Princess Diana Conspiracy by Rebecca Key

         On August 30, 1997 Princess Diana got into a car crash with Dodi Al-Fayed. He was killed at the scene, and Diana died the day after. She had got divorced from Prince Charles the year before because Charles had an affair with Camilla. The world was shocked to learn that Princes Diana was killed in a car crash. Many people came to pay their respects after Diana died. Some people said it was an accident, or was it? Several conspiracies formed after her death. Was it an accident trying to get away from the photographers, or was it was planned. If it was planned, was it so Prince Charles could marry Camilla that he had been seeing for many years?

     Who was Princess Diana?  Princess Diana was the wife of Prince Charles and they had two children, William and Henry. She had royal ancestry in her family and her father had the title of Earl Spencer. “When she was a child, she saw her own parents go through a divorce, so she really wanted her own marriage to work” (Lauren Thompson).  Princess Diana was a somewhat shy, kind and sweet person.  Princess Diana was adored by everyone, even the British royal family. She has internal and external thing that lead to her death.

       What affect did the marriage to Prince Charles have on Diana?  They began having problems since they were married. During the marriage to Prince Charles, Diana suffered from depression, self-harm, and bulimia.  Her fairytale wedding brought with it an intense amount of pressure.   Princess Diana admitted to not being able to cope with the pressure of her new role as wife, mother, and Princess.             

       After William was born, Princess Diana suffered post-natal depression. “One of Diana’s greatest struggles was personal – namely bulimia. Later she would reveal they started around the time her engagement with Charles began.  ‘Bulimia started the week after we got engaged,’ she said in tapes obtained by NBC.  ‘My husband put his hand on my waistline and said: “Oh, a bit chubby here, aren’t we?” That triggered off something in me” (Emily Shackleton).  “Charles’ relationship with Camila Parker-Bowles also strained their marriage.  Princess Diana was rumored to have affairs with several other men.”  (Lauren Thompson) The insecurities she suffered from led her to become bulimic.  Her unstable marriage, and Prince Charlies having an affair with Camila caused her to suffer from depression, self-harm, and bulimia. According to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders,   “Women are much more likely than men to develop an eating disorder, and only an estimated 1.1 to 4.2 percent of women have bulimia nervosa in their lifetime.” (Unknown).

        What affect did the media have on Diana?  Charles resented being overshadowed by Diana, who was more popular than him. Princess Diana’s last moments were seen with Dodi Fayed. They were trying to get away from the photographers and it could be an explanation of why she died in that car crash.     “Diana was trying to avoid relentless, intrusive media attention, spending less time on official engagements and far more on those private visits. She was also coming to terms with being the most famous and most photographed woman in the world” (Ross Coward). She really had to use the media for charity work but did not like how they treated her. She did not like that they were always there, always photographing, and the fact that she was very famous. She could manipulate the media to believe whatever she wanted them too.  “The act of being watched warped her self-image and behavior.  She herself once said, “I didn’t like myself.  I was ashamed because I couldn’t cope with the pressures… I felt compelled to perform” (Sally Bedell Smith).

     Who was Diana when she was alone?  Diana was lonely and had an unstable temperament with mood swings.  “Diana would dwell on her perceived inadequacies, ponder the betrayals of her past and present, and think obsessively about her enemies, both real and imagined.  Her thoughts would plunge her into tears and sometimes vengeful schemes.  At such moments, she made her worst decisions.  She began her adult life looking for a man to take care of her, which is where she ended her life” (Sally Bedell Smith).

     After Princess’s Diana died, several conspiracies formed about her death.  The first conspiracy is that her death was an accident. The car was going 65 miles an hour and hit a pillar in a tunnel.  Princess Diana was not wearing a seatbelt.  “They determined the crash was caused primarily by Henri Paul's drunken state combined with excessive speed, and that Dodi and Diana would have survived if they'd been wearing their seatbelts. The magistrates strongly criticized the paparazzis' behavior, but did not find that they'd broken any laws and recommended that no action be taken against them (Dunning). 

      The second conspiracy is that they were trying to get away from the photographers.   Princess Diana was the most photographed woman in the world.  Media and photographers had been following her since her marriage to Prince Charles.  Many times, Princess Diana tried to get away from the media. The paparazzi had already been following them that day. Princess Diana and Dodi tried to leave that day without being noticed, so they had one car in the front and one in the back.  “Right up until the moment of her death, the press were in hot pursuit.  Among the first details to surface about the accident that killed she was the fact that the driver of the limousine had been speeding to evade paparazzi photographers” (Emery).  After a long and expensive investigation, a jury put some of the blame on the paparazzi.  They ruled that Princess Diana and Dodi were unlawfully killed by the reckless driving of their chauffer and the paparazzi that chased them (Balakrishnan).

      The third conspiracy is that it was planned. The parents of the driver said that their son was not a heavy drinker. Also, it was decided that the paparazzi did not cause the car crash.  “Crucially, my investigations show that the paparazzi who supposedly hounded Diana to her death were not even in the Pont d’Alma tunnel at the time of the car crash” (Reid).

         A black motorcycle, not belonging to any of the paparazzi, drove past Diana’s car in the tunnel.  “Several eyewitnesses say that its rider and pillion passenger deliberately caused the car to crash.” Princess Diana had a strained relationship with the royal family since her divorce from Prince Charles.  The royal family was not happy with her relationship with Dodi.   “Her romance with Dodi, though only six weeks old, was serious.  To add to the disquiet, the mother of a future King of England and head of the Church of England was threatening to move abroad with her Muslim boyfriend and take the royal Princes, William and Harry” (Reid).   Was the royal family trying to get rid of Princess Diana or Dodi?  “The Princess’s phone was constantly listened to and she was followed all the time. ‘After the crash, public opinion was deliberately led astray. ‘From the very beginning, it was clear to me it was not just an accident. My sources in the SVR and other Russian secret services are sure it was a very English murder (1).

      Out of a poll taken in class, thirteen out of twenty people believe that Princess Diana was not killed by the royal family. From the three conspiracies, the most likely outcome is that it was planned. All of the evidence clearly points that the media got there minutes after the crash, so it couldn’t have been the media, but that it was planned.   

           On August 30, 1997 Princess Diana got into a car crash with Dodi Al-Fayed. He was killed at the scene, and Diana died the day after. She had got divorced from Prince Charles the year before because Charles had an affair with Camilla. The world was shocked to learn that Princes Diana was killed in a car crash. Many people came to pay their respect after Diana died. The new people said it was an accident, or was it? Several conspiracies formed after her death. Was it an accident, they trying to get away from the photographers, or was it was planned> If it was planned, was it so Prince Charles could marry Camilla that he had been seeing for many years?

After gathering all of the research for the paper, it said it was an english murder. No one will forget the day Princess Diana died. 

                                                                Work Cited

Thompson, Lauren. "Diana’s Personal Struggles." Express. 22 Feb. 2007. Web. 7 Oct. 2015. <http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/268/Diana-s-personal-struggles>.

Smith, Sally. "Diana in Search of Herself." Times Books. 1999. Web. 7 Oct. 2015. <https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/smith-diana.html>.

Shackleton, Emily. "8 Little-known Facts about Princess Diana." Metro. 31 Aug. 2015. Web. 7 Oct. 2015. <http://metro.co.uk/2015/08/31/8-little-known-facts-about-princess-diana-5369104/>.

"Eating Disorders Statistics." Association of Anorexia Nervos and Associated Disorders. 2015. Web. 7 Oct. 2015. <http://www.anad.org/get-information/about-eating-disorders/eating-disorders-statistics/>.

Reid, Sue. "Diana, That SAS Murder Claim and Why It May Not Be as Mad as You Think: 16 Years On, the Conspiracy Theories Won't Go Away. Sue Reid, Who's Studied All the Evidence, Has Found Tantalising New Clues." Dailymail.com. 30 Aug. 2013. Web. 2 Nov. 2015. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2407571/Princess-Diana-SAS-murder-claim--mad-think-says-SUE-REID.html>.

Dunning, Brian. "Killing Princess Diana." Skepttoid. 13 May 2014. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.

<http://skeptoid.com/episodes/4414>.

Emery, David. "Who Killed Princess Diana?" About.com. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.

<http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/historical/a/princess_diana.htm>.

Balakrishnan, Angela. "Chauffeur and Paparazzi to Blame for Diana Death, Jury Finds."

Theguardian. 7 Apr. 2008. Web. 28 Oct. 2015.

<http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/apr/07/diana.monarchy>.