Tragedy or Strategy: Princess Diana

On August 31, 1997, at roughly 4 am in Paris, France, Princess Diana of Wales, along with her boyfriend at the time Dodi Fayed, and Driver Henri Paul were killed after suffering serious injuries while in a car crash. 

There were found to be numerous amounts of alcohol and drugs in the system of the driver, including prescription drugs, various forms of alcohol, antidepressants, and antipsychotics. Henri Paul was later deemed the only person responsible for their crash. Princess Diana’s funeral was publicized for the entire world to see and over 2.5 billion people tuned in to watch her funeral procession.

Known for her “rebellious nature,” Princess Diana chose to change the world’s perspective on taboo topics because she did not want her kids to grow up in a world where problems around the world were overlooked. She has been pictured with people known to have AIDS, she has addressed the topic of homelessness in the United Kingdom, and she has openly discussed her struggle with mental illness and the overstimulation that being famous brings, just to mention a few examples. 

Given her well-known willingness to reach beyond social norms that typically broke royalty protocol, many people have wondered if her death was an accident, or if it was in fact planned. 

Some of the many conspiracy theories surrounding the death of the princess include:

• Diana was pregnant with her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed’s baby, and the Royal Family couldn’t handle it, so they somehow set up her death

• Diana was scared that she was at risk of dying. She had written a note and given it to her butler for “safekeeping.” The letter said as follows: “I am sitting here at my desk today in October, longing for someone to hug me and encourage me to keep strong and hold my head high. This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous. [...] is planning 'an accident' in my car, brake failure, and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for Charles to marry.”

• The paparazzi made the car crash intentional. This theory is one of the most well-known and is still brought up to this day. Some say that a flash of a camera may have caused the crash while others say that the driver could have been caught up with avoiding the crowd that he lost focus and caused them to crash. 

• The driver, Henri Paul, caused the car to crash with himself inside, on purpose. He might have known information about the relationship between Diana and Dodi, and was interrogated persistently by the Royal Family, so he in turn killed Diana and her boyfriend with him in the car.

• The Mercedes they were driving in was tampered with before they got in the car. Some people think that prior to them driving in the car, someone messed with the gas and brake pedals and somehow caused Paul to not have control of the car.

• Others think that there was nothing suspicious about the drive itself, but the care she was supposed to have received at the hospital in France. One theory explains how the medical care they should have performed for Diana in order to save her life was not administered, which was the main reason why she died.

There are many theories as to why Diana may have died. Although some are a little bit more extreme than others, any one of the available options above could be true. Or, none of those options are anywhere close to what actually happened. I guess we shall never know….