace.

Speaker 27 Think about this and say something appropriate.

Speaker 27 So she did.

Speaker 46 First, I I want to pay tribute to Diana myself.

Speaker 46 She was an exceptional and gifted human being.

Speaker 46 In good times and bad, she never lost her capacity to smile and laugh, nor to inspire others with her warmth and kindness.

Speaker 9 It was a pivotal moment for not only the monarchy, but the entire UK.

Speaker 9 Soon, the funeral followed. Again, the world watched.

Speaker 9 The most touching moment for me, at least, and I think for millions of people, was that card that said mummy. Yeah.

Speaker 15 It was heartbreaking, wasn't it? I mean, written by William and placed on top of the coffin. And that sight of William and Harry walking behind the gun carriage was incredibly moving.

Speaker 15 And people who never knew her were sobbing their hearts out. And it just told you something about Diana, that she reached out to ordinary people in a unique way.

Speaker 9 The young princes, William and Harry, still remember that day, of course, and the pain of losing their mother, as they told us in 2007.

Speaker 23 Straight after it happened, we were always, you know, always thinking about her.

Speaker 48 And there's not a day that goes by, I don't think, you know, that I don't think about her once in a day.

Speaker 47 You know, it still upsets me a lot, the fact that we didn't have much of a chance as

Speaker 47 children to sort of spend time with her.

Speaker 9 There was someone else at the funeral who was also close to Diana. Someone few recognized.
Dr. Hosnat Khan.

Speaker 11 He was very upset by it and just quietly came to the funeral. There was an element of what could have been for the two of them.

Speaker 9 Maybe he was her one true love.

Speaker 11 She was certainly in love with him when she died.

Speaker 9 Later that day, Diana was buried at Allthorpe, her family's estate. The people's princess was just 36.

Speaker 9 As the public outpouring for Princess Diana was winding down, the blame game was gearing up. Diana's brother Charles was outraged at the media over his sister's death.

Speaker 45 It would appear that every proprietor and editor of every publication that has paid for intrusive and exploitative photographs of her, encouraging greedy and ruthless individuals to risk everything in pursuit of Diana's image, he has blood on his hands today.

Speaker 9 The grim task of trying to determine how and why Diana died was already underway in Paris, and pressure was mounting to find answers.

Speaker 9 Was this crash simply a horrible tragedy, or was it the result of a full-blown conspiracy?

Speaker 34 Coming up,

Speaker 9 take us inside that tunnel.

Speaker 2 An exhaustive investigation and an explosive claim.

Speaker 36 Her boyfriend's father insists it was no accident.

Speaker 13 And we looked at every single allegation that had come forward.

Speaker 35 When dateline continues.

Speaker 9 The shock and sorrow of Princess Diana's tragic death was now giving way to a hardcore police investigation. Soon after the crash, the investigation here in Paris got underway.

Speaker 9 But of course, this was no ordinary case. French investigators were quickly joined by London Scotland Yard to figure out what happened and why.

Speaker 9 What they didn't know at the time is that it would take years to get answers.

Speaker 36 It's an investigation that is being conducted in traditional French fashion, slowly and silently.

Speaker 9 The Paris investigation was headed by by police chief Martine Montiel.

Speaker 58 To avoid what I used to call the Marilyn Monroe syndrome, that means that 30 years later, you wouldn't be sure whether this was some kind of a conspiracy.

Speaker 9 With the whole world watching, French investigators dug into the case unlike any other.

Speaker 58 We interviewed over a thousand witnesses and we analyzed 1,350 phone calls just that night to see who had made calls to whom and notably who had called for help.

Speaker 9 Among those witnesses were several paparazzi who were in the tunnel right after the crash. Some were arrested, all were questioned, including photographer Pierre Sue.

Speaker 54 The police confiscated all the rows of films that the photographers had in their pockets that night.

Speaker 9 The film was developed and checked for possible clues. While inside the tunnel, investigators made a careful sweep looking for leads.
Take us inside that tunnel after the accident.

Speaker 58 We found little pearls from Princess Diana's bracelet and little pieces of the mirror.

Speaker 9 The mirror, which appeared to have been ripped off the Mercedes during the crash.

Speaker 9 At the crime lab, forensic scientist Patrick Teron examined every inch of the smashed up Mercedes. He discovered a dent with tiny specks of white paint.

Speaker 9 And on the mirror, he also noticed similar white blotches.

Speaker 9 These microscopic pieces of paint matched.

Speaker 47 The white paint present on the Mercedes

Speaker 35 belonged to another car.

Speaker 47 It was a paint specific for the Fayat who know there is a contact between the Mercedes and a Fiatuneau just at the entrance of the tunnel.

Speaker 27 perhaps more physical evidence to that second car mystery theory but now police were getting a better idea of what may have actually caused the wreck according to christopher dickey there is a little on ramp that comes in from the right and you don't necessarily see cars on that so this fiat uno a little after midnight comes down into the tunnel and then there's this flying mercedes coming in behind him he swerved to miss the fiat and swipe the fiat

Speaker 9 Investigators believe that high-speed swerve by the Mercedes to avoid the fiat was just enough to send it careening into the pillar. As for the fiat, it was never found.
Neither was the driver.

Speaker 9 But after an exhaustive 14-month investigation, Paris police did arrive at a very simple conclusion that centered on the limo driver, Henri Paul.

Speaker 9 Remember, he'd been off duty, called in specially to drive the Princess and Dodie. Lab tests revealed that he was intoxicated at the time of the crash, his blood alcohol level twice the legal limit.

Speaker 9 Investigators determined Paul was drunk and driving too fast as he tried to flee the paparazzi.

Speaker 58 It was, in summary, a tragic banana traffic accident.

Speaker 9 But one British poll indicated that more than 60% of UK citizens were convinced Diana and Dodi's deaths were the result of a conspiracy. Leading the charge was Dodie's father, Mohamed Al-Fayed.

Speaker 9 I am not going to rest until the billionaire financier insisted the car crash was actually a murder, orchestrated by the monarchy and implemented by MI5,

Speaker 9 the UK's domestic security service.

Speaker 59 I am certain

Speaker 59 100%

Speaker 59 that

Speaker 59 a leading member of the royal family have planned that.

Speaker 9 Mohammed Al-Fayyad's explosive allegation that Prince Philip was part of a murder plot was taken very seriously by Scotland Yard.

Speaker 36 Her boyfriend's father insists it was no accident. And so today, an official investigation was launched.

Speaker 9 It was headed by Lord John Stevens.

Speaker 9 Stevens and a team of investigators took a deep dive into the case.

Speaker 41 We had to disprove that there was a conspiracy.

Speaker 13 So what we did, we looked at every single allegation that had come forward.

Speaker 9 Finally, after three pressure-packed years, Stevens and his team announced their findings.

Speaker 19 There was no conspiracy to murder any occupants of that car.

Speaker 16 This was a tragic accident.

Speaker 9 Then, in 2007, some 10 years after Diana's death, the inquiry was followed by a six-month court hearing, and the jury came to the exact same conclusion. Diana was not murdered.

Speaker 32 The notion that she was set up by Prince Philip has been completely debunked.

Speaker 9 Now, more than 20 years later, the monarchy has moved on. But Diana's impact is still being felt.

Speaker 34 Coming up.

Speaker 4 The new royal rebels following in Diana's footsteps.

Speaker 14 Prince Harry effectively snapped, basically saying, back off, you're hounding her like you hounded my mother.

Speaker 10 He was going to make sure that history was not repeated.

Speaker 9 She'd be 59 now. a middle-aged grandmother.
Her time in the spotlight passed to a new generation of royals.

Speaker 9 More than two decades after her death, there are reminders of Princess Diana all over London. A park, a fountain, and of course, one other place.

Speaker 9 Best remembered for that iconic image taken just days after she died.

Speaker 9 People are still paying homage to Princess Diana here at Kensington Palace, leaving flowers and notes, paying their respects to the woman who will always be known as the People's Princess.

Speaker 9 Princess Diana's royal tenure lasted just 15 years, but her legacy endures.

Speaker 24 Diana made the monarchy more accessible. She made people feel

Speaker 24 that members of the royal family were real people with real feelings and real emotions. I think that's Diana's legacy.

Speaker 9 Diana raised her children to be more casual and more open than royal tradition permitted.

Speaker 9 She tackled issues that weren't always so comfortable, going places and meeting people who were all too often left behind. Now, her children do the same.

Speaker 48 Our visits with our mother ignited a deep and growing interest for the great work the charity does for the homeless.

Speaker 9 Two decades after Diana walked through a minefield in Angola, son Harry literally followed in her footsteps, continuing her work to rid the world of landmines by 2025.

Speaker 9 Let's make future generations proud and finish what we started.

Speaker 9 Diana's influence extends to William and Harry's personal lives as well. When Prince William chose to marry a commoner, Kate Middleton,

Speaker 9 she was accepted and celebrated because his mother paved the way three decades earlier. And on Kate's ring finger is a constant reminder of Diana.

Speaker 48 It is a family ring, yes, it's my mother's engagement ring. This is my way of keeping her sort of close to it all.

Speaker 9 And Prince Harry? He married actress actress Meghan Markle their wedding a union of royal and American traditions punctuated by this moment

Speaker 9 an African-American bishop delivering his sermon in the chapel at 900 year old Windsor Castle

Speaker 9 NBC royal expert Camilla Tominy suspects Diana might have approved of her son's bride

Speaker 10 I think she would have been really

Speaker 10 attracted to the idea of Megan being someone who knew her own mind and wanted to champion the causes that are important to her.

Speaker 9 But Harry also also understood the scrutiny his new bride would face. He'd seen firsthand what his mom went through.

Speaker 10 Very much from the off, he was going to protect the woman by his side and make sure that history was not repeated.

Speaker 9 Still, the couple was tabloid fodder.

Speaker 10 Harry effectively snapped and issued a missive to the press basically saying, back off, you're hounding her like you hounded my mother.

Speaker 9 After almost a year and eight months of marriage, Harry and Megan made a stark choice. They were stepping back from their royal lives and moving to the United States.

Speaker 9 Camilla Tominy says protecting Meghan was one reason, but there were others as well.

Speaker 10 Prince Harry was already quite unhappy in the royal family when he was just kind of playing plus one to the Cambridges.

Speaker 10 Meghan said she felt that she wasn't really properly understood and supported at this idea that the institution couldn't quite cope with this quite outspoken, super confident, experienced woman of the world.

Speaker 9 Harry and Meghan cut a multi-million dollar deal with Netflix. There are rumors she'll return to acting.

Speaker 9 The excitement over the crown shows the royals are still fascinating. But did the series stray too far from fact?

Speaker 9 The UK's culture secretary asked Netflix to place a label on the show identifying it as fiction. Netflix declined.
A former palace official called the series a hatchet job on Prince Charles.

Speaker 9 As for the real Charles and Camilla, they've been happily married for 15 years.

Speaker 9 And William's future looms large.

Speaker 10 When people think about future kings, they think of this idea of Prince Charles not being on the throne for long, and then the vision really is of King William.

Speaker 9 Today, in Paris, on the overpass atop the now infamous tunnel where Diana died, is a shrine of sorts,

Speaker 9 a place where people from all over the world leave flowers,

Speaker 9 a note,

Speaker 9 a name, to honor the woman they never knew, but will always remember. A princess who was much more than a royal, and who still has a hold on us after all these years.

Speaker 57 That's all for now.

Speaker 2 I'm Lester Holt.

Speaker 19 Thanks for joining us.

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