Warning: The following article contains sensitive mentions of Princess Diana’s death that some readers may find upsetting.
As has become tradition, a new season of The Crown has sparked widespread interest in the figures depicted therein. The first batch of episodes from the sixth season was released Nov. 16, 2023 and show the final months of Princess Diana‘s life before her fatal car crash.
The facts of what happened on Aug. 31, 1997 in Paris are well-known at this point in time. Diana, her partner Dodi Fayed, her bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, and driver Henri Paul departed the Hôtel Ritz Paris just after midnight in a black Mercedes, heading for an apartment in Rue Arsène Houssaye. En route, they were pursued by several paparazzi photographers.
At 00:23, while driving at a high speed through the Pont de l’Alma underpass, Henri Paul lost control of the vehicle and it collided head-on with a concrete pillar. Dodi and Henri-Paul were pronounced dead at the scene, and the still-conscious Diana was rushed to the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, where she died of internal injuries at 03:00.
The paparazzi
One particularly depressing aspect of the crash was the paparazzi’s behavior in the aftermath. They had already taken photos of the passengers while driving (see above), but in the seconds after the crash, many gathered around the smashed vehicle to take even more pictures of the victims. Those present were reportedly horrified by this, with one photographer apparently attacked by witnesses who couldn’t believe anyone would be so callous. The French police arrested five paparazzi at the scene and seized around twenty rolls of film.
Nine paparazzi were charged with manslaughter for their roles in the crash, though the charges were dropped in 2002. Three of them who took pictures of the immediate aftermath of the crash were tried for invasion of privacy for taking pictures of the victims. Those three were acquitted in 2003, but after a 2006 retrial were convicted and sentenced to pay a symbolic fine of a single euro.
Their photographs
For almost a decade, the majority of these photos were unseen, though in 2007 the coroner investigating the case released a series of photographs showing the immediate aftermath of the crash. None of them show the victims, though they were taken while Diana was still inside the vehicle and receiving emergency medical treatment. These were published by The Daily Mail in 2007 and can be seen here.
There were several pictures of Diana in the wreck, but only one was ever published. In 2006, the Italian magazine Chi ran it with the headline “world-exclusive – the last photo,” and it shows Diana being given oxygen by first responders. Princes William and Harry said they were “deeply saddened” at this and released the following statement:
“Despite the support shown to us and our mother’s memory by so many people over the last eight years, we feel that as her sons we would be failing in our duty to her now if we did not protect her as she once did us. Therefore we appeal to all forms of media throughout the world to appreciate fully that publishing such material causes great hurt to us, our father, our mother’s family and all those who so loved and respected her.”
This being the internet, this picture is indeed out there if you wish to see it, but we’re not going to link to it or give any explicit instructions on how to find it.
There are also many never-published images that clearly show the interior of the car and the victims of the crash. Australian media personality and former paparazzo Darryn Lyons’ company Big Pictures purchased these with the intention of preventing them from ever being published. Lyons claims to have been offered $3-4 million by The New Yorker for the rights, but has insisted that he will never sell.
The only clue as to exactly what these depict comes from Lyon, who has described Diana as looking “like an angel, serene, with a smile on her face and only a small cut on her forehead.” The images of Dodi are apparently so graphic as to be “unprintable.”
That said, it remains to be seen whether any of these images will one day be printed. Lyons remains adamant that this will not happen, though clearly some media outlets with deep pockets are still interested. Whatever happens, photographs taken of the victims of a fatal car crash without their consent are going to leave a bad taste in the mouth. Perhaps it’s best that they stay under lock and key forever.
