Princess Diana 'feared for her life' in the lead up to her fatal car crash in 1997
A former bodyguard to Princess Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed has revealed how King Charles' ex-wife was fearful for her life in the year of her death. You can see a short clip of the interview below.
Lee Sansum appeared on podcast Anything Goes with James English to discuss his life and story in support of his new book The Bodyguard.
Sansum was employed in the service of the Al-Fayed family for years before meeting Diana but recalled spending time in the South of France with the Princess and her partner in 1997.
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When asked by the host if the Diana was in fear for her life during the time he spent with her, Sansum said: “Yeah, she was.
“Her friend Gianni Versace was killed, and everybody thought it was a planned hit – looking at what happened in the security industry – that was what everyone thought had happened.
“It turned out that it was something different.
“But I bumped into her [Diana] on the top deck of the boat, we had an allocated security cabin on the boat, and I was on this big open deck, and I walked in there and was almost as close as I am to you to the princess.
“She turned around and she’d obviously been crying a lot, and she said, ‘have you heard about my friend?’
“I said ‘yes, we have and it’s awful what has happened, I know you knew him and I’m sorry’.
“She was crying and she said, ‘do you think they’re going to do that to me?’.
“I was like ‘no, look at your team’, trying to calm her down.”
That was in 1997, before her death in a car accident in Paris on the 31 August that same year.
Her car was believed to have been fleeing from pursuing paparazzi photographers at the time of the fatal crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel.
Mr Al-Fayed was also killed in the crash, as well as driver Henri Paul.
An initial investigation deduced that Paul was intoxicated at the time of the crash, citing his reckless driving and the effects of prescription drugs in his system.
However, Dodi’s father Mohamed Al-Fayed openly said that the crash was orchestrated, citing MI6 and the Duke of Edinburgh.
This was never proven, and Al-Fayed eventually agreed to stop his campaign for what he considered justice for the alleged murder of his son.
That was only after a later investigation by the Metropolitan Police returned a verdict of ‘unlawful killing’ in 2008, stating again that Paul’s reckless driving and the pursuit of the paparazzi were responsible for the crash.
Anything Goes with James English featuring a full interview with Lee Sansum is available to watch on YouTube from 10:00am on Sunday 11 September. You can watch the full interview here.
Topics: UK News, World News, Celebrity, Royal Family
Tom Wood