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If you’ve been onNetflixin the past few weeks, you’ve probably noticed thatThe CrownSeason 6, Part 1 just started streaming, and it’s arguably one of the most high profile sections of the British Royal Family’s history.
Thefirst four episodes of the final seasonof the Emmy Award-winning series center heavily on Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki), her relationship with Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla), and their deaths in 1997.
Like previous seasons ofThe Crown, while the seriesdepicts historical events, it’s also a dramatic retelling of the Royal Family’s lives, so there are bound to be pieces that are over dramatized and/or changed slightly for the sake of a TV show.
So, here are 21 real-life facts about the events that transpired before and after Princess Diana and Dodi’s deaths in 1997:
1.First, the photos of Princess Diana and Dodi kissing were captured by Mario Brenna, whosaidthatThe Crowndepicting that he was hired by Mohamed Al-Fayed was “absurd and completely invented.” He told the New York Times that coming across Diana and Dodi was a “giant stroke of luck,” and he claimed to not know what the yacht they were on looked like.
2.The photos of Princess Diana and Dodi kissing were eventually published on the front page of the Sunday Mirror, andreportedlyattracted bids of £500,000, which is roughly around $630,000. Mario Brennareportedly"made about £1.7 million, or $2.1 million, from the photos of the couple."
3.The famous diving board photo of Princess Diana, which is depicted inThe Crown, wastaken a weekbefore her death in Paris. The moment came after the Sunday Mirror published photos of Diana and Dodi kissing. What was reportedly supposed to be a quiet holiday aboard Mohamed Al-Fayed’s private yacht in Portofino turned into a “media circus.”
5.One of the events before Princess Diana’s death thatThe Crowndoesn’t show is her and Mother Teresa together in NYC in June 1997. This was the second time they were together,reportedlyhaving developed a friendship after Diana visited Mother Teresa in 1992. Princess Diana and Mother Teresa died within days of each other, with Mother Teresa dying the day before Diana’s funeral on Sept. 5, 1997.
6.WhileThe Crownshows Princess Diana and Dodi’s relationship as more serious, especially on Dodi’s side, one of Diana’s friendsallegedthat it was simply “a summer romance,” in their opinion.
7.The British inquest into Diana’s death found that Dodidid purchase a ring, with the inscription Dis-moi oui (“Tell me yes”), and CCTV footage showed Dodi inside a Paris jewelry store. However, the inquest determined that there was “no indication” that Dodi ever gave Diana the ring prior to their deaths.
8.In theOperation Paget Inquiry Report, which was the title of the British Metropolitan Police inquiry that investigated the conspiracy theories surrounding Princess Diana’s death, Prince William and Diana’s friends alleged there were no plans for Dodi and Diana to get engaged, with one friend saying, “There was no mention whatsoever of an engagement, nothing to even suggest she might be expecting a proposal, not for a split second.”
9.The Crownshows Princess Diana buying a gift for Prince Harry before her death in 1997, and Prince Harry said that the story has been told so many times he “has no idea if it’s true.” Inhis memoirSpare, he wrote how his Aunt Sarah, Diana’s sister, apparently brought him the present for his 13th birthday, which was less than a month after Diana’s death.
10.Henri Paul, the chauffeur who died alongside Princess Diana and Dodi,reportedlyhad “three times the French legal limit of alcohol in his blood” at the time of the fatal Paris car crash. It was alsoreportedthat Henri had “drugs used for treating depression” in his system at the time of his death, too.
11.The British inquest into their deaths alsofoundthat both Diana and Dodi were not wearing seat belts in the back of the car, which could’ve contributed to their deaths. Their Mercedes crashed in the Pont de l’Alma underpass at around 60 mph, which is reportedly “twice the speed limit for that section of road.”
12.Trevor Rees-Jones, who was hired as a bodyguard for Dodi by his father,revealedthat he and Alexander “Kez” Wingfield, another bodyguard, “suggested” that Diana and Dodi leave out the front of the Ritz Paris in “the regular two vehicles” instead of leaving out of the rear of the hotel in a single vehicle with no security, as Dodi suggested.
13.Trevor Rees-Jones, who was the only survivor, stated that he has no memory of the fatal crash. Hesaidin an interview in 2000, “My memory stops after we waited at the rear of the Ritz, getting into the vehicle, and then as the vehicle pulls away, I notice that there was a small, light-colored hatchback vehicle, and a couple of motorbikes or scooters with photographers on them followed us, and that’s where my memory stops.”
14.After the fatal car crash, policereportedlyseized “20 rolls” of film from seven photographers who were at the site of the crash. In the bookDiana: Death of a Goddess, apparently while some people rushed to help the victims of the crash, many took photos, with it beingreportedthat one photographer “was beaten at the scene by horrified witnesses” who spotted them taking photos.
15.At the time of the accident, six photographers wereunder a formal investigationrelated to Princess Diana’s death, with the photographers possibly being charged with involuntary manslaughter. While the paparazzi photographers wereoriginallysaid to be “criminally responsible,” charges wereeventually droppedin 1999, with blame for the accident being placed on Henri Paul.
16.WhileThe Crownonly shows Prince Charles accompanying Princess Diana’s body from Paris back to the UK following her death, he actually went to ParisalongsideLady Jane Fellowes and Lady Sarah McCorquodale, Diana’s two sisters.
17.Prince Charlesreportedlyfought for a public funeral for Princess Diana, despite Queen Elizabeth II wishing for a private service. Prince Charles and Prime Minister Tony Blair reportedly insisted that Diana’s coffin be placed at St. James’s Palace and the funeral held at Westminster Abbey.
18.The Royal Family wascriticizedfor their strict adherence to protocol in the wake of Princess Diana’s death. There wasreportedly"angry public response" to the family’s initial refusal to lower the flag to half-mast at Buckingham Palace after Diana died. Eventually, the Queen ruled that all flags at royal residences would be lowered to half-mast.
19.Prince William and Prince HarryaccompaniedPrince Philip, Prince Charles, and Charles Spencer in walking behind Princess Diana’s coffin during her funeral, however many were opposed to the decision. In his memoirSpare, Harry wrote, “Mummy’s brother, Uncle Charles, raised hell. ‘You can’t make these boys walk behind their mother’s coffin! It’s barbaric.'”
20.The note on top of Princess Diana’s coffin from Prince William and Prince Harry that simply read, “Mummy,” is part of a tradition thatreportedlystarted with Prime Minister Winston Churchill writing a note for King George VI after his death. The tradition continued with Queen Elizabeth II penning a note to Churchill that was displayed at his funeral in 1965.
21.And finally, areported2.5 billion people worldwide watched Princess Diana’s funeral on TV. In the US alone, 33.2 million peopletunedin to watch.
