Twenty-nine years after Princess Diana’s death, the story of her final weeks reveals a woman determined to spread her wings after divorce – from a sun-soaked holiday with William and Harry to a whirlwind romance with Dodi Fayed and a frightening final day in Paris.
Pics: Getty Images
In photographs from the summer of 1997, Princess Diana appeared relaxed, tanned and ready to embrace a new chapter.
Free from the royal marriage that had caused her years of anguish, the 36-year-old was holidaying in the Mediterranean, spending precious time with her sons and enjoying a new romance.
Nobody could have known that Diana’s brightest and most hopeful summer would also be her last.
‘I’m spreading my wings’
Diana’s divorce from the then Prince Charles had been finalised the previous year and she appeared determined to create an independent life.
She had become a global style icon while devoting herself to humanitarian causes, including her high-profile campaign against landmines.
Royal biographer Judy Wade recalled Diana declaring: “I’m spreading my wings.”
But behind that optimism was private heartache. Her relationship with Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan, whom she was reportedly deeply in love with, had faltered in July 1997.
According to People, Diana had hoped to marry Khan, imagining that they could use their different backgrounds to bring people together and support humanitarian work. However, he reportedly struggled with the intense publicity surrounding her.
It was against this emotional backdrop that Mohamed Al-Fayed, the then owner of Harrods, invited Diana and her sons to stay at his villa near St Tropez.
Her final holiday with William and Harry
Diana travelled to the South of France with Prince William, then 15, and 12-year-old Prince Harry.
They stayed at the secluded Castel Sainte-Thérèse estate and spent time aboard the Al-Fayed family’s luxury yacht, Jonikal. Photographs showed Diana swimming, sunbathing and laughing with her boys.
It would be the last holiday the three of them shared.
Mohamed’s son Dodi Fayed, a film producer, joined the family during the trip. It was the first time William and Harry had met the man who would spend Diana’s final weeks at her side.
Robert Jobson later wrote that William appeared pleased to see his mother enjoying herself. As quoted by Parade, he said: “Dodi made his mother laugh; he seemed to make her genuinely happy.”
After the holiday, William and Harry travelled to Balmoral to stay with their father and the Royal Family.
Diana, meanwhile, returned to London, where she reportedly felt lonely and unsure how to fill the remainder of the summer.
A whirlwind romance in the spotlight
Dodi began sending elaborate presents to Kensington Palace and inviting Diana to join him on further trips. Wade described the relationship simply: “Dodi became Diana’s distraction.”
After returning from Bosnia, where she had continued her landmine campaigning, Diana accepted another invitation to travel with him.
The couple cruised around the French and Italian Rivieras aboard Jonikal. Their every movement was followed by photographers desperate to capture evidence of the summer’s most talked-about romance.
Pictures of Diana and Dodi embracing appeared around the world, but those close to the princess reportedly remained unsure whether the relationship had a serious future.
Some believed Diana was enjoying the glamour and excitement after the breakdown of her relationship with Khan. Friends were said to have viewed Dodi as a summer romance rather than a potential husband.
Whatever her feelings for him, those who knew Diana insisted her sons remained her priority.
The frightening row before the crash
Diana and Dodi cut short their stay in Sardinia and flew to Paris on August 30, reportedly planning to spend one night there before Diana returned to London.
During their final day, they visited Villa Windsor, the former Paris home of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, which was owned by Mohamed Al-Fayed.
But the journey there was reportedly terrifying.
According to Wade, the car was pursued by photographers and Dodi instructed the driver to accelerate. She claimed Diana and Dodi argued, with the princess becoming distressed by the speed.
“Diana begged Dodi to slow down,” Wade said.
By the time they arrived at the villa, Diana was reportedly crying and frightened for both her own safety and that of the pursuing photographers.
The incident would later appear a chilling warning of what was to come.
Diana’s final call to her sons
That day, Diana spoke to William and Harry, who were at Balmoral, by telephone.
Both princes later expressed regret that the conversation had been so brief. They had been eager to return to playing with their cousins and had no idea it would be the last time they heard their mother’s voice.
Diana was expected to fly back to London the following day and see them again. ABC News reported that the princess and Dodi had planned just one night in Paris before her journey home.
Instead, shortly after midnight on August 31, the couple left the Ritz hotel and set off for Dodi’s apartment.
Henri Paul, the hotel’s assistant security director, was driving, while bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones sat in the front passenger seat.
As photographers followed, the Mercedes entered the Pont de l’Alma tunnel at high speed and crashed into a concrete pillar.
She went into cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at 3 a.m. She was just 36.
A British inquest later concluded that Diana and Dodi had been unlawfully killed as a result of the “grossly negligent driving” of Paul and the pursuing paparazzi, according to The Guardian.
Almost three decades later, the photographs from Diana’s final summer remain painfully poignant: a mother laughing with her sons, a newly single woman enjoying her freedom and a princess who appeared ready to begin again.
No one could have imagined that the summer in which Diana spread her wings would be the one in which the world lost her.
