The car crash that killed Princess Diana on on Aug, 31, 1997, was a tragedy that shocked the world. Multiple investigations ultimately attributed her “unlawful death” to the reckless driving of both her chauffeur, Henri Paul, who was ruled to be drunk at the time, and the paparazzi dangerously tailing her limousine.
But two decades later, conspiracy theories endure, with fingers pointing at everyone from the paparazzi and the royal family to the French police and Britain’s MI6 foreign intelligence service for their supposed roles in the deaths of Diana and her then-boyfriend Dodi Fayed.
With Aug. 31, 2017, marking the 20-year anniversary of Diana’s death, revisit the unsubstantiated theories surrounding what happened in Paris’ Pont de L’Alma tunnel that night.
1. Diana and Fayed’s relationship doomed the couple
One common theory posits that Diana and Fayed’s public courtship cost them their lives.
Martyn Gregory, author of Diana: The Last Days, explains in the TLC documentary Princess Diana: Tragedy or Treason that Fayed was planning on proposing to Diana the night of the crash.
Hours before, “Dodi decided to go to the jeweler Repossi (who) showed him a new ring, which was part of a series called ‘Tell Me Yes,’ ” he said. “He didn’t buy one of the rings, but he did order a ring for Diana, and that was delivered to the Imperial Suite at the Ritz Hotel.”
After his son’s death, Mohammed Fayed famously launched his own investigation into the accident, believing the royal family was biased against his son because he was an Egyptian Muslim. Fayed reasoned the British establishment wanted to prevent Diana and Dodi from marrying so that Prince William, the future king, and Prince Harry would not have a Muslim stepfather.
2. Diana was pregnant
Central to Fayed’s belief that foul play was behind Diana’s death was his further claim that Diana was pregnant with Dodi’s child at the time of the crash. Fayed even publicly said that Diana phoned him on the night she died to tell him about the pregnancy.
Adding fuel to conspiracy theorists’ fire that Diana was expecting was the fact that she was partially embalmed after her death, a procedure that would make it impossible to test her blood.
“She was embalmed before the autopsy, which is against the law,” Richard Belzer, actor, author and Diana conspiracy theorist, told Tragedy or Treason. “We couldn’t prove she was pregnant or not because she was embalmed … so that’s incredibly, ghoulishly suspicious to order an embalming, especially in such a high-profile death.”
Operation Paget, the British police’s investigation into the conspiracy theories behind Diana’s death, ran tests on Diana’s blood found in the wrecked Mercedes, finding no trace of the HCG hormone that indicates pregnancy.
Read More – Who killed Princess Diana? Conspiracy theories endure, twenty years later
