It’s the 21st anniversary of Princess Diana’s death!
Lady Di died in a car crash in Paris exactly on August 31, 1997.
Paris fire fighter, Xavier Gourmelon, one of the first members of the emergency services to arrive at the scene of the deadly crash of the Mercedes that Princess Diana was riding in, has recalled the last words she said before she died.
“The car was in a mess and we just dealt with it like any road accident.
“I could see she had a slight injury to her right shoulder but, other than that, there was nothing significant. There was no blood on her at all,” Gourmelon said.
“I held her hand and told her to be calm and keep still, I said I was there to help and reassured her.
“She said: ‘My God, what’s happened?’” he continued.
According to Gourmelon, Princess Diana was in the back seat of a Mercedes S-280 with her partner Dodi Fayed, who was also killed in the crash. Dodi was the son of Egyptian billionaire, Mohamed Al-Fayed.
Their bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, was sitting in the front, together with driver Henri Paul.
An official report said the princess had suffered massive internal injuries and a ruptured blood vessel next to her heart, which was causing internal bleeding.
Driver Henri Paul, said to be at twice the British drink drive limit, also died in the horrific smash.
The only survivor was bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones.
Diana and Charles married at St Paul’s Cathedral in London on July 29, 1981, watched around the globe by a staggering 750 million people.
Diana’s official titles during marriage were Diana, Princess of Wales, Duchess of Cornwall, Duchess of Rothesay, and Countess of Chester.
The couple had two boys: William on June 21, 1982; and Harry on September 15, 1984.
The boys, second and third line to the throne after their father, became the light of Diana’s life. But despite her passion work and love for her children, Diana had problems in her personal life.
She admitted to struggling with eating disorders, and was under an immense amount of media scrutiny.
On August 28, 1996, Charles and Diana’s marriage ended in divorce, following well-publicised extramarital affairs.
Diana remained a constant source of tabloid fodder after the divorce, as she embarked on her life as a single mother.
Still living in an apartment in the grounds of Kensington Palace, Diana embarked on a romance with British-Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan. Many of Diana’s closest friends have called Hasnat “the love of her life,” but the relationship ended after two years.
She began dating Egyptian billionaire Dodi Fayed, spending time on his multimillion-pound luxury yacht.
On Good Morning Britain on Friday (today), a former body guard of Diana’s, Lee Sansum, revealed an emotional moment he had with her on Dodi Al-Fayed’s yacht. Lee told how he found Lady Di crying on Dodi Al-Fayed’s yacht.
Lee said, “It wasn’t a romantic thing by any stretch of the imagination but I was in St Tropez on Mr Al-Fayed’s big super yacht and I was looking for stuff on the top deck.”
Diana was upset after hearing about the death of a friend.
Lee said: “I came across her it there, it was just after the news had broken she was crying and she was very upset.
“She walked quite close to me and she was really upset about her friend’s death and herself, because of the paparazzi at the time.”
The bodyguard revealed how he felt unable to properly comfort the devastated royal, due to his role and any lurking photographers.
He said: “If it were a normal person, I would have given her a hug; but in that case, you can’t do that.
“I had to take a step back, which was uncomfortable for me because I just want to be there for her because I got quite close to her after the two weeks.”
Her tragic death shocked the nation, and hundreds of tributes were laid outside of Buckingham Palace.
Diana had her wedding to Prince Charles on 29 July 1981 when she was aged only 19.
Her coffin weighed a quarter-tonne because it was lined with lead, as it is a tradition that British royals are buried in lead-lined coffins.
However, when Diana died, she was no longer married to Prince Charles and only had her title Lady Diana Spencer. But because she was so famous and so loved among the public in the UK and worldwide, she got a state funeral and was given the lead coffin of a royal.
Lead coffins preserve a body for up to a year, and they can be sealed airtight and slow the decomposition of the body. It also makes sure that the smell and any toxins from a dead body can’t escape and harm the environment.
It is law in the UK for a coffin to be sealed if it is for internment above ground.
Lady Diana Spencer’s coffin was supposed to be buried in the Spencer family vault at their local church, but Earl Spencer, Diana’s brother, changed the plans in the interest of public safety and opted for her to be buried on the grounds of Althorp Park on an island known as The Ovals within Althorp Park’s Pleasure Garden.
