Princess Diana's Fatal Mistake: Why She Left London for Paris with Dodi Al-Fayed..
Princess Diana's Fatal Mistake: Why She Left London for Paris with Dodi
Al-Fayed..
*********************************************************************************
Princess Diana Dodi Al-Fayed :: AL-Fatihah :: @Integrations Condolences ::
God Bless !! < Ameen >
Her divorce was finally behind her, and for the first time in ages, Princess
Diana seemed to be hitting her stride.
It was the summer of 1997: At age 36,
she was a world-renowned
style icon and she had found deep personal fulfillment in a variety
of causes
close to her heart. And after years
of personal anguish in her
doomed marriage to Prince Charles, she seemed to have made some sort
of peace with the fact that her ex-husband and the woman who helped break up
their marriage, Camilla
Parker-Bowles, had settled into domestic
bliss. (Unabashedly so: The bliss included a lavish $45,000 birthday party present from
Charles to Camilla that July.)
“Diana was starting a new life.
She had said, I’m spreading my wings.’ She was being quite positive about her
divorce,” royal biographer Judy Wade ( Diana: the Intimate Portrait ) previously told PEOPLE.
A 35-year-veteran royal
photographer, who asked to speak anonymously, agrees: “Everything as far as her
relationship with Charles, her great relations with the kids, that side of her
life was in order.”
A Rebound Romance
What was decidedly not “in
order” was Diana’s love life. Her relationship with distinguished Pakistani
surgeon and cardiologist Hasnat Khan, a man many believe Diana had been in love
with, had hit a rough patch in July. “She had wanted to marry him,” says Wade.
“She had this vision that together they could bridge east and west, crossing
creeds and continents. They could save lives and make it a better world.”
But Khan had rebuffed Diana.
“They had a bust-up in July, and the romance was rocky,” says Wade. “He didn’t
want to be a walker to a famous woman. When that broke up she felt her life was
amiss, she was depressed.”
Her divorce was finally behind her, and for the first time in ages, Princess
Diana seemed to be hitting her stride.
It was the summer of 1997: At age 36,
she was a world-renowned
style icon and she had found deep personal fulfillment in a variety
of causes
close to her heart. And after years
of personal anguish in her
doomed marriage to Prince Charles, she seemed to have made some sort
of peace with the fact that her ex-husband and the woman who helped break up
their marriage, Camilla
Parker-Bowles, had settled into domestic
bliss. (Unabashedly so: The bliss included a lavish $45,000 birthday party present from
Charles to Camilla that July.)
“Diana was starting a new life.
She had said, I’m spreading my wings.’ She was being quite positive about her
divorce,” royal biographer Judy Wade ( Diana: the Intimate Portrait ) previously told PEOPLE.
A 35-year-veteran royal
photographer, who asked to speak anonymously, agrees: “Everything as far as her
relationship with Charles, her great relations with the kids, that side of her
life was in order.”
A Rebound Romance
What was decidedly not “in
order” was Diana’s love life. Her relationship with distinguished Pakistani
surgeon and cardiologist Hasnat Khan, a man many believe Diana had been in love
with, had hit a rough patch in July. “She had wanted to marry him,” says Wade.
“She had this vision that together they could bridge east and west, crossing
creeds and continents. They could save lives and make it a better world.”
But Khan had rebuffed Diana.
“They had a bust-up in July, and the romance was rocky,” says Wade. “He didn’t
want to be a walker to a famous woman. When that broke up she felt her life was
amiss, she was depressed.”
Enter Mohamed Al Fayed, the
controversial Egyptian business tycoon and then-owner of department store
Harrods, who extended Diana an invitation to visit his villa in St. Tropez
along with her sons,15-year-old Prince William and
12-year-old Prince Harry.
She accepted, and the subsequent
quiet arrival of Al
Fayed’s son Dodi, a 42-year-old playboy and minor film producer, set up a
chain of events that no one could foresee.
“Dodi Became Diana’s Distraction”
Diana and Dodi began a discreet
romance, with presents arriving at Kensington Palace such as “a huge box
of tropical fruit, a roomful of pink roses, a Cartier panther watch,” says
Wade. “Dodi became Diana’s distraction.”
But in August, when Harry and
William went up to Balmoral,
the Queen’s Scottish estate,
to spend time with their father, Diana found herself alone. “I’m sure she
was missing the boys. She was at a loss in London,” says Wade. “August is
the time when anyone who is anyone leaves London.” Besides, “Diana had alienated
most of the friends she used to go on holiday with at that time of the year,”
adds Wade. “She used to drop friends for no apparent reason.”
Enter Mohamed Al Fayed, the
controversial Egyptian business tycoon and then-owner of department store
Harrods, who extended Diana an invitation to visit his villa in St. Tropez
along with her sons,15-year-old Prince William and
12-year-old Prince Harry.
She accepted, and the subsequent
quiet arrival of Al
Fayed’s son Dodi, a 42-year-old playboy and minor film producer, set up a
chain of events that no one could foresee.
“Dodi Became Diana’s Distraction”
Diana and Dodi began a discreet
romance, with presents arriving at Kensington Palace such as “a huge box
of tropical fruit, a roomful of pink roses, a Cartier panther watch,” says
Wade. “Dodi became Diana’s distraction.”
But in August, when Harry and
William went up to Balmoral,
the Queen’s Scottish estate,
to spend time with their father, Diana found herself alone. “I’m sure she
was missing the boys. She was at a loss in London,” says Wade. “August is
the time when anyone who is anyone leaves London.” Besides, “Diana had alienated
most of the friends she used to go on holiday with at that time of the year,”
adds Wade. “She used to drop friends for no apparent reason.”
So it’s perhaps no surprise that,
in late August, when Diana got back from a trip to Bosnia for her landmine
charity she let herself be wooed again by a man Wade describes as “kind-hearted
and considerate, with a reputation for beautiful women.”
Perhaps like Jackie Kennedy in the mid-’60s, Diana
thought she had found her own Aristotle Onassis. Or perhaps she was just being pragmatic.
“Dodi had private jets and yachts at his disposal. St. Tropez in the summer is the
haunt of the British paparazzi,” says Wade. “Perhaps Diana wanted to be photographed
frolicking with Dodi to make Hasnat pay for their recent rows.”
Whatever the reason, there was
little doubt in the minds of anyone who knew Diana well that the princess was
having nothing more than a summer fling. “She would tell her hairstylist, ‘I
love his exotic accent!
I love the way he says, ‘Di-yana, you’re so naughty!'” recalls Wade. “But she
told a confidante, ‘I need marriage like a hole in the head.’ A close friend
doubted that Dodi had replaced Hasnat [in Diana’s affections] and was
sure Diana and Hasnat would get back together in September.”
Diana apparently heard the
reports of Dodi having financial debts and
having a weakness for cocaine, as well as the accusation from his ex-girlfriend
that he’d two-timed her and Diana. “The stories were not very complimentary,” says Wade.
“I think Dodi was a step too far for Diana,” agrees the veteran royals
photographer. “I think Diana enjoyed the
excitement, but I don’t think she could have coped with that [long term].”
Related Video: Royals
Flashback: Prince Charles and Princess Diana’s 1981 Wedding.
Further more, whether the
financial impropriety and drug rumors were true or not, everyone agreed that
Diana wouldn’t have done anything that
would have jeopardized her life with her two young boys in any way. “After
knowing Dodi only six weeks, that wasn’t enough time for her to decide. The
boys were her priority, and she would have consulted them,” says Wade. “She
would have asked herself, ‘Is Dodi a suitable stepfather for my children?’ And
she would have thought he wasn’t.”
A Violent Disagreement
On what was to be the couple’s
last day together, after they had cut hort their visit to Sardinia to fly up to
Paris – possibly to escape the omnipresent paparazzi – they visited the old
home of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, now owned by Mohamed Al
Fayed. On the way there they were chased by paparazzi and, according to Wade –
who spoke to one of Al Fayed’s bodyguards for her book – Dodi ordered the driver
to speed up to get away from them.
Perhaps for that reason, Diana
didn’t spend a lot of time looking at the house that Al Fayed Sr. had said the
couple could live in if they married. According to bodyguard Philippe Dourneau,
“Diana didn’t [even]
venture upstairs,” says Wade. “She seemed to want to get away. They didn’t hold
hands. They seemed like acquaintances.”
From there the couple returned to
Paris on the afternoon of August 30, and by then, a chain had long since been
set in motion. Its tragic culmination in the early-morning hours of August 31 –
involving aggressive paparazzi, a drunk driver far over the speed limit, a
tunnel in Paris, a playboy and a princess – would shock the entire world and
impact the British monarchy irreparably.
:: Composed by: NINA BIDDLE ::
:: Editor via: AirAsiaBIG Viral-Video ::
Comments
Post a Comment