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CNN Special Reports
Diana Chasing A Fairytale. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired July 03, 2021 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00]
CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Was she concerned at all about how this might affect the boys?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think she was mostly concerned that if she kept being crushed, as she saw it, by the system, that would be more damaging for them.
WARD (voice-over): The war of the Wales is on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARY TILLOTSON, CNN HOST: We're talking about the troubles through the royal house of Windsor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They may not love each other at all, but they love themselves very greatly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WARD (voice-over): From the summer through the fall, every day seems to bring a new revelation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Diana's taped confessions, can life at the top get any worse?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, CNN HOST: Maybe fairy tales don't come true after all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WARD (voice-over): Privately, insider's say, Diana and Charles meet and agree to separate. But the Queen will not allow it, a theory that the palace won't comment on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a very difficult situation and as the relationship was deteriorating to try and maintain a happy face and business as usual.
WARD (voice-over): Early November 1992, Diana and Charles arrive in Seoul, South Korea.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the plane came to a stop, Mr. and Mrs. Glum stood in the doorway.
WARD: Is that what you called them?
PATRICK JEPHSON, PRINCESS DIANA'S FORMER SECRETARY: They looked like two people not only didn't they want to be in each other's company, but they probably didn't want to be in Korea either.
WARD (voice-over): It's clear things must change.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With regret, the Prince and Princess of Wales have decided to separate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JEPHSON: It was as if a weight had been lifted from them both.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At that stage, both of them could define new pathways and do what they needed to do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Princess of Wales would like to make a short statement.
WARD (voice-over): December 1993
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DIANA SPENCER-WINDSOR, PRINCESS OF WALES: When I started my public life 12 years ago, I understood the media might be interested in what I did. But I was not aware of how overwhelming that attention would become.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WARD (voice-over): Diana makes a surprise announcement.
(BEGIN VIDOE CLIP)
SPENCER-WINDSOR: At the end of this year, when I've completed my diary of official engagements, I will be reducing the extent of the public life I've led so far.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WARD (voice-over): She retreats inside Kensington Palace.
JEPHSON (voice-over): I think for her a lot of the time it did feel a bit like a gilded cage. There was usually a reporter or a paparazzo down by the gates of the palace. Very difficult for her to have a normal social life.
WARD (voice-over): They follow her every where; to the gym, to the store, even to the Alps on skiing vacations with her sons.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SPENCER-WINDSOR: Excuse me. As a parent, could I ask you to respect my children's space?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCE WILLIAM WINDSOR, DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE: Back then, 20 years ago, people would be utterly appalled if they knew exactly what went on.
WARD (voice-over): Prince William reflects on those times in a new documentary on ITV.
W. WINDSOR: I sadly remember most of the time that she ever cried about anything was to do with press intrusion.
WARD (voice-over): By letting the press into her private life, Diana has opened Pandora's box. It is spring 1994, Prince Charles decides to go public with an authorized biography and interview.
JEPHSON: This is what happens when you get into a PR war. It's a race to the bottom.
WARD (voice-over): Making television history and dropping a bombshell.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you try to be faithful and honorable to your wife when you took on the vow of marriage?
CHARLES WINDSOR, PRINCE OF WALES: Yes, absolutely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you were?
C. WINDSOR: Yes, until it became irretrievably broken down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WARD (voice-over): On the night the interview airs, Diana files silently back with one threat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That picture spoke a million words.
WARD: What was she saying with that picture?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anything you can do, I can do better.
WARD (voice-over): Including a television interview. A little more than a year later, Diana sneaks a TV news crew into her home for a tell-all interview.
WARD: What was your reaction?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Silly woman, was my immediate reaction. You know, you've done your dirty washing with the Andrew Morton book in 1992. Why do it all over again?
[22:05:03] PAUL BURRELL, PRINCESS DIANA'S BUTLER: The Panorama interview was the incinderary device in the middle of the House of Windsor that blew up and nothing was ever the same again.
WARD (voice-over): Just one month later, Buckingham Palace announces the divorce, putting Diana in the crosshairs more than ever before. That when we come back.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
WARD (voice-over): It is summer 1997, exactly one year after Charles and Diana's bitter divorce. And Diana is in the midst of a reinvention.
BURRELL: I remember the -- one of the last dresses she had made. And she said do you like it, well, I'm sure men will like it because it's far too low and it's far too high.
WARD: So less formal, more revealing.
BURRELL: She was a beautiful woman, why not show people this is me. Instead of hide it away, show it.
[22:10:04]
WARD (voice-over): Diana is free from a loveless marriage, royal responsibilities and a rigidly controlled way of life.
BURRELL: She's trying to withdraw and take (inaudible), trying to take some time out because she was trying to focus on really what was her life about.
WARD (voice-over): She scales back her public role, staff and Scotland Yard security detail. Butler Paul Burrell is one of the few who remains close to Diana.
BURRELL: She dismissed her body guards because they were running tales and stories back to Prince Charles. She wanted her freedom, she wanted a life.
WARD (voice-over): It's a dangerous move. Some even say reckless. But Diana wants a simpler life focused on her boys, a few select charities and her new romance.
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSEN, AUTHOR, THE DAY DIANA DIED: The love of her life, really after Charles was a Pakistani heart surgeon name Hasnat Khan.
WARD (voice-over): Diana met Hasnat Khan while he was treating a close friend.
ANDERSEN: She was instantly smitten with him for some reason. An unlikely guy because he's kind of a slightly punchy, nondescript fellow. But she said she had a thing for doctor. And she became so enumerative of Khan that it became very serious, they had a very tempestuous affair.
WARD (voice-over): Kahn doesn't like the limelight or want the pressure of being Di's guy. While Diana keeps Kahn hidden from the press, she publicly promotes charities close to her heart, like the HALO Trust which advocates against landmines.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was aware of the power she had, I mean ...
WARD (voice-over): Arthur Edwards photographs Diana's trip to Angola, Africa in 1997.
ARTHUR EDWARDS, PHOTOGRAPHER: She was going (to comfort these kids who had their legs blown off and arms blow off, and highlight this sort of the awful things about land mines. And then, get dressed in all the kit and walk through a mine field. To do that, knowing it would get massive publicity for that, I think it was commendable, I think it was tremendous.
WARD (voice-over): And Diana has an extraordinary gift for comforting those in pain.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She said "I found myself being more and more involved with people who were rejected by society".
EDWARDS: She was the ultimate outsider. Here is the most adored, celebrated - in many way beloved women on the planet. And yet she never felt like she belonged. I think that's why she had this affinity, this need really to connect with people who were out on the periphery of society.
WARD (voice-over): But the attention Angola brings is a reminder of the media circuit that comes with dating Diana. While Diana wants to get married, Khan isn't so sure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She wanted to get married. So much so that she went to Pakistan to meet his family twice without being invited by him.
WARD (voice-over): Diana confides in close friend, Roberto Devorik about the trip.
ROBERTO DEVORIK, PRINCESS DIANA'S FRIEND: I called her and she sounded threatful. I said, "You've been crying." She said, "Yes, but I will tell you when I come back things didn't go well." And as they said that the parents were vey against her because they said that she would ruin the life of her son.
WARD: Because of the media frenzy ...
DEVORIK: No ...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... that surrounded her?
DEVORIK: ... I think it's, the parents were large from - he's Pakistanian, he's another color of skin. She was going to be the future mother of the King of England. It would have created problems.
WARD (voice-over): Diana sees it differently.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And she really delivered him an ultimatum. And when she did that he stormed out.
BURRELL: I remember the Princess coming back and telling me that it was over. He was saying but if I marry you I'll become nobody. I'll become your shadow. And I've worked all my life to be a heart surgeon. It's what matters most to me, that has to be part of our equation. You can't just dismiss that. But Diana was Diana and she wanted it her way.
WARD: Was she devastated by the break up?
DEVORIK: I think that she was, she was. She really liked the man. And I think that after Charles that was the candidate.
[22:15:03]
WARD (voice-over): But it isn't the fist time Diana has had her heart broken, and days later she is on the rebound of the French Rivera.
ANDERSEN: Mohamed Al Fayed invited her to spend that summer at his villa in San Tropex, on his yacht; the Jonikal.
WARD (voice-over): Mohamed Al Fayed is a wealthy Egyptian businessman who owns the iconic London department store, Harrods.
ANDERSEN: He was in fact trying to arrange a meeting between his son and Diana, and he did.
WARD (voice-over): And it turns out Al Fayed's son Dodi and Diana have a lot in common.
ANDERSEN: He too was caught in the middle of his parents horrible divorce and a custody battle. He often felt like an outsider and was often, actually, quite painfully shy.
WARD (voice-over): Shy? Yes and also immensely wealthy. Surrounded by body guards, Dodi can give Diana everything she needs and wants.
JEPHSON: The fact that she was a divorced mother of two growing young men, who was unable to offer them anything like the kind of holiday activities that their father could. So the attraction of a man and his family who had jets, and limousines and the trappings of royal life, I would that played a pretty big part in it.
WARD (voice-over): Friends say Dodi also gives her unwavering love and loyalty.
EDWARDS: She demanded that people give up everything for her. I mean she was needy in that sense. And ...
WARD: She was needy. ANDERSEN: Terribly needy. Absolutely, no question about it. Very draining and very demanding, but Dodi was willing to give up everything for her, so he was there constantly.
WARD: Over the next six weeks, Diana and Dodi are practically inseparable, meeting up in London, Paris and back here on the Riviera.
DEBBIE GRIBBLE, CHIEF STEWARDESS, JONIKAL: They spent their day sunbathing, swimming, taking trips into little bays.
WARD (voice-over): Debbie Gribble, now a yacht broker, is at that time the chief stewardess for the Al Fayeds.
GRIBBLE: They would have champagne and caviar most evenings.
BURRELL: She said well Hasnat better watch out because I've met somebody else.
WARD: Was it an attempt to make him jealous?
BURRELL: Absolutely it was. I have no doubt of that because the Princess played out this new romance completely in the public eye knowing that those pictures would be splashed on the front pages of the British tabloids.
PIERRE SU, PHOTOGRAPHER: It was like the dream story. The most photographed woman in the world. A new lover ...
WARD (voice-over): Pierre Su (ph) is a professional photographer.
SU: I had heard stories about my colleagues flying on private jets, hiring speed boats, helicopter. Any media outlet would give you anything you wanted because they couldn't get enough.
WARD: So what was the picture that everyone was looking for that summer?
PAUL BENNETT, THE SUNDAY MIRROR, EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Her kissing Dodi. It was the picture of her kissing somebody who wasn't Prince Charles.
WARD (voice-over): Diana allegedly tips off a photographer about the yacht's location. And days later the kiss is splashed across The Sunday Mirror's front page. Paul Bennett was the executive editor of the paper.
BENNETT: It sold off the shelves. The interest was phenomenal.
WARD: But is it true that this photographer -- he made more than $1 million?
BENNETT: Oh, absolutely. And he probably would have made $1 million the first week, I would have thought.
WARD (voice-over): The papers want more. The photographers will do anything to get it.
SU: It was like the media outlets didn't count the money. They were splashing the money around. They just wanted to shot.
WARD (voice-over): The game is on and there's no turning back. Diana's former secretary Patrick Jephson is watching from London and grows concerned.
JEPHSON: I got two very sharply contrasting pictures. One was of a woman who was -- yes -- free and liberated and rather determinedly happy. But another of a woman who was not nearly as grounded as she had been or needed to be. She chose the company of people who were rich jetsetters who tend to follow fashion rather than principle.
[22:20:00]
WARD (voice-over): When we come back tension mounts with the paparazzi.
GRIBBLE: There were times where Diana would be upset. I saw her crying on occasion.
WARD (voice-over): And then a high speed chase on the streets of Paris.
GRIBBLE: It felt like the whole situation was building up into something that was not going to be a good ending.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WARD (voice-over): The French Riveria, a playground for the rich in famous. And in August 1997 the back draw, for a summer romance between Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed.
JEPHSON: I saw particularly in the pictures of her on the Hasnat Khan playing games with boat loads of photographers. Somebody who had maybe found a terrific new freedom. But she had lost a lot too.
[22:25:00]
WARD (voice-over): Diana's relationship with Hasnat Khan has recently ended.
BURRELL:: Hasnat told me he tried to reach the Princess. He wanted to tell her sorry, come back.
WARD: If Diana was trying to Hasnat Khan attention it worked, but it came at a cost. She and Dodi are now in a risky game of hide and seek on the Mediterranean with the paparazzi.
GRIBBLE: There was a lot of media around a lot of paparazzi. Small boats, big boats, big lenses, small lenses.
WARD (voice-over): The couple is protected by Dodi's two bodyguards, but it's no replacement for the elite British security team Diana had given up.
GRIBBLE (voice-over): There were times that Diana would be upset. I saw her crying on occasion. Dodi was agitated, it was starting to get to him.
WARD (voice-over): On Saturday August 30th, Diana and Dodi flee to Paris, but the photographers follow.
GRIBBLE: That drive from the airport was fast and furious. The car was swerving through the streets of Paris.
WARD (voice-over): Debbie Gribble is traveling with the couple and riding in the car behind them.
GRIBBLE: There was so much tension it felt like the whole situation was building up into something that was not going to be a good ending.
WARD (voice-over): Later that night, Diana and Dodi leave his Paris apartment for dinner at the restaurant Benoit.
EDWARDS: When they tried to go to the restaurant, it was impossible. Just horrids and horrids of photographers.
WARD (voice-over): So they changed plans and go to the Ritz Hotel which is owned by Dodi's father. Photographer Pierre Su is standing outside.
SU: When they arrived at the Ritz, the car stopped in front of the entrance. I went up to the car window and I took a picture.
WARD: Did you ever have a sense that were invading these people's privacy?
SU: Not really because as I said, she was the most photographed woman in the world. She was expected to be photographed everyday, and she had been playing with the press all summer long.
WARD: Playing?
SU: Yes, she used the press a lot.
WARD (voice-over): A dangerous game without Diana's usual army of protection. Even after they get inside, Dodi remains tense.
ANDERSEN: He's really more and more upset hearing stories of how the press had gathered in Plaza Vendome right in front of the Ritz Hotel. But they weren't going to move, they weren't going to leave.
WARD (voice-over): The hotels acting head of security, Henri Paul, is off duty but returns after Diana and Dodi arrive.
SU: Henri came out of the hotel and he talked to me and a colleague of mine. Oddly enough he was very reassuring in terms of, do not worry you will get your shot. They will come out through the front door. And there was this Range Rover sitting up front so you could easily image that they would come out.
WARD (voice-over): But it's a ruse. Inside Henri Paul is seen on the hotel security camera talking to Diana, Dodi and bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, as they plan to escape through the hotel's back door and avoid the photographers. Paul will drive the couple to Dodi's apartment.
JEPHSON: I watched some of the footage of the footage of Diana on the CCTV from the Ritz Hotel. I could tell from her body language, the way she was holding herself and actually her interaction with Dodi, she wasn't happy. She knew something was wrong.
WARD (voice-over): They leave the hotel a little after midnight. A few photographers outback are immediately in pursuit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Diana and Dodi and the driver are all not wearing seat belts.
WARD (voice-over): Henri Paul is now speeding through the streets of Paris trying loose the photographers behind them.
ANDERSEN: The car is now hurtling into the Alma Tunnel surrounded by the press on motorcycles, cars and Henri Paul lost control of the car and it slams into a pillar.
WARD (voice-over): Pierre Su is still with the decoy car in front of the Ritz Hotel.
SU: I decided to call a friend of mine whom I know was following them. And I could hear in the tone of his voice that something was wrong and very wrong.
[22:30:00]
WARD (voice-over): American tourists, Robin and Jack Firestone happened to pass the crash site in a taxi.
ROBIN FIRESTONE, WITNESS: And there was already police -- it was certainly before the ambulance got there.
WARD (voice-over): They see some of Pierre Suu's colleagues taking pictures.
JACK FIRESTONE, WITNESS: What I saw was six, eight, nine, 10 people taking photographs of the outside of the car and running around taking photographs of the inside of the car from every angle that they could possibly get their flashes and their cameras into.
R. FIRESTONE: I was just saying to myself, what are they doing? Like, there can't possibly be anybody in the car at this point because clearly if there was, somebody would be helping.
WARD (voice-over): Fire Chief Xavier Gourmelon and his team of paramedics arrive at the tunnel minutes after the crash.
XAVIER GOURMELON, FIRE CHIEF (through translation): So the front of the car was in the opposite way of traffic. The front was very much smashed in.
WARD (voice-over): Dodi and driver, Henri Paul are pronounced dead. The first responders worked to save Trevor Rees-Jones and Diana.
GOURMELON (through translation): When I get close to her, she was waving her arm and saying, oh, my god, what's happened?
WARD (voice-over): Diana's body is facing backwards and sitting on the floor of the car. As they remove her from the vehicle, she goes into cardiac arrest.
GOURMELON (through translation): So, we administered CPR and her blood flow started running again.
WARD (on-camera): As first responders frantically work to save Diana, Trevor Rees-Jones has to be cut out of the car. They're both taken to the hospital where Diana undergoes emergency surgery, but her injuries are too severe. And at 4:00 a.m., Princess Diana is pronounced dead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are just getting word that the French government has informed all of us that Princess Diana has died.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She suffered serious internal injuries, and she succumbed.
WARD (voice-over): Trevor Rees-Jones is the only survivor. At Balmoral Castle in Scotland, Prince Charles is woken with a call from Paris.
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSEN, AUTHOR: Charles is told that Diana has died. One of the people working at Balmoral said that Charles let out this howl of anguish. He was devastated. Of course his first thoughts were for boys, what to do.
WARD (voice-over)When we come back, heartbreak and anguish.
MOHAMED AL FAYED, DODI AL-FAYED'S FATHER: If you lose a son, 42 years old, it's part of you, you know, like somebody chop your hand or chop your leg.
WARD (voice-over): And then, what really happened to Princess Diana?
ANDERSEN: She went to her lawyer and said, they're going to kill me and here's how, it's going to be either a helicopter accident or a car crash.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:37:40]
WARD (voice-over): August 31st, 1997, the morning after Princess Diana's tragic death, her brother Charles Spencer makes a bold statement.
CHARLES SPENCER, BROTHER OF PRINCESS DIANA: This is not a time for recriminations, but for sadness. However, I would say that I always believed the press would kill her in the end. It would appear that every proprietor and editor of every publication that has paid for intrusive and exploitative photographs of her encouraging greedy and ruthless individuals to risk everything in pursuit of Diana's image has blood on his hands today.
WARD (voice-over): Nine photographers are under investigation for manslaughter and failing to render assistance to the victims. While the French investigate what happened, the world comes to grips with the loss of an icon.
TONY BLAIR, FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I feel like everyone else in this country today utterly devastated. We are today in a state of shock, in mourning, in grief that is so deeply painful for us.
WARD (voice-over): Thousands of mourners gather around London and outside Kensington Palace in a display of grief unlike any Britain has ever seen before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This nation lost complete. Well, it just lost all control of its senses. You know, everybody just was flooding to these different centers around the country and laying flowers and signing these books of condolences. So, we all were gripped in this hysteria, losing this princess.
WARD (voice-over): While a nation known for keeping a stiff upper lip unleashes its grief, the Royal Family remains in seclusion at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where William and Harry have just been told their mother was killed.
DICKIE ARBITER, FORMER PALACE PRESS SECRETARY: There were two boys up there, aged 15 and 12, respectively, who lost their mother in the most tragic of circumstances, and the grandparents and their dad were doing the best they could to support those two young men.
WARD (voice-over): In 2017, Princes William and Harry spoke about their mother's death in a documentary on iTV.
PRINCE WILLIAM, DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE: Losing someone so close to you is utterly devastating, especially at that age.
[22:40:05]
I think it sort of really spins you out. You don't quite know where you are, what you're doing and what's going on.
The family came together, and Harry and I tried to talk as best we could about it, but being so small at that age, it's very difficult to communicate or understand your feelings. It's very complicated.
WARD (voice-over): To their grandmother, the Queen, the best course is to soldier on.
London is in an uproar, demanding the Queen speak and show us you care.
PATRICK JEPHSON, PRINCESS DIANA'S PRIVATE SECRETARY: I can remember thinking or sensing even, because I'd done a lot of royal work over the years. Come on, guys, do something. People had quite naturally thought they should gravitate towards Buckingham Palace, the home of the monarchy. And there they were, thousands of them in the dark around the palace and I don't think there was a single light on.
Everybody was away in Scotland. The people had come to the monarchy and the monarchy wasn't at home.
ANDERSEN: And this sets off, really the most perilous period in modern times for the British monarchy. And Tony Blair was then pressed into the fight by Charles and the two of them pretty much made it clear to the Queen that unless she did something and fast to show the people how much Diana meant to the Royal Family, as well as the people at large, the monarchy could be in jeopardy.
WARD (voice-over): Seeming disconnected, Queen Elizabeth is facing a crisis of image and sensitivity.
ANDERSEN: The night before Diana's funeral, she gave the speech of her life because it was a speech she knew on which everything depended.
QUEEN ELIZABETH II, QUEEN OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND THE OTHER COMMONWEALTH REALMS: As your queen and as a grandmother, I say from my heart, first, I want to pay tribute to Diana myself. She was an exceptional and gifted human being.
WARD (on-camera): Do you think that the Queen perhaps underestimated or didn't realize right away what an enormous outpouring of grief there would be?
ARBITER: It's not just the Queen underestimate it, everybody underestimate it.
WARD (voice-over): The next day, 2.5 billion people watch on TV and on the streets of London as Diana's coffin is carried to Westminster Abbey for her funeral. Her young sons walking solemnly behind.
Inside the abbey, Charles Spencer gives a surprising eulogy that is critical of the Royal Family.
SPENCER: Diana was the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty. Someone with a natural nobility who was classless and who proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic.
ROBERTO DEVORIK, PRINCESS DIANA'S FRIEND: We all clapped so heartily that never happened inside an abbey or in a church in England like that. I live in England 29 years of my life. The English -- one says that they're very cold blooded, but my God, they showed the world they are not.
That day, the days before the funeral, the world stopped for the English people.
WARD (voice-over): Charles Spencer also has a word about the paparazzi.
SPENCER: But of all the ironies about Diana, perhaps the greatest was this, a girl given the name of the ancient goddess of hunting was, in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age.
WARD (voice-over): Was Diana hunted to death? After the princess is laid to rest, the world wants answers. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody's blaming everybody else.
WARD (voice-over): For the next two years, investigators in France try to determine what really happened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will we ever know exactly who or what was responsible for the death of Diana?
WARD (on-camera): The French investigation finds that the driver, Henri Paul, was speeding and intoxicated, deeming him solely responsible for the accident. The photographers are cleared, and the case is closed. But for years afterwards, conspiracy theories linger especially with Dodi's father, Mohamed Al-Fayed.
ARTHUR EDWARDS, PHOTOGRAPHER: Mohamed believes and always believe that his son and the family is very dear friend, Diana, Princess of Wales, were murdered.
WARD (voice-over): When we come back, an alarming new piece of evidence.
PAUL BURRELL, PRINCESS DIANA'S BUTLER: I have a letter which says the next few months are the most difficult of my life. I fear I'm going be killed in an automobile accident.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:48:59]
WARD (voice-over): On the streets of London in January 2007, the press is in pursuit of a young, beautiful woman.
EDWARDS: There was about 40 photographers outside a flat. I don't know if you remember the pictures. They pursued her down the street.
WARD (voice-over): But this time, it isn't Diana. It's Kate Middleton, Prince William's girlfriend.
EDWARDS: They chased her down the street just like they chased Diana down the street. It angered William so much. It really angered him because he couldn't protect her.
WARD (on-camera): While the paparazzi are on the hunt for Kate, a British inquest into what happened to Diana is set to begin here at the Royal Courts of Justice.
(voice-over): It's been 10 years since Diana's death, but the conspiracy theories have lived on.
LORD JOHN STEVENS, COMMISSIONER OF THE METROPOLITAN POLICE: I had a very skilled team of detectives, 14 in all.
WARD (voice-over): Lord John Stevens was Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
STEVENS: The allegation that was made by Mr. Al-Fayed was that Prince Philip together with MI-5 and MI-6, the security services of the United Kingdom, had conspired together to kill Dodi Al-Fayed and Princes Diana. That the French inquest that had taken place was flawed.
[22:50:17]
WARD (on-camera): So this was extraordinarily delicate?
STEVENS: It was very delicate indeed.
WARD (voice-over): Lord Stevens' team investigates all of Al-Fayed's claims, that Diana was pregnant, that Diana and Dodi were soon to be engaged and that the Royal Family would not accept a Muslim stepfather to the future king.
MICHAEL COLE, MOHAMED AL-FAYED'S SPOKESMAN: If Diana had married Dodi, if they'd had a couple of children, who would the press be focusing on in this country today?
WARD (voice-over): Michael Cole was Mohamed Al-Fayed's longtime spokesman.
COLE: They would be focusing on what Princess Diana was doing and in effect you would have one alternative royal family in this country.
WARD (voice-over): The murder theory is far-fetched to some, but a real fear for Diana, one she shared with her butler, Paul Burrell.
BURRELL: I have a letter which says, the next few months are the most difficult of my life. I fear I am going to be killed in an automobile accident in order that Charles can remarry.
WARD (voice-over): And it turns out Burrell wasn't the only one Diana shared her fears with.
ANDERSEN: Diana was completely convinced that the Royal Family or the men in gray who really run the operation or British intelligence would kill her if she became too big of a problem.
She went to her lawyer, Lord Mishcon and said, they're going to kill me and here's how. It is going to be either a helicopter accident or a car crash and it will be staged to look like a car crash. Her lawyer took notes, detailed notes.
WARD (voice-over): Patrick Jephson was Diana's private secretary and attended the meeting with her lawyer.
JEPHSON: And I can remember how shocked Lord Mishcon was by that.
WARD (on-camera): Did she give details as to why she was concerned for her safety?
JEPHSON: Not enough. The trouble was those last few years from '93 and '94 onwards was a very, very unsettled time.
WARD (voice-over): But Lord Mishcon's notes from the meeting were never shared with French investigators even though they were given to British police just weeks after Diana's death. At the time, British police didn't believe they were relevant to the French investigation.
MICHAEL MANSFIELD, REPRESENTATIVE OF AL-FAYED: If you have a note like that and somebody then does end up dead in the way they predicted, the first thing you do is get the note. Examine the note and investigate.
WARD: Michael Mansfield represents Mohamed Al-Fayed during the British inquest.
MANSFIELD: But, of course, the powers that be felt that it shouldn't be handed over. Why? Because of course it would involve investigating the Royal Family, investigations by the French police.
WARD (voice-over): Lord Stevens' investigation does look into Mishcon's notes and over 600 other pieces of evidence.
STEVENS: We started with totally open minds. There's no point in going into an investigation like this and say, oh, there is no evidence for this. Prove the point there isn't. We had to go and see 300 witnesses, at the same time, we had to negotiate bringing back the car from Paris. We even examined the blood in the car.
WARD (voice-over): After three years of detective work, Lord Stevens' team presents their findings to the high court.
STEVENS: The finding of the investigation was that it was an accident, the car had been driven too fast. The driver had been drinking, lost control of that car, going down the ramp, at the end of the pass, and that was our conclusions.
WARD (on-camera): Did you find any indication whatsoever that the Princess and Dodi were murdered?
STEVENS: No. No evidence, whatsoever.
WARD (voice-over): No evidence of murder or any involvement by MI-5, MI-6, or the Royal Family.
(on-camera): What about reports that the princess was pregnant?
STEVENS: Those were totally disproved by her closest friends and, of course, we brought the car back from Paris, analyzed the blood by the latest techniques of that time, and found out that she was not pregnant.
WARD (on-camera): What is the truth behind the reports that Dodi had bought Diana a ring that day in Paris?
STEVENS: He may well have done that, but we don't know what he was going to do with that ring and neither does anyone else.
WARD (voice-over): Stevens also investigates the role of the paparazzi.
STEVENS: They followed them around, obviously, but we didn't know how close they were up to the car, whether they actually played a part in the deaths of those people in that car. It's difficult to say.
WARD (on-camera): It would be speculation.
STEVENS: It would be speculation. We don't get into speculation. We deal with the evidence.
[22:55:03]
WARD (on-camera): But you have said previously, I believe that they were a link in the chain.
STEVENS: No doubt about that. They were a link in the chain. If the paparazzi hadn't been in the front of the Ritz, they would have gone off in the normal cars without having Henri Paul taking over that duty.
WARD (voice-over): While French investigators cleared the paparazzi of criminal charges, the British jury believes the photographers share some responsibility.
SCOTT BAKER, JUDGE: They deliberated carefully and they produced a careful and reasoned decision.
WARD (voice-over): Sir Scott Baker was the judge overseeing the British inquest.
BAKER: That this was caused by a combination of the following paparazzi and the manner in which they were driving, and a driver who was under the influence of drinking, driving too fast into the tunnel.
WARD (voice-over): No one was ever charged for the crash that killed Princess Diana.
(on-camera): Are there any lingering questions in your mind as to what happened that fatal night?
BAKER: Absolutely none. It seemed to me that it was a tragic accident.
WARD (on-camera): Do you believe that Mohamed Al-Fayed was flat lying then?
STEVENS: No, Mohamed Al-Fayed had lost his son and he genuinely believed, I think that there had been some conspiracy to murder his son and Princess Diana and that's his right.
WARD (on-camera): Did he strike you as a man who was shattered?
STEVENS: Yes, he was shattered.
WARD (voice-over): He never recovered from the loss of his son.
AL-FAYED: If you lose a son 42 years old, it's was part of you, you know, like somebody chop your hand or chop your leg.
MANSFIELD: He still believes that the truth is out there and will come, and I hope it happens in his lifetime, but it might not. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The focal points of the Royal Family --
WARD (voice-over): Many who knew Diana best say the crash never would have happened if she had not given up her security detail after the divorce.
JEPHSON: The truth is that the Paris paparazzi didn't kill Diana. Incompetent travel arrangements killed Diana. A failure to do up a seatbelt killed Diana. And the paparazzi only became an actual nuisance or a threat to Diana only after she had chosen to get rid of her bodyguards.
If Charles Spencer or anybody else wanted to see the cause of Diana's unhappiness or ultimately the circumstances in which she died, they should look at the royal organization which had taken responsibility for her at a very, very young age.
WARD (voice-over): Just 19 when she became engaged to Prince Charles, and dead at the age of 36, leaving behind two young boys.
PRINCE HARRY, DUKE OF SUSSEX: I never really thought about losing your mom at such a young age.
WARD (voice-over): William was 15. Harry just 12.
PRINCE WILLIAM: Even Harry and I, over the years are not told enough about, you know, our mother.
PRINCE HARRY: Never enough. I always thought to myself, you know, what's the point of bringing up the past? It ain't going to bring her back. And when you start thinking like that, it can be really damaging.
PRINCE WILLIAM: But it is, I think -- mom was not with us and it must have happened with others as well. You have to prioritize, you know, prioritize your mental health. Someone has to take the lead and has to be brave enough to force that conversation.
WARD (voice-over): And while these brothers have had their ups and downs since this interview in 2017, continued to address mental health together and separately.
PRINCE HARRY: Family members have said, just play the game and your life will be easier.
WARD (voice-over): Openly and often in a way that was difficult for their mother.
PRINCE HARRY: I've got a hell of a lot of my mom in me. The only way to free yourself and breakout is to tell the truth.
WARD (voice-over): It is just one example. The change she brought to the Royal Family.
DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES: Back to a balance life. ANDERSEN: Without Diana I don't think we'd have the monarchy today in its present form. Diana drag the Royal Family kicking and screaming into the 20th century. She said from the moment she set foot in that family, there was never any feeling in it and that she really wanted to lead from the heart and not the head.
WARD (voice-over): Diana lived a life of fairy tale and tragedy. Hunted by the press, beloved by the people, a charismatic and yet complex character, vulnerable and manipulative. She could be as difficult and demanding as she was beguiling and beautiful. But there can be no question of the impact she made.
Her boys William and Harry have a commitment to public service, deep personal compassion and dedication to their families. Qualities that make Diana's legacy as vibrant today as it was more than 20 years ago.
