The former chauffeur of Princess Diana believes the late royal would still be alive today if he had been driving on the fateful night when she lost her life.
28 years on from the tragedy that shook the world, speculation is still rife as to what exactly happened, with conflicting opinions readily available wherever one cares to look.
Aged just 36, the Princess of Wales was traveling in a car with her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, along with her driver, Henri Paul, and Fayed’s bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones in Paris, France in the early hours August 31, 1997.
With the car being pursued by a pack of journalists as it sped through the Pont de l’Alma underpass, Paul – who was four times over the legal alcohol limit for driving in France – reportedly lost control and crashed into a column. Both he and Fayed were killed instantly, while Princess Diana and Trevor Rees-Jones were critically injured.
Diana was rushed to hospital. Despite the best efforts of surgeons to save her life, she was pronounced dead at 4am.
Almost three decades have passed since the crash, but the circumstances surrounding the princess’s demise are still the subject of much debate.
One thing’s for certain, and that’s that Diana’s former chauffeur, Steve Davies, believes she would still be alive had he not lost his job.
“I’d have taken a bullet for Diana. My job was my life,” Davies said, as per The Sun.
“I was always there for her. I went from having the dream job to having to start again from scratch.”
Of the fateful night that claimed her life, he added: “All I know is that if life had taken a different trajectory, if I’d been driving her that night in Paris, she would still be here today… because I would’ve kept her safe.”
A former army man, Davies claimed he never knew exactly why he had been dismissed until he watched the Netflix series The Crown.
Apparently, journalist Martin Bashir had spread lies about the driver, telling Diana that he had leaked information about her to the press. Allegedly, Bashir was trying to win Diana’s trust shortly before his controversial Panorama interview with her.
Indeed, Ken Wharfe, who served as Diana’s personal protection officer from 1987 to 1993, also insisted earlier this year that the People’s Princess might still be alive today if key decisions had been made differently.
”The one thing that would have saved Diana’s life that night would have been if they’d kicked out the chauffeur and for Rees-Jones to have driven,” he stated.
“But he couldn’t do that because he couldn’t speak to Dodi Fayed — he told him what to do. And that’s a shame, because had Rees-Jones taken that command, had he taken that decision to boot out Henri Paul, you and I would not be having this discussion.”
Perhaps the most avoidable mistake, according to Wharfe, was Diana’s decision to dismiss her Scotland Yard security team. After separating from Prince Charles in 1992, she eventually let go of her royal protection.
Wharfe recalls urging Diana to reconsider just weeks before she cut ties with them. ”She said, ‘You’ve always been great with advice. If there’s one piece of advice you’d give me, what would it be?’”
His response was clear: “I urge you, I urge you, not to lose the Scotland Yard security because we have given you that freedom, we’ve broken rules to allow you to have the normality that you crave for, and there’s no reason why that shouldn’t continue.”
Despite his warning, Diana dismissed her entire security team just four weeks later. Wharfe firmly believes that had Queen Elizabeth insisted she keep them, Diana would have agreed.
