It has been 28 years since the world lost Diana, Princess of Wales, in a devastating car crash in Paris. Yet the memory of that night, and the haunting words she may have spoken in her final moments, still resonate today.
On 31 August 1997, Diana and her companion Dodi Fayed were pursued by paparazzi through the streets of Paris when their chauffeur, Henri Paul, lost control of their Mercedes-Benz S280 in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel. The car slammed into a pillar at high speed, killing Paul and Fayed instantly.
Diana’s bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, was the sole survivor, though he sustained catastrophic injuries. Diana herself was pulled from the wreck alive, but gravely wounded.
Final hunting words
On the 20th anniversary of the tragedy, French firefighter Xavier Gourmelon gave his first interview about what he saw that night. Speaking to Good Morning Britain, he recalled that when he reached the mangled vehicle, he had no idea who the victims were.
Inside the wreckage, Diana briefly regained consciousness.
“She looked at me and said, ‘Oh my God, what’s happened?’” Gourmelon remembered. He described her as “agitated” and frightened, before she slipped back into unconsciousness.
The emergency team managed to resuscitate her after she went into cardiac arrest at the scene. “We gave her CPR, and after 20 seconds she regained consciousness. We then transferred her to the ambulance,” he said.
At that moment, Gourmelon believed she would survive. “I thought she’d live. I didn’t see any blood on her, only an injury to her shoulder. I truly thought she was going to pull through.”
A tragic end in hospital
Diana was rushed to the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, but her internal injuries proved catastrophic. Despite desperate efforts, she suffered another cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at 4 a.m.
News of her passing reverberated around the globe, sparking unprecedented public grief and leading to an outpouring of tributes that have never truly faded.
Investigations and unanswered questions
A French investigation later concluded that Henri Paul had been driving under the influence of alcohol and at excessive speed while attempting to evade paparazzi. A subsequent British inquest, Operation Paget, returned a verdict of “unlawful killing” due to Paul’s reckless driving and the pursuit by photographers.
Another key factor, the inquiry noted, was that none of the car’s occupants were wearing seat belts—a decision that likely proved fatal.
Diana’s last years
The crash came just weeks after Diana’s blossoming romance with Dodi Fayed captured worldwide attention. It followed her 1996 divorce from Prince Charles, ending 15 years of a turbulent marriage.
In one of the most unsettling details to emerge years later, it was revealed that in 1995 Diana had written a private note expressing fears that her life might end in what she described as a staged car accident—fueling decades of speculation about the circumstances of her death.
