PRINCESS DIANA claimed there was a plot to kill her in a car crash in a handwritten letter only 10 months before she died. She gave it to her butler Paul Burrell with orders that he should keep it as "insurance" for the future.
The princess predicted: “This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous.” She said "XXXXXXXXXXX is planning ‘an accident’ in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for Charles to marry”.
In the letter, revealed by the Daily Mirror today, Diana named who she believed was plotting to kill her. But the Mirror is not able to repeat the allegation for legal reasons so we have blanked that part of the letter out.
The document will fuel the conspiracy theories which have raged in the six years since she was killed in a Paris car crash.
But it also appears to bring fresh importance to a warning by the Queen that there were “powers at work in this country about which we have no knowledge”.
The Queen was speaking to Burrell at Buckingham Palace in a meeting that would prove crucial in the collapse of his trial for theft.
Now, plagued by that meeting and deeply troubled that there has still been no inquest in Britain into the death of Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, Burrell has come forward with the stunning new evidence.
In his new book A Royal Duty the former servant – cleared last year of stealing Diana’s possessions – claims she began to worry about her security TWO YEARS before her death and that this led her to record her fears in the document.
Before sealing the letter in an envelope marked “Paul”, the princess told him: “I’m going to date this and I want you to keep it ... just in case.”
In the second paragraph of the document, written in October 1996, Diana explained in the plainest possible language that she was convinced of the plot to mastermind an accident.
Burrell describes in his book the events that led the princess to write the document at her desk in Kensington Palace.
Diana’s divorce from Prince Charles had been finalised less than two months earlier.
The princess, who had cut down on her charities to focus on Aids, leprosy and victims of homelessness, was enjoying huge public support.
But according to Burrell, by the autumn of 1996 she had “an overpowering feeling that she was ‘in the way’.”
He adds: “Rightly or wrongly she felt the stronger she became, the more she was regarded as a modernising nuisance.
“She certainly felt that ‘the system’ didn’t appreciate her work and that for as long as she was on the scene Prince Charles could never properly move on.”
Burrell says the princess told him: “I have become strong and they don’t like it when I am able to do good and stand on my own two feet without them.”
THE princess’s anxiety deepened to such an extent that she ordered a sweep of her apartments at Kensington Palace for listening devices.
By October 1996 she once again confided in Burrell that she believed there was a concerted attempt to undermine her in the public’s eyes.
She recalled that she had been brooding about Charles’s relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles and the continuing role of Tiggy Legge Bourke, nanny to Princes William and Harry, in the Royal Household.
Burrell says the princess was feeling “undervalued and unappreciated”. But at the root of her fears she said she was constantly puzzled” by attempts by Prince Charles’s supporters to “destroy her”.
With these thoughts and fears in her head, Diana decided to put her fears to paper, says Burrell.
The letter betrays the loneliness Diana was feeling: “I am sitting here at my desk today in October, longing for someone to hug me and encourage me to keep strong and hold my head high.” According to Burrell it was not the first time Diana had felt it neccessary to record what was happening to her. He said: I became the repository for royal truths.
“These notes are her legacy and are crucial to the truths that enshrine her memory and debunk the damaging myths that seem to have been peddled since the day she died.”
Diana and Dodi Fayed were killed in the early hours of August 31 1997 when a Mercedes S280 driven by drunken chauffeur Henri Paul careered into the Pont d’Alma tunnel in the French capital.
An inquiry in 1999 by the French authorities blamed Paul, concluding that he had taken a cocktail of drink and drugs before losing control of the car because he was speeding.
However, there has been a growing unwillingness by the public to accept the official version of her death.
BURRELL admitted he shares the doubts. He said: “With the benefit of hindsight, the content of that letter has bothered me since her death.”
It will strike a chord among people who remain puzzled by inconsistences in her death, including questions over a mysterious white Fiat Uno which grazed the Mercedes in the tunnel and over blood samples taken from Henri Paul.
Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed, Dodi’s father, has spent tens of thousands of pounds on a private investigation, convinced that Diana and Dodi were murdered by British security services at the behest of Establishment forces.
But Diana’s family refuse to believe the theories. Her mother Frances Shand Kydd accepted the findings of the French inquiry “without reservation”.
Diana’s brother Earl Spencer also said he was satisfied that the authorities had “reached the right conclusion”.
Hopes that some of the mysteries would be unravelled were dashed last month.
A spokesman for the royal coroner Michael Burgess said the date for an inquest on Diana would be announced within days.
But hours later Mr Burgess ordered the statement to be withdrawn, saying it was premature” to suggest a date and refusing to give a timescale.
The lack of an inquest and his prosecution for theft in 2002 steeled Burrell’s determination to make public the princess’s concerns for her security.
“That letter has been part of the burden I have carried since the princess’s death. Knowing what to do with it has been a source of much soul-searching.”
He insists that whether it is a wild coincidence” or an explanation for the tragedy is a matter for a coroner’s court.
He adds: “It may be futile in what it achieves because it can do no more than provide yet another question mark.
“But if that question mark leads to an inquest and a thorough investigation of the facts by the British authorities it will have achieved something.”
Burrell deserves to be killed for the way he has treated the memory of Priness Diana, it is a disgrace.
Anyway, I want to know who it is was she thought was going to kill her. Does anyone know, can we find out? If Burrell is willing to sell that much of the story, surely he can sell the rest of it as well.
Princes William and Harry harshly criticized former royal butler Paul Burrell on Friday for what they called a "cold and overt betrayal" of their mother in revelations about her private life.
In a statement unprecedented for its strength of feeling, 21-year-old William, who was also speaking on behalf of his younger brother, said Princess Diana would have been "mortified" at Burrell's actions if she were alive today.
Burrell has written about his years as the princess's butler, and excerpts have been carried all week in the Daily Mirror newspaper.
As Princess Diana's former butler gives the media inside information about his time with her — claiming she never wanted to divorce Prince Charles, and that she feared for her safety — her sons say they feel betrayed.
"We cannot believe that Paul who was entrusted with so much could abuse his position in such a cold and overt betrayal," Prince William and Prince Harry said in a joint written statement.
"It is not only deeply painful for the two of us but also for everyone else affected," the statement continued, "and it would mortify our mother if she were alive today and, if we might say so, we feel we are more able to speak for our mother than Paul."
In a statement given to ABCNEWS and later read to the British media, Burrell said he is "saddened" by the princes' reaction to published details from his forthcoming book, A Royal Duty, which "is nothing more than a tribute to their mother." He said he hopes William and Harry will "think differently" upon reading the entire book.
"My only intention in writing this book was to defend the princess and stand in her corner," Burrell said.
However, he added, he would not apologize for the book.
"I would also like to point out that following the collapse of my Old Bailey trial last year, no one from the royal family contacted me or said 'sorry' for the ordeal myself, my wife and my sons were put through," Burrell said. "Neither do I say 'sorry' for writing this book of which I am extremely proud. And I am convinced the princess would be proud of it too. I've told the truth. The British public should know the truth."
Diana Never Wanted Divorce
In his exclusive interview with Barbara Walters for ABCNEWS' 20/20, Diana's former butler and confidant says the princess never wanted to divorce Prince Charles, and hoped for a reconciliation with the prince in spite of Charles' highly publicized relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles.
Burrell says Diana didn't just love Charles, she adored him. "She fell desperately in love with him. … She wrote letters to friends to tell them how in love she was, how much she adored him, and what a lucky lady she was," Burrell says.
Even as their relationship was falling apart, Burrell says, "She still wanted to work with the marriage." Six years after Diana's death, Burrell has released a controversial new book, in which he discloses intimate details about Diana's personal life. "She called me her emotional washing machine," Burrell tells Walters.
Burrell said Diana sent him a handwritten note claiming she "never wanted a divorce" from Prince Charles, and said Diana kept more than 20 photographs of Prince Charles in her room at Kensington Palace. In the prince's own way, Burrell says, Charles also continued to love Diana after their marriage broke up. Charles sent her flowers on her birthday and gifts on Valentine's Day.
"There's a bit of her that always loved the prince until the day she died."
Burrell says that Prince Philip tried to keep Charles and Diana's marriage together, but dispelled widespread rumors that Philip made derogatory remarks about Diana, such as calling her "a harlot." On the contrary, Burrell said Prince Philip said in a letter to Diana, "How could anyone in their right mind leave you for Camilla?"
'Paranoid' About Security
One of the most explosive disclosures in Burrell's book is his claim that Diana wrote him a letter 10 months before she and her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, were killed in a Paris car crash, saying that she feared for her life and that someone was "planning an accident in my car." Burrell does not disclose the identity of who Diana thought might be trying to harm her in his book. However, he said he will give those names to authorities if there is an inquiry into Diana's death.
The British government has so far rejected calls for a public inquiry into Diana's death. A coroner's inquest is however expected to be held once legal processes in France have been completed.
In 1999, a French investigation ruled the crash was an accident caused by the chauffeur being drunk and driving too fast.
When asked about the reasons why Diana would have feared for her life, Burrell said the princess was frightened for her own security because the royal family considered her a "loose cannon."
"She talked rather a lot to a lot of people," said Burrell. "She trusted psychics and confidants, and I think they just wanted to keep her quiet."
He described one incident where the princess was convinced there were recording bugs placed in her sitting room.
"She was paranoid about all other aspects of security in her life," he said. "One afternoon I went up to her sitting room, we rolled back the carpet and moved all the furniture and pulled up the floor boards trying to find listening devices." There were no bugs found in the room.
Dodi Wasn't the One
Burrell paints a picture of the princess struggling to cope after Charles left her for longtime companion Camilla Parker Bowles.
"She said she needed a marriage like a bad rash," Burrell tells Walters. But he added that he felt certain that Diana would not have married Fayed. "He may have wanted to," said Burrell of Fayed. "But he wasn't the one."
He also dispelled rumors that Diana was pregnant with Fayed's child at the time of her death as well as reports that Prince Harry was the son of former royal cavalry officer James Hewitt, with whom the princess acknowledged having an affair in a 1995 interview.
"Absolutely not true," said Burrell. "The princess didn't even know James Hewitt when Harry was born."
Burrell tells Walters that Diana's true love at the time of her death was a Pakistani heart surgeon Hasnat Khan, whom the princess met when she visited a heart transplant patient at London's Brompton Hospital.
According to Burrell, Diana would have liked to marry Khan, but Khan broke off their relationship. "I think there were too many complications on both sides," Burrell said.
It was shortly after the relationship ended that Diana met Fayed, the son of Mohammed Al Fayed, the owner of London's exclusive store Harrods.
A Falling Out With Fergie
At the time of Diana's death, Burrell says, the princess and Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, were not on speaking terms. The two had been very close friends — like sisters — he says, but had had a falling out.
Burrell said the Duchess of York, the former wife of Charles' brother Andrew, came to him after Diana's death. "She cried. She was devastated," he said.
Burrell also writes that Diana shared many of her personal problems with her son, William, who was only 15 at the time. He describes William as a "very old boy," who seemed able to comfort his mother. "When she cried," Burrell says, "he'd put his arms around her and say, 'Don't worry, Mummy. I'll make it better when I'm king.'"
10-21-2003 12:29 AM
