Princess Diana Death: 8 Conspiracy Theories

On the night of August 31, 1997, something truly terrible happened: Princess Diana died in a fatal car accident in Paris, and the effects of her death would be felt around the world. But that’s where the consensus about the facts ends.

For some people, what happened that night was not simply a tragic accident. Rather, it was the result of some kind of conspiracy secretly carried out by agents of the British state or something else, they claim.

Numerous reports, investigations and experts agree with the official account of the events: that Diana was in a car driven by a man who was intoxicated and this factor, in addition to other institutional reasons, triggered the tragedy.

But others still believe that the events of that night were somewhat dark and doubt that the death was an accident. Conspiracy theories adopt different versions, but they all point to the same fundamental belief: that someone wanted to kill Diana and helped orchestrate the fatal accident that night.

These conspiracies were so convincing and so widespread that, with the help of the Daily Express and Egyptian businessman Mohamed al-Fayed, the Metropolitan Police was forced to launch Operation Paget, an investigation to establish whether there was any truth to the theories. The operation lasted years, cost millions of pounds and it was finally discovered that the theories were baseless, that everything that happened that night was a very unfortunate accident.

Read more: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle invoke Princess Diana in interview with Oprah Winfrey

The report examined 175 theories about what happened that night, some were petty while others were more compelling. He discovered that none of them were true.

However, these conspiracies remain on everyone’s lips. Here are eight of the things that make people doubt the official story of the events, as well as the truth about each of the claims.

Diana was pregnant

This, according to Mohamed al-Fayed, was the motive for the murder. Diana had become pregnant with al-Fayed’s child which displeased the British state.

Fayed said the royal family “could not accept that an Egyptian Muslim could one day be the stepfather of the future king of England.” It was then that he planned to kill her.

The discussion about a possible pregnancy arose even before Diana died. During a holiday in France a few weeks earlier, some newspapers were speculating that she might be pregnant, and that speculation was fueled by mysterious comments Diana made about “a big surprise.”

But there were no signs of pregnancy during the post-mortem examination. Other tests on Diana’s blood also revealed no signs of pregnancy. And there’s no evidence that Diana even suspected she might be pregnant: Numerous close friends and others said her menstrual cycle was normal, she was using birth control, and she hadn’t even mentioned the possibility of being pregnant to confidants.

Diana believed that the crown was going to kill her

The main motivating factor behind the conspiracies is the belief that Diana herself thought she was going to be killed. And that, apparently, is true.

Chief among them is a letter that was revealed by Paul Burrell, Diana’s butler, who said he had given it to her for safekeeping.

“I’m sitting here at my desk today in October, longing for someone to hug me and encourage me to stay strong and hold my head up. This particular phase of my life is the most dangerous. […] “He is planning ‘an accident’ in my car, a brake failure and a serious head injury to clear the way for Carlos to get married,” it said.

The prophetic nature of the letter is disturbing. And, in fact, it was justified: when Diana wrote the letter, she had been having problems with her car; Furthermore, she expressed her fears about it and her bodyguard had died in an accident that she believed had been a conspiracy.

Diana clearly had concerns about her safety: that’s not a conspiracy theory. But there doesn’t seem to be any official suggestion that she would actually be killed, even if there was animosity between some members of the royal family and Diana.

The paparazzi made the car crash on purpose

Photographers were repeatedly blamed for Diana’s death. The story became popular in part because it reflected a concern that had dogged Diana throughout her life: that the often prurient interest in her life was causing her harm.

This theory has three specific forms. The first alleges that the group of paparazzi He chased and pushed Diana’s Mercedes so that he could make the accident happen. The second maintains that the photographers fostered an environment in which an accident could occur. While the third suggests that the reporters accidentally created a situation that the conspirators took advantage of to kill the people in the car.

The official investigation noted that the paparazzi are not really a significant group: although they do the same job, they generally compete with each other for the best photo. Many work for different companies and do completely different jobs, and some work as professional photojournalists.

Official investigations have found that the Mercedes car Diana was in appeared to have been driven quickly to escape photographers. But Operation Paget discovered that it was the result of normal paparazzi behavior and that they had not been participating in any criminal conspiracy.

Driver Henri Paul intentionally caused the accident

Henri Paul was the head of security at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, but conspiracy theorists believe he was in the pay of at least one other organization: the security services in France or the United Kingdom, or both.

People who doubt the official course of events say that Paul’s central claim about being drunk at the time of the accident was not only false, but was a lie spread in the media to cover up the murder. And that was done, in part, by swapping his body with another person, so that the toxicology results would look correct.

There are several reasons why people believe this. At first, Paul didn’t seem to act like he was drunk earlier in the night, for example. And beliefs that he was on the security services’ payroll stem from the fact that he appeared to have more money than expected, and that some security offices have suggested they may have had a French source inside the hotel.

But there is no evidence to suggest that any of those things contributed to the accident in any way other than the official story. Numerous tests showed that Henri Paul’s blood contained alcohol, although errors were made with the tests, and repeated checks have certified that he had been drinking.

Something was wrong with the Mercedes in which Diana was traveling.

There is perhaps nothing more central to the conspiracy than the car that transported Diana and that would eventually kill her. Conspiracy theorists claim that his route was blocked, that he was driving at an unusual speed, or that something had been altered in the car.

Everything in the car seemed to be in order. People reported seeing different speeds, and the car was certainly driving fast that night, but there was nothing unusual about the way it drove.

But much of the confusion seems to arise from the fact that it is simply too difficult to estimate speed. Witnesses who reported different things probably weren’t wrong, but it’s very hard to know how fast something is going when you’re outside of it, especially if you have nothing to compare it to.

There were bright flashes and strange vehicles on the road

Numerous people reported seeing flashes as the car headed toward the tunnel where it would crash, flashes that were blamed for the accident itself. But the problem was that many people reported seeing different flashes, at different times, from different places.

There were many flashes that night: the photographers following the car and the light from the vehicles’ headlights. But none appear to have been malicious or part of a conspiracy.

Diana’s medical care was deliberately sabotaged

Conspiracy theorists believe that doctors deliberately allowed Diana to die. By not treating her properly, they prevented her from staying alive.

Most of this revolves around your treatment at the accident scene. If they had taken her to the nearest hospital and treated her there, she might have survived, they say.

Part of the belief in this theory comes from the fact that the French approach to emergency care is simply different to that of the UK. In France, emergency teams focus on providing treatment at the scene before transporting a person to hospital; in the UK it’s about getting to the hospital sooner.

As the writers of the Operation Paget report point out, such a conspiracy would require a substantial number of medical experts and other caregivers to break their ethics and then lie about it. It was not the case, they conclude.

It is impossible to say whether there would have been more success if Diana had been taken to the hospital. But either way, doctors have said it was almost impossible for her to survive her injuries.

Diana’s bodyguard was murdered

Conspiracy theories surrounding Diana circulated even when she was alive, and in fact, the princess seemed to believe them. In 2004, the American news channel NBC broadcast a video showing Diana discussing an affair with Barry Mannakee, a former bodyguard whom she described as “the greatest love I’ve ever had.”

“[Pero] everything was discovered and he was expelled [de la protección real]. Then he was murdered. “I think they took him down,” he said on the tapes.

Conspiracy theorists took up that claim and suggested that there was a mystery driver who had apparently helped orchestrate the car accident in which Mannakee died. He had been traveling as a passenger on a motorcycle: that bicycle collided with another car that was exiting an intersection “intentionally” according to some.

Conspiracy theories continued to rumble and became part of the same set of beliefs that animate theories about what really happened to Princess Diana.

But The Independent discovered, after research published weeks ago, that the truth was just as tragic, but completely accidental. The driver of the car immediately stopped and later agreed to help with the investigation, even testifying for Operation Paget.