Conspiracy theories about the death of Diana, Princess of Wales

There are many conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, on 31 August 1997.^[1] Official investigations in both Britain and France found that Diana died in a manner consistent with media reports following the fatal car crash in Paris. In 1999, a French investigation concluded that Diana died as the result of a crash.^[2] The French investigator, Judge Hervé Stephan, concluded that the paparazzi were some distance from the Mercedes S280 when it crashed and were not responsible for manslaughter.^[3][4] After hearing evidence at the British inquest, a jury in 2008 returned a verdict of "unlawful killing" by driver Henri Paul and the paparazzi pursuing the car.^[5] The jury's verdict also stated: "In addition, the death of the deceased was caused or contributed to by the fact that the deceased were not wearing a seat belt and by the fact that the Mercedes struck the pillar in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel rather than colliding with something else."^[6]

Active in disputing the official version of events were the British tabloid newspaper, the Daily Express,^[7][8] and Egyptian businessman, Mohamed Al-Fayed, whose son, Dodi, was Diana's partner at the time and also died in the crash. In 2003, Diana's butler, Paul Burrell, published a note that he claimed had been written by Diana in 1993, in which there were allegations that her husband was "planning 'an accident' in [Diana's] car, brake failure and serious head injury" so that he could marry again.^[9][10][11] She had allegedly expressed similar concerns in October 1995 to Lord Mishcon, her solicitor, that "reliable sources" had told her "that she and Camilla would be put aside" for Charles to marry Tiggy Legge-Bourke.^[11] Until a synod of 2002, the Anglican Church prohibited divorced people remarrying.^[12]

A special Metropolitan Police inquiry team was established in 2004, Operation Paget, headed by Commissioner John Stevens to investigate the various conspiracy theories which led up to the British inquest. This investigation looked into 175 conspiracy claims that had been made by Fayed.^[13] In 2005, Charles, as a witness, told Stevens that he did not know about his former wife's note from 1995 and could not understand why she had these feelings.^[14] Fayed persistently propounded what were found to be conspiracy theories at the inquest,^[15][16] and repeatedly claimed that he believed his son was murdered with Diana.^[17]