Growing up, my mum told me she would never forget where she was when she heard JFK was shot; it amazed me until the day I woke up and heard Princess Diana was dead. I remember where I was and what I had planned for the day.

Many of us will have similar memories of that fateful day on 31st August 1997; many will think they know the facts of what occurred; however, many other worrying factors have been kept away from the public.

Did Princess Diana die in a horrendous accident, or was she murdered by royalty, the Secret Service or another hidden organisation? Why did a woman who was so careful about car safety fail to buckle up on that one night?

The Facts We Know

Princess Diana was at The Ritz in Paris; she wanted to leave and go and stay at her boyfriend Dodi Fayed’s flat. The paparazzi were relentless in pursuing her, having parked outside the front of the hotel. Princess Diana devised a clever plan, she would have decoy vehicles at the hotel’s front whilst she left from the back. However, as she left, the paparazzi monitoring the back alerted those at the front, and a pursuit began.

The car entered the Pont de Alma tunnel at a dangerous speed, Henri Paul; the driver lost control at 0023. He swerved from the left and collided head-on with the 13th pillar that supported the roof. Both Fayed and Paul were pronounced dead at the scene. Diana was rushed to hospital and later pronounced dead; Trevor Rees-Jones, their bodyguard, survived terrible injuries. He states he does not know what happened, as he has no memory of the accident. His first recollection is hearing Diana moaning and calling out for Fayed. Paul was driving at 65mph, a dangerous speed when you consider the limit is 31mph. Police arrived at the scene ten minutes later and arrested several paparazzi, confiscating their cameras and footage.

An ambulance rushed to the scene where they treated Diana at the crash site; at 0100, she suffered cardiac arrest and was resuscitated at the scene; she was then moved to the ambulance at 0120 and departed the scene at 0141. Once in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, the doctor demanded the they stop giving Diana more help; this was the first of several strange events. The ambulance stopped within sight of the hospital; why not drive the extra minutes to get to the hospital? She arrived at the hospital at 0206 and was pronounced dead a couple of hours later.

Later an investigation would find that Henri Paul was guilty of causing the accident. He reportedly had a blood-alcohol level of 1.75g per litre, more than three times the legal limit. This, along with the press, would be blamed for her death.

Other Unexplained Peculiarities.

Once Princess Diana was pronounced dead, the body was embalmed almost immediately. This meant that no one could do a thorough post-mortem and examination of the body. This quick embalmment is also illegal in France. The tunnel where the crash happened had limited forensic activity. Authorities thoroughly cleaned the tunnel, hosed it down, and within a couple of hours, people were using it again. The mother to the future King was killed, and the tunnel opened the same day. I have seen motorways closed for days in the UK when there has been a fatal crash.

The car that Princess Diana got into on that night was an S280 Mercedes, nothing unusual there. Except, it was a former stolen car. Reports mention a missing a microchip that controlled the vehicle’s braking, steering, and acceleration. Paul had been off the night of the crash. He returned specially to drive the Princess and Fayed, which have never been explained.

The Conspiracies Surrounding Princess Diana’s Death

From these inconsistencies, many theories have emerged about whether this was an accident or not. Were the killers business rivals of Fayed and did not intend to kill the Princess? Did the Royal family have her murdered so that Prince Charles could remarry? Was she pregnant with Fayed’s baby and about to marry him? Could the mother of the future King be married to a Muslim? Some might think this ludicrous, but the recent racist claims made by Meghan Markle leaves us to question, is it so impossible to believe? Evidence exists that a pregnancy test was carried out on death, and it was negative; the test was a blood test and not always accurate. Doctors never did a urine test, with the quick embalming of the body this could not be carried out.

Henri Paul

The cause of death was attributed to Paul being drunk the night of the accident. If you view the group’s video footage at the back of The Ritz, he does not look like a man under the influence. He did not smell of alcohol; otherwise, loyal bodyguard Rees-Jones would not have let the couple get into the car. Reports also stated that he had some prescription anti-depressants in his system. However, no doctor has ever come forward to say he prescribed these tablets; his medical records state that he was never given them. The drug was discovered when his family demanded his blood was retested for alcohol. The first screening by the police did not pick the drug up.

This isn’t the last strange coincidence that occurs with Paul, as you will see later.

Diana was Killed After the Accident.

The claims that Princess Diana was conscious after the accident and could be heard moaning were further compounded when off duty physician Fredrick Mailliez reported that she had limited injuries when he attended to her at the scene; he was convinced she would live. Why then did the ambulance stop so close to the hospital to administer aid. Would it not have been better to continue to the hospital with all the technology available to help save her life.

The Mysterious Motorbike

Rees-Jones remembers a motorbike sitting beside the car at the lights. Other witnesses stated that they saw a man get off a motorbike at the crash site, look into the windows, raise his arms in an X sign, and then drive off. The man has never been found. No CCTV is available of the crash or motorbike as the cameras stopped working in the tunnel the day before the accident.

Flash of Light

Witnesses also state they remember a bright flash of light coming from the tunnel. Scotland Yard looked into this several years later, members of the secret service have talked extensively about strobe lighting to distract and temporarily blind drivers.

Ex secret service agent Richard Tomlinson states that MI6 monitored Princess Diana for many years before her death. They used many paid informants to keep track of her activities. One that they frequently used in The Ritz was a man called Henri Paul; Tomlinson has since been forced to retract that statement, so whether it is the truth or not, we will never know.

Documents from 1992, which are a detailed plan for the assassination of Serbian leader Milosevic in which he would be driven through a tunnel at high speed, a strobe light would distract the driver, causing a fatal crash. Tunnels were used for operations like this, as there were fewer witnesses there. If there was no truth in anything, Tomlinson said, why when he landed at JFK airport was he was arrested on sight and deported.

Killed for her Success in Campaigning

One of the more interesting theories is that The Secret Service murdered her to stop her campaigning on behalf of the Palestinians. Annie Machon, former MI5, has risked her life to bring this to the public, saying that Diana would have been very successful at getting the Palestinian blight to peoples attention after her success with the landmine campaign.

Mohammed Fayed has been more vocal than many on the fact he believes his son was murdered. Fayed has been constantly labelled as a trouble maker who is unpatriotic. That is a view I don’t hold of him. Mainly as I have direct experience of how much he loved both his son and Diana.

One of Princess Diana’s schools was a private school in Tonbridge; Fayed bought this school after her death. He has set it up as a school for young people who battle life through mental health, circumstances and behaviour. He hasn’t publicised it and chooses not to advertise it, which is why I have not named it. I know all this because I have worked at this fantastic school and I couldn’t think of a better tribute to Princess Diana. Wherever she is, I am sure she smiles for every child that succeeds there.

One of the theories I came across when researching this was that Princess Diana faked her death to have a ‘normal’ life. Although the romantic in me would love to see this truth, I know it is not. A mother with her power of love for her sons would never have left them and caused them so much pain. As with all of these theories, we will never know the truth. All we can do is to read about them, research them and formulate our own opinions. Some might say an accident is the least likely option.

2.5 million people across the planet watched the funeral of Princess Diana. There has never been such a public outpouring of grief in my lifetime. Is one of these theories the truth or are all these wild theories because a nation found it hard to believe that their beautiful Princess was dead. What do you think?