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Diana: Chasing A Fairytale. Aired 10p-12mn ET
Aired September 01, 2017 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:04] CLARISSA WARD, CNN HOST (voice-over): The most famous and photographed woman in the world, a princess with style and substance, a loving mother.
MARY ROBERTSON, PRINCESS DIANA'S FRIEND AND EMPLOYER: Diana was absolutely born to be a mother.
WARD: A passionate advocate.
DIANA SPENCER, PRINCESS OF WALES: I'm trying to highlight a problem that's going on all around the world.
WARD: Through it all, her every move scrutinized and scandalized.
JAMES COLTHURST, PRINCESS DIANA'S CHILDHOOD FRIEND: She is followed everywhere. I think she found that time very difficult.
WARD: Behind the flash bulbs, a life marred by loneliness.
PAUL BURRELL, PRINCESS DIANA'S BUTLER: She wanted her freedom. She wanted a life.
WARD: The tragedy that took her life --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Princess Diana at the age of 36 has died.
WARD: -- left the world devastated and in disbelief. Twenty years later, what do we know?
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSEN, AUTHOR, THE DAY DIANA DIED: She went to her lawyer and said, "They're going to kill me and here is how."
PATRICK JEPHSON, PRINCESS DIANA PRESS SECRETARY: She knew something was wrong.
WARD: Friends, family, those who were there speak out about Diana, a woman who transcended celebrity and transformed a monarchy. "Diana: Chasing a Fairytale".
Fall 1980, a nondescript apartment in the fashionable section of London called Kensington, crowds of photographers, cameras ready, anticipation great.
DICKIE ARBITER, ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Media were pursuing her like nobody's business.
PAUL BENNETT, PHOTO EDITOR: Rumors had begun to get around that she was the new girl on the block.
WARD (voice-over): She is 19-year-old Lady Diana Spencer, the new girlfriend of the most eligible man in the country. The chase begins.
JEPHSON: Diana was the story.
COLTHURST: She was followed everywhere. I think she found that time very difficult.
ARTHUR EDWARDS, ROYAL PHOTOGRAPHER: And she was completely alone.
WARD: No police, no security, no bodyguards. Lady Diana Spencer may be dating the next king of England, but she is not yet an official member of the Royal Family, so she is not entitled to any protection.
ARBITER: The attention that Charles and Diana were getting was unprecedented.
WARD: In 1980, Dickie Arbiter was a royal correspondent and later became the palace's press secretary.
ARBITER: The palace wasn't making any attempt to control the media or interests because they weren't aware or didn't believe at the time that they would be such media interest.
WARD: But there is almost an insatiable interest, perhaps in part, because Diana is a bit of a mystery, not a familiar fixture on the trendy London social scene. Everyone wants to know who she is, where she comes from and if she has what it takes to be the next queen of England.
(on camera): Diana grew up in the countryside. She was a country girl.
COLTHURST: Absolutely, loved it. They're very familiar with it.
WARD (voice-over): Dr. James Colthurst was a childhood friend of Diana's. The Spencers leased a house on the queen country of state at Sandringham, now Leonard Cheshire's Park House Hotel for Disabled People, then it was where Diana grew up and where young Princes Andrew and Edward often came over to swim.
COLTHURST: She had a childhood that was in a fairly aristocratic circle. So she was very used to that lifestyle.
WARD: She is the third child of Viscount John and Lady Frances Spencer, part of the wealthy upper class. Her parents were married at Westminster Abbey in 1954.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was, indeed, a brilliant occasion and likely to be remembered as the wedding of the year.
WARD: Attended by the Royal Family.
ANDERSEN: You'd think the world was her oyster. But in fact, she had a desperately unhappy childhood. WARD: According to Diana biographer Christopher Andersen, before she was born, the Spencers had been hoping for a boy, a son to follow two older daughters.
ANDERSEN: She once said, "When I was born, I was unwanted. When I married Charles, I was unwanted. When I joined the Royal Family, I was unwanted. I want to be wanted."
ARBITER: Every child wants to be noticed. Every child of a certain age, "Look at me, look at me, daddy. Look at me, mommy. Aren't I clever? And I suppose it affected Diana more."
WARD (voice-over): More Arbiter says because of what happened in 1967. Diana's parents divorced. The fight was ugly, as was the public custody battle over the children.
[22:05:11] ANDERSEN: Her mother left the family, abandoned her. And from that point on, Diana was kind of caught in the crossfire of her parents' really very, very bitter divorce. And I think that affected her tremendously.
MARY CLARKE, DIANA'S NANNY: She has those downcast eyes which she became very famous. And she was very shy.
WARD: Mary Clarke was Diana's nanny at the time.
CLARKE: Her parents' divorce had quite a profound affect on her. She said, "I will never, ever marry unless I'm really in love because if you're not in love, you're going to get divorced. And I never intend to be divorced."
WARD (on camera): Johnnie Spencer was given full custody of the children. They tried to settle back into their quiet life here at Park House in the English countryside. But more big changes were yet to come.
(voice-over): By the time Diana was 15, her father was remarried, her grandfather had passed and Johnnie Spencer had inherited a huge estate called Althorp.
CHARLES SPENCER, PRINCESS DIANA'S BROTHER: The main hall is called Wooten Hall, and that's got this wonderful marble floor. And I remember one of her great fads for a couple years was tap dancing. And it was perfect for that.
WARD: Living at Althorp was quite an adjustment from the country home where Diana and her brother Charles grew up.
SPENCER: The inside of the house, very formal. There wasn't even like a family kitchen. It wasn't fun growing up in this house.
PENNY WALKER, FORMER MUSIC TEACHER OF PRINCESS DIANA: I think there was an awful lot of unrest in her home life.
WARD: But teacher Penny Walker says life at the West Heath School 100 miles from home was full of fun and friends. WALKER: She was part of a really lively group. They were fun and they were not naughty and they giggled a lot.
WARD: And, of course, they talked a lot about boys.
WALKER: She was always known to adore Prince Charles. And her little bedroom cubicle had pictures of him all over it. It was common knowledge.
WARD: Then one weekend, Diana returned to school with a story to tell.
WALKER: She came back alive with it and said, "I've met him, I've met him."
CHARLES PHILIP ARTHUR GEORGE, PRINCE OF WALES: And I remember thinking what a bit of jolly and amusing and amusing and attractive 16-year-old she was. And I mean great fun, and dancey, and full of life and everything.
WARD: But not a love interest yet. It took a few more years for that jolly teenager to blossom into a beautiful, charismatic young woman.
(on camera): She didn't take a bad photo.
COLTHURST: Not a bad photo. And even then, even looking bored at the end of a day, you know, it was good.
WARD (voice-over): Winter 1979 in the French Alps, Diana was almost 18 on a ski trip with friends.
COLTHURST: She was great looking, of course. But the striking thing, I think, was the humor and the engagement. She was just fun to have in the group.
MARY ROBERTSON, EMPLOYED PRINCESS DIANA: She was an absolute vision.
WARD: American Mary Robertson noticed how special Diana was soon after that ski trip. She interviewed her for a job when Diana first settled in London.
(on camera): Did you know that she was from an aristocratic family?
ROBERTSON: I should have known with that wonderful accent, the flawless manners, the poise.
ROBERTO DEVORIK, FASHION DESIGNER AND CLOSE FRIEND OF DIANA'S: She was in a way a sophisticated country girl.
WARD (voice-over): Close friend and fashion designer Roberto Devorik.
DEVORIK: She had no sense of fashion whatsoever. She didn't care even. And I think she never thought the magnitude of what her life was going to be.
WARD: While she doesn't yet know how big her life will become, Diana does feel it will be distinct. Once saying, "I knew that something profound was coming my way and I was just treading water waiting for it."
Soon, treading water in a sea of sharks. The lonely journey to the palace when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:14:12] PAUL BURRELL, DIANA'S FORMER BUTLER AND CLOSE CONFIDANT: It was 1980. The Queen said to me, we have a guest come to stay for the weekend and would you meet her at the front door of Balmoral Castle?
WARD (voice-over): It's early September in Scotland. Paul Burrell, Queen Elizabeth's personal footman welcomes 19-year-old Lady Diana Spencer.
BURRELL: I met this shy, young girl with one suitcase and I took her to her room. And she said, "I am completely out of my depth. I don't know anything about this place. Charles has invited me to stay the weekend, and what do I do?"
WARD: Despite being from an aristocratic, well-connected family, Diana is not prepared for a weekend with the royals, especially the Queen. She has, after all, only been dating the Prince for a month. She has no clue what to expect, what to do, and what to wear.
[22:15:12] BURRELL: I brought my dress. I said, "What, one dress? You're here for three nights. I'm going to have to find you other dresses."
WARD (on camera): Did you recognize something special in her even then?
BURRELL: She was innocent, she was naive, but she was special.
WARD (voice-over): Royal photographer Arthur Edwards sees it too.
EDWARDS: I'm driving along the river bank, the River Dee up in Balmoral and I see Prince Charles fishing, and with him is Lady Diana Spencer.
WARD: It's not the first time he stumbles upon the couple. Weeks earlier, he spotted Diana at one of Prince Charles' polo matches.
(on camera): She's got sort of natural photo --
EDWARDS: Yes. She's really -- I mean she just did it just as a matter of course.
WARD (voice-over): Then Edwards filed the picture away, thinking 19- year-old Diana was too young to be dating 31-year-old Prince Charles. Now seeing the couple together again, alarm bells go off.
EDWARDS: I take some pictures of them fishing. He gets very angry with me. The Prince storms off. I thought he stormed off. He runs through the woods. All the girlfriends before have always been by his side. This one, he's, you know, he's hiding, he's protecting.
WARD: But Prince Charles cannot hide or protect Diana anymore. The picture of them makes the front page. When she arrives at work Monday morning, she finds her world turned upside down.
ROBERTSON: She said, "Mrs. Robertson, I have something to tell you."
WARD: Diana works part-time as a nanny for American Mary Robertson.
ROBERTSON: She looks down, blushes. She said, "When you leave for work this morning, you'll notice that there are some reporters and photographers. They're actually here for me." I said, "What have you done?" And she said, "Well, I spent last weekend up at Balmoral Castle." And I guessed and I said, "Was it Prince Andrew?" And she said, "No, actually it was with Prince Charles."
WARD: Prince Charles, the country's most eligible bachelor. Diana once anonymous is now famous.
ROBERTSON: I think it was overwhelming. But she was still trying to come to work because she couldn't spend her life cooped up in her apartment.
EDWARDS: She was good humor. Sometimes she stopped for a chat.
WARD (on camera): But she never stops for an interview or poses for a photograph. That is until late September 1980 at this London kindergarten where Diana works part time.
EDWARDS: She came out with two of the children from the nursery. And halfway through taking the picture, the sun came out. And we saw that beautiful lace. The headline was "Charlie's Girl". And she was, I think, a little disturbed about it because I think she said to someone, "I'll be the only girlfriend for him that never had a petticoat."
WARD (voice-over): Diana knows one media misstep could impact her relationship with Charles.
PRINCESS DIANA: Careful.
WARD: She had seen it happen to her older sister, Sarah, several years earlier.
EDWARDS: Sarah talked to us about that brief romance with the Prince of Wales. They went skiing together. She said, "I don't care if it's a dustman or king of England, I would have to be in love to marry that person."
WARD: Soon after came the end of Sarah's royal romance. And Diana has not forgotten.
ROBERTSON: I remember Diana saying that when the phone rang at her flat, she didn't want to pick it up for fear it would be Sarah prying into what was going on with Diana. And she just didn't want to talk to anybody about it, not even her own sister. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you coping with all the press attention?
PRINCESS DIANA: Well, as you can see, you can tell.
COLTHURST: I think she was very protective of him.
WARD: But every once in a while in private, a very giddy, very love- struck 19-year-old confides in those close to her.
ROBERTSON: She would gush about him, how intelligent he was, how perfect he was.
WARD: Her perfect prince and most agree she could be the perfect princess.
BURRELL: She had never had a boyfriend. She was completely pure, untouched, the most eligible woman in the land to marry the heir to the throne.
WARD (on camera): So was she a perfect mate for Charles?
BURRELL: On paper, yes, she was.
[22:19:58] WARD (voice-over): And by winter of 1980, he's running out of time. Prince Charles is 32 years old. The future king needs to settle down to marry and to produce an heir to the throne.
ROBERTSON: You just knew from the buzz in the air, there was a lot of pressure on Charles to pick a suitable mate.
WARD (on camera): Was it an arranged marriage?
BURRELL: Diana's grandmother, Lady Ruth Fermoy was lady in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother. Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother doted on Charles and whispered in his ear about this beautiful young girl. It was a setup.
ANDERSEN: I think the phrase was that she would be the perfect broodmare.
WARD: Broodmare?
ANDERSEN: Yes, that's how they viewed Diana.
WARD: For rearing children basically.
ANDERSEN: Right, right.
BURRELL: Charles would have to decide whether he wants to marry her. But who couldn't want to marry that beautiful young thing? And he thought that she would toe the party line.
WARD (voice-over): Toe the party line, behave like a royal and always put the monarchy first, no matter what the circumstances.
In February 1981, barely six months after they started dating, it becomes official. Charles and Diana are engaged.
PRINCESS DIANA: Wonderful sapphire and diamonds.
WARD: It is Diana's first official press appearance.
BURRELL: I watched this young girl appear on the terrace for the world media, a lamb to the slaughter, really.
WARD (on camera): A lamb to the slaughter.
BURRELL: An innocent brought into this dynastic family. She was entering into something which she had no comprehension of.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has it been a strain trying to carry out a courtship without anyone knowing?
PRINCESS DIANA: Yes, it has. But I think anyone (INAUDIBLE) might be would feel pressure I think.
WARD (voice-over): An intense pressure, Diana seems willing to endure.
COLTHURST: I think she was absolutely determined to have it work out.
ROBERTSON: I knew how badly she wanted this. And I was just so happy that she was going to get her dream.
WARD: But there are already signs of trouble ahead with the world watching. The reporter asks Charles and Diana if they are in love.
PRINCESS DIANA: Of course.
PRINCE CHARLES: Whatever in love means.
ROBERTSON: That should have been our tip-off right there. It never occurred to me that if he didn't really love her at the start that he would learn to love her. And I believed in the fairytale completely.
WARD: Everyone does, including Diana. But her prince charming, many insiders now say, is following his duty and not his heart. Charles' true love, Diana will soon find out, is for someone else.
When we come back, Diana crumbles with the world watching.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bride-to-be burst into tears in a polo match.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:27:24] WARD (voice-over): Goldsmith's Hall in London, Diana's first public appearance since her engagement to Prince Charles. As the royal car pulls up, Diana mischievously peers out. Prince Charles knows why.
EDWARDS: When he got out of the car, he said, "You want to see what's coming next."
WARD: A new Lady Diana Spencer emerges.
BENNETT: So start in the firing (ph) gown hall of the light in blazes of camera lights and attention.
WARD: Photo editor Paul Bennett.
BENNETT: When she got out of the car and that shoulder dropped, I thought, "So you know what you're doing, girl."
EDWARDS: She wore this fantastic dress. I'll never forget, but very low cut and showed everything that she had.
WARD: Diana picked it herself, says designer Elizabeth Emanuel.
ELIZABETH EMANUEL, DESIGNER: For the first time, she looked like a princess. Very glamorous. And I think that was quite a transforming dress for her.
WARD: It's all anyone can talk about.
EMANUEL: The very next day, the budget was going to be announced. All of that went to the back pages and all there was on the front pages was Diana wearing the low-cut dress, getting out of the car.
WARD: Despite the public attention, Diana is increasingly isolated and lonely.
(on camera): Right after the engagement, Diana moves out of her flat away from friends and family. She now lives at this royal residence, Clarence House.
ROBERTSON: I think it was a very atypical run up to the wedding. You know, when you're stuck inside those walls, it's not a totally joyous, free, fun experience.
WARD: Do you think she felt lonely?
ROBERTSON: I'm quite sure she felt lonely.
WARD (voice-over): Diana writes letters to stay connected.
ROBERTSON: I am continually surrounded by grownups and sometimes search for my own age group.
BURRELL: I think she was desperately lonely. And she sought friendship downstairs. It was odd with Diana. She spent more time downstairs with the staff than she did upstairs with the guests.
WARD: Making matters worse, Charles is often absent.
ROBERTSON: She definitely expected to get a whole lot more support and reassurance and guidance from him. And that didn't materialize.
[22:30:05] WARD: One month after their engagement, Charles departs for a five-week worldwide royal tour. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: His fiancee, Lady Diana Spencer saw the Prince off at London's Heathrow Airport. She kissed him twice and walked away with tears in her eyes.
COLTHURST: It was a time when most girls might expect to be very happy. And I think she retreated a bit. You know, she wasn't very happy. She didn't like being seen when she was unhappy.
WARD: Behind closed doors, Diana is developing a serious eating disorder, something she'll struggle with for many years to come.
BURRELL: She is a young girl. She has bulimia. She didn't know how to cope with it.
EMANUEL: We were surprised at how much weight she lost. She was 19 and I suppose a size like a 14. But as we continue to make this dress, she lost so much weight. And she was transforming into like a size 8, a model size.
WARD: At Diana's request, Elizabeth Emanuel and then-husband David are now designing the world's most anticipated wedding dress.
EMANUEL: We have packs of press outside our door. We had people across the road renting space so they could just look through our windows.
WARD: The dress is kept in a secret vault with security guards protecting it around the clock.
(on camera): She came to a lot of her fittings alone.
EMANUEL: Yes. I think a couple of times, she brought her mother and then she was there with the bridesmaid. Yes, she was on her own with a detective who waited outside.
BURRELL: She didn't really know what she was stepping into. And I do think she had second thoughts of whether she would get married to the heir to the throne of England and had second thoughts about whether she wants to be queen one day.
WARD (voice-over): And second thoughts about the Prince's true feelings.
BURRELL: I think Diana always knew that Charles was in love with someone else.
WARD: That someone else, ex-girlfriend Camilla Parker-Bowles. Diana later says in tapes she secretly records, that before the wedding she overhears Charles on the phone with Camilla. He says to her, "Whatever happens, I will always love you." Charles maintains they were just friends at the time.
BURRELL: She thought she could change him. She's a beautiful young thing. She thought she'd turn his head and he would fall desperately in love with her.
WARD: But things don't change. The pressure on Diana is mounting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bride-to-be burst into tears in a polo match.
WARD: Shortly before the wedding, somehow it gets worse.
ANDERSEN: Diana discovered a bracelet that Charles had made for Camilla. And the bracelet had the interlocking letters F and G which stood for Fred and Gladys. And these were the secret nicknames that Camilla and Charles had for one another. Diana was devastated.
WARD: The night before the wedding, guests are arriving at Buckingham Palace for a ball.
ROBERTSON: She says, "Mrs. Robertson, I'm so glad you're here."
WARD: But as soon as the long receiving line ends, Diana slips away.
ROBERTSON: We did not see her for the rest of the evening, so this was troublesome. I gather she was upstairs that evening talking to her sisters, saying maybe this isn't going to go the way I hoped it would.
COLTHURST: One of the sisters said, actually, tough, it's tomorrow. Your image is on the tea towels and it's on the mugs and all the other merchandising. You're going to have to go ahead with this.
WARD (on camera): No turning back?
COLTHURST: Exactly.
WARD (voice-over): The next morning, July 29, 1981, is the wedding day.
EMANUEL: We were waiting at the top of the stairs at Clarence House for the coach to arrive. And there was silence, complete silence from everybody. I think that was the moment it really sunk in that how big this occasion was because we could hear the crowds outside yelling and cheering.
WARD: The streets of London are packed, an unprecedented 752 million people are watching the pageantry, the majesty, the unbridled excitement as the horse-drawn carriage carries Lady Diana Spencer to St. Paul's Cathedral.
EMANUEL: She looks like a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis, completely different world for her. She was going to be a princess.
[22:35:02] WARD: As she drifts down the aisle, the only word that seems to fit is fairytale, but her friends know better.
ROBERTSON: She looked tentative. She looked pale. She looked tense.
DEVORIK: She's looking to the left, she's looking to the right. She's looking if Camilla is in the church. And Camilla was in the church. And that was the beginning of what then became a nightmare.
PRINCE CHARLES: I, Charles Philip Arthur George, take thee Diana Frances.
BURRELL: Diana was a romantic. She dreamt to fall in love with the Prince. She kissed him and she thought that frog would turn into a prince. Years later she said to me, "I kissed a frog and it turned into a toad."
WARD: Diana confronts Charles and Camilla when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:40:18] WARD (voice-over): From the high seas into the windy shores, August 1981 is the summer of love for the world's most watched newlyweds.
BURRELL: They were having a wonderful honeymoon. She loved being Mrs. Wales.
ARBITER: He couldn't keep his hands off her. They'd be in public engagement and his hand would wander to her bottom and he'd squeeze it in public. That was something that's never been seen by the Royal Family and certainly never done.
WARD: And no one has ever seen a princess quite like Diana.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you cooked the breakfast yet?
PRINCESS DIANA: We don't eat breakfast.
WARD: At just 20 years old, she is the new star of the Royal Family, something Prince Charles seems at the time to accept, even enjoy.
PRINCE CHARLES: On our recent three-day visit to Wales, which was overwhelming is all I can say, and entirely due to the effect that my dear wife has had on everybody.
WARD (on camera): Diana wants to be the perfect princess. To bare an heir is her most important duty. And just months after her historic wedding, she accomplishes it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In England, glasses are raised in pubs, and messages of congratulations down from the House of Commons the news that Princess Diana is expecting a baby.
WARD (voice-over): Anticipation and excitement build. Crowds fill the streets outside the hospital. Finally, June 21st, 1982, a son is born, Prince William Arthur Philip Louis.
PRINCE CHARLES: He's in very good form. Marvelous.
WARD: Her marriage to motherhood in less than a year. And then a little more than two years later, Prince Harry arrives.
ROBERTSON: Diana was absolutely born to be a mother. She was just the most devoted, committed mother you could imagine.
WILLIAM ARTHUR PHILIP LOUIS, DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE: Believe it, you and I are both in the picture, bro.
HENRY CHARLES ALBERT DAVID, PRINCE OF WALES: Right.
WARD: The princes recently spoke in depth about their mother for the first time in a documentary on ITV.
PRINCE HARRY: She would just engulf you and squeeze you as tight as possible. And being as short as I was then, there was no escape. You were there and you were there for as long as she wanted it to hold you. Even talking about it now, I can feel the hugs that she used to give us.
WARD: Different, many believe from Royals in the past.
ANDERSEN: She was really the first Royal to connect with her own children. Charles had been raised by nannies. He did not go to school as a young boy. She made sure both of her sons went to nursery school and they're around other children.
WARD: And like most mothers, Diana drops them off at school. But unlike most mothers, the entire world is watching.
KEN WHARFE, BODYGUARD, PRINCESS DIANA: We got into the car outside Kensington Palace and Diana just turned and she said, "Now, listen, William, when we get to the school you got to behave yourself because there's going to be lots of photographers, okay? So, no mocking about. Okay, do you understand that?" And he sort of hummed in hard and then he sort of looked just below the peek of his cap and he said, "I don't like photographers."
And given that they were sort of locked in the Royal Palace for most of their life, she wanted to give them as near as normal lifestyle as possible.
BURRELL: They were exposed to people on the street, homeless, people with HIV and AIDS. They saw life, real life.
WARD: A normal life, or as normal as Diana can make it.
WHARFE: Diana would take them to, you know, burger bars in Ken High Street or go shopping for fish fingers in a supermarket, you know, going to the cinema, going go-kart racing. These were the things that other children did.
WARD: But while Diana shines as a mother, she struggles as a wife.
ANDERSEN: I think she felt she could bring Charles around, but it never happened. He never fell out of love with Camilla.
WARD: All these years later, Charles' former flame, Camilla Parker- Bowles, is still in the shadows.
BURRELL: So from very early days, Camilla was always there. On honeymoon, Diana found the cufflinks, Charles's, with two intertwined C's.
[22:45:02] WARD (on-camera): For Charles' and Camilla?
BURRELL: Camilla. And Diana said, "Oh, lovely Chanel cufflinks." Not Chanel.
COLTHURST: I think she understood at that stage that maybe this was going to become quite a big issue.
BURRELL: Prince Charles had produced his heir and a spare and gave him the opportunity then to return to a former life.
WARD (voice-over): He spends more time away from Diana at his estate, Highgrove.
BURRELL: The princess would arrive every weekend with the boys and leave on a Sunday afternoon. And Camilla was the next visitor an hour later. So, one went out of the front door and one came in the back door.
ANDERSEN: At one point Diana actually confronted Camilla.
WARD: It is Camilla's sister's birthday party, February 1989.
WHARFE: And I don't think the crowd expected Diana to be there either.
WARD: She is on a mission to find Camilla. Bodyguard Ken Wharfe is there.
WHARFE: We eventually went to this basement area of this house and there was Camilla, and then sat towards each other.
WARD: Diana confronts her about the alleged affair, something Camilla has never acknowledged. Diana later tells a reporter, Camilla is not willing to leave Charles, saying, "You've got everything you ever wanted. You've got all the men in the world to fall in love with you, and you've got two beautiful children. What more do you want?"
ANDERSEN: And Diana said, "Yes, but this is my husband." The situation was just untenable for someone like Diana. I mean as Diana herself said, you know, "There were three of us in this marriage from the start. So it was a bit crowded."
WHARFE: Diana had realized there was no chance or little chance of a reconciliation.
WARD (on-camera): Did she seem depress or humiliated or upset after the experience?
WHARFE: The thing about that, what I remember the following day, was probably the brightest and liveliest that I've actually seen her for some time. And thereafter, there was a huge build of confidence.
WARD (voice-over): Confidence Wharfe says to go solo and at 27 years old, chart her own course, or as Diana once described it "cut my own path". EDWARDS: We went to Nigeria to a leper colony and she was literally holding the lepers' hands. We went to Brazil and she held babies born with HIV.
ARBITER: When Diana went to hospice, she would sit on the bed and hold the patient's hand. When Charles went to a hospice, he'd stand by the patient and he'd be very sympathetic. They had a different approach. Diana was touchy-feely.
WARD: And it's not just actions, but Diana's words that are different.
COLTHURST: So this is how a speech might turn up. She'd send the one from the organization with her little post-it note attached saying, "I wonder what your views are." And she wrote a bit --
WARD: Old friend, James Colthurst helps Diana craft new more personal speeches. It's April 1991.
PRINCESS DIANA: HIV does not make people dangerous to know. So you can shake their hands and give them a hug. Heaven knows they need it.
COLTHURST: This was a game changer for her. Normally, her appearance as a charity might get a mention in the inside pages just to say she'd been there. The first speech ended up being reproduced verbatim on the front page of the two broad sheets. It was a big moment.
WARD: Princess Diana, the advocate, is an instant star.
JEPHSON: Particularly as Diana became more accomplished, more sure of herself, more confident, it seemed her husband, but also someone in his family saw Diana first was a bit of a mystery, but ultimately with hostility.
DEVORIK: The people were going crazy about her. And he was like a shadow next to her.
ARBITER: Diana gets one side of the road, Charles gets the other side of the road. So the side they got, Diana cheered. The side they got, Charles jeered. And that's how it was during the time. So it was difficult. Yes, he probably did get resentful. She was on the front page of newspapers, lead story on television. It was all Diana.
WARD: Publicly, Prince Charles jokes about it.
PRINCE CHARLES: And I've come to the conclusion that really it would have been far easier to had two wives, so I'd covered both sides of the street. And I could have walked down the middle directing the operation.
WARD: But privately, by the early '90s, Charles and Diana are living separate lives.
[22:49:58] ARBITER: They do a state banquet or something involving a state visit together, and then Diana would come back here and Charles would go back to Gloucestershire, to Highgrove. So Diana came back here alone. She lived in lonely existence. She was a prisoner.
WARD: And desperate to let the world know. It's February, 1992, touring India, Diana goes to the Taj Mahal without Charles.
(on camera): That picture somehow came to be emblematic of the end of a marriage and also of her loneliness.
ARBITER: You know, tilting her head to one side, you know, sort of putting her head down. She was very good at that. And there were all sorts of interpretive headlines, wistful, pensive, thoughtful.
WARD: And you think that was deliberate on her part?
ARBITER: Up to a point, yes, it was deliberate.
ANDERSEN: Diana was a master manipulator of the media. She was someone who was very shrewd.
WARD: That is until the summer of 1992, when we come back.
ARBITER: And she phoned me at 5:00 and said, "What do I do?" I said, "You are nice. You've already done it. I suggest you pour a very large scotch."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:55:15] QUEEN ELIZABETH: 1992 is not a year on which I shall look back with undiluted pleasure.
WARD: A startling and revealing admission from the notoriously private and composed Queen Elizabeth.
QUEEN ELIZABETH: It has turned out to be an annus horribilis.
WARD: Declaring 1992 a horrible year.
JEPHSON: She actually found a very neat way of saying, "Yes, it's tough, and I don't mind telling you it's tough."
WARD: Tough times that start early February in Jaipur, India. Diana is at a polo match with Charles. After his victory, the prince goes in for the ceremonial celebratory kiss from his princess.
EDWARDS: This is the kiss that missed. This is when the prince was expecting to get a kiss on the lips and the prize.
WARD (on-camera): So an awkward moment.
EDWARDS: And he got the booby prize. And the prize, yes, she turned her head.
WHARFE: I think it did signify to the world at that point exactly where the state of the marriage was. And this wasn't unexpected. It was just waiting for a sort of Royal admission that things were really wrong here.
WARD (voice-over): But according to palace insiders, Charles is not about to do that. They say the people on his team have other ideas.
JEPHSON: They set out to diminish Diana in the public's eyes. This was an attempt to intimidate us. It was a bullying tactic.
WARD: What Diana's private secretary, Patrick Jephson, calls a smear campaign that he says began in 1991.
JEPHSON: For Diana's 30th birthday, Charles wanted to throw a birthday party for her. And she saw this as a P.R. stunt so that his people could say, "Look, here he is, the loving devoted husband putting on a birthday party for her." Her reluctance to have a big birthday party was prominently reported on the front page of the tabloids.
ANDERSEN: At least the kind of games that they played throughout their marriage, to win over the public through manipulating the press. And no one could do it better than Diana.
COLTHURST: She was determined to say something. There was no stopping that. It was inevitable, I think, as a vent for the anger.
WARD: So Diana asked her old friend for help.
COLTHURST: I said a book would be a better format than a mad article or a T.V. thing because she could have control of it.
WARD (on camera): A book like no other. Diana's own story personally told to a reporter of her choosing, Royal watcher Andrew Morton. But Diana can't be seen meeting with Morton here at Kensington Palace, so she hatches a secret plan.
It was almost like you were in a sort of James Bond movie kind of.
COLTHURST: It was much simpler in a way than people make.
WARD (voice-over): Starting in the summer of 1991, Colthurst bikes to Kensington Palace as he has for years to visit Diana, but this time he carries a small tape recorder and a long list of questions hidden in his bag.
COLTHURST: Cycled in, had lunch, made a bit of few questions before lunch and a few after and then off again.
WARD: Off to deliver the tapes to Andrew Morton, who weaves them into a revealing book, more revealing than anyone expected.
COLTHURST: She was very open indeed about everything and to a level where I was almost worrying -- cautioned about what was being said.
WARD: From her struggles with bulimia, depression, to her husband's alleged infidelities and her multiple suicide attempts, one of them happening when she was just three months pregnant with Prince William.
ANDERSEN: She threw herself down the staircase and Charles just went right out the door. She was very badly bruised. It apparently didn't affect her pregnancy. COLTHURST: This was a letter just --
WARD: By the end of 1991, the book is finished, and Diana is getting ready.
COLTHURST: This is obviously we're preparing for the volcano to erupt. And I do feel better equip to cope with whatever comes our way.
WARD (on camera): Was she excited by that?
COLTHURST: I think relieved.
WARD (voice-over): Book excerpts finally hit the newsstands in June 1992.
(on camera): How did you know she was behind it?
ARBITER: There was too much in it not to have her fingerprints all over it.
WARD (voice-over): Diana panics.
[22:59:59] ARBITER: She phoned me at 5:00 and said, "What do I do?" I said, "You are nice. You've already done it. I suggest you pour a very large scotch."
JEPHSON: She got condemned for speaking, for revealing the truth. Rather than having the royal establishment respond to the message, they just shot the messenger.
WARD (voice-over):And while the palace doesn't support her airing of royal dirty laundry, many ordinary people relate to her.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She had huge letters (ph) of support saying actually you've done a pretty job in the public role, so you know, don't back off.
WARD: Was she concerned at all about how this might affect the boys?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think she was mostly concerned that if she kept being crushed, as she saw it, by the system, that would be more damaging for them.
WARD (voice-over):The war of the Wales is on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARY TILLOTSON, CNN HOST: We're talking about the troubles through the royal house of Windsor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They may not love each other at all, but they love themselves very greatly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WARD (voice-over):From the summer through the fall, every day seems to bring a new revelation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Diana's taped confessions, can life at the top get any worse?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, CNN HOST: Maybe fairy tales don't come true after all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WARD (voice-over):Privately, insider's say, Diana and Charles meet and agree to separate. But the Queen will not allow it, a theory (ph) at the palace won't comment on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a very difficult situation and as the relationship was deteriorating to try and maintain a happy face and business as usual.
WARD (voice-over):Early November 1992, Diana and Charles arrive in Seoul, South Korea.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the plane came to a stop, Mr. and Mrs. Glum stood in the doorway.
WARD: Is that what you called them?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They looked like two people not only didn't they want to be in each other's company, but they probably didn't want to be in Korea either.
WARD (voice-over):It's clear things must change.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With regret, the Prince and Princess of Wales have decided to separate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JEPHSON: It was as if a weight had been lifted from them both.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At that stage, both of them could define new pathways and do what they needed to do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Princess of Wales would like to make a short statement.
WARD (voice-over):December 1993
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DIANA SPENCER-WINDSOR, PRINCESS OF WALES: When I started my public life 12 years ago, I understood the media might be interested in what I did. But I was not aware of how overwhelming that attention would become. (END VIDEO CLIP)
WARD (voice-over):Diana makes a surprise announcement.
(BEGIN VIDOE CLIP)
SPENCER-WINDSOR: At the end of this year, when I've completed my diary of official engagements, I will be reducing the extent of the public life I've led so far.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WARD (voice-over):She retreats inside Kensington Palace.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): I think for her a lot of the time it did feel a bit like a gilded cage. There was usually a reporter or a paparazzo down by the gates of the palace. Very difficult for her to have a normal social life.
WARD (voice-over):They follow her every where; to the gym, to the store, even to the Alps on skiing vacations with her sons.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SPENCER-WINDSOR: Excuse me. As a parent, could I ask you to respect my children's space?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PRINCE WILLIAM WINDSOR, DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE: Back then, 20 years ago, people would be utterly appalled if they knew exactly what went on.
WARD (voice-over):Prince William reflects on those times in a new documentary on ITV.
W. WINDSOR: I sadly remember most of the time that she ever cried about anything was to do with press intrusion.
WARD (voice-over):By letting the press into her private life, Diana has opened Pandora's box. It is spring 1994, Prince Charles decides to go public with an authorized biography and interview.
JEPHSON: This is what happens when you get into a P.R. war. It's a race to the bottom.
WARD (voice-over):Making television history and dropping a bombshell.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you try to be faithful and honorable to your wife when you took on the vow of marriage?
CHARLES WINDSOR, PRINCE OF WALES: Yes, absolutely.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you were?
C. WINDSOR: Yes, until it became irretrievably broken down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WARD (voice-over):On the night the interview airs, Diana files silently back with one threat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That picture spoke a million words.
WARD: What was she saying with that picture.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anything you can do, I can do better.
WARD (voice-over):Including a television interview. A little more than a year later, Diana sneaks a TV news crew into her home for a tell all interview.
WARD: What was your reaction?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Silly woman, was my immediate reaction. You know, you've done your dirty washing with the Andrew Morton book in 1992. Why do it all over again?
PAUL BURRELL, PRINCESS DIANA'S BUTLER: The Panorama interview was the incinderary device in the middle of the House of Windsor that blew up and nothing was ever the same again.
WARD (voice-over):Just one month later, Buckingham Palace announces the divorce, putting Diana in the crosshairs more than ever before. That when we come back.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
WARD (voice-over):It is summer 1997, exactly one year after Charles and Diana's bitter divorce. And Diana is in the midst of a reinvention.
BURRELL: I remember the -- one of the last dresses she had made. And she said do you like it, well, I'm sure men will like it because it's far too low and it's far too high.
WARD: So less formal, more revealing.
BURRELL: She was a beautiful woman, why not show people this is me. Instead of hide it away, show it.
WARD (voice-over):Diana is free from a loveless marriage, royal responsibilities and a rigidly controlled way of life.
BURRELL: She's trying to withdraw and take (inaudible), trying to take some time out because she was trying to focus on really what was her life about. WARD (voice-over):She scales back her public role, staff and Scotland Yard security detail. Butler Paul Burrell is one of the few who remains close to Diana.
BURRELL: She dismissed her body guards because they were running tales and stories back to Prince Charles. She wanted her freedom, she wanted a life.
WARD (voice-over):It's a dangerous move. Some even say reckless. But Diana wants a simpler life focused on her boys, a few select charities and her new romance.
CHRISTOPHER ANDERSEN, AUTHOR, THE DAY DIANA DIED: The love of her life, really after Charles was a Pakistani heart surgeon name Hasnat Khan.
WARD (voice-over):Diana met Hasnat Khan while he was treating a close friend.
ANDERSEN: She was instantly smitten with him for some reason. An unlikely guy because he's kind of a slightly punchy, nondescript fellow. But she said she had a thing for doctor and she became so enumerative of Khan that it because very serious, they had a very tempestuous affair.
WARD (voice-over):Kahn doesn't like the limeliGHT or want the pressure of being Di's guy. While Diana keeps Kahn hidden from the press, she public promotes charities close to her hEART, like The HALO Trust which advocates against landmines.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was aware of the power she had, I mean ...
WARD (voice-over):Arthur Edwards photographs Diana's trip to Angola, Africa in 1997.
ARTHUR EDWARDS, PHOTOGRAPHER: She was going (ph) to comfort these kids who had their legs blown off and arms blow off and highlight this sort of the awful things about land mines. And then, get dressed in all the kit and walk through a mine field. To do that, knowing it would get massive publicity for that, I think it was commendable, I think it was tremendous.
WARD (voice-over):And Diana has an extraordinary gift for comforting those in pain.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She said "I found myself being more and more involved with people who were rejected by society".
EDWARDS: She was the ultimate outsider. Here is the most adored, celebrated - in many way beloved women on the planet. And vet she never felt like she belonged. I think that's why she had this affinity, this need really to connect with people who were out on the periphery of society.
WARD (voice-over):But the attention Angola brings is a reminder of the media circuit that comes with dating Diana. While Diana wants to get married, Khan isn't so sure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She wanted to get married. So much so that she went to Pakistan to meet his family twice without being invited by him.
WARD (voice-over):Diana confides in close friend, Roberto Devorik about the trip.
ROBERTO DEVORIK: I called her and she sounded threatful. I said, "You've been crying." She said, "Yes, but I will tell you when I come back things didn't go well." And as they said that the parents were vey against her because they said that she would ruin the life of the son.
WARD: Because of the media frenzy ...
DEVORIK: No ...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... that surrounded her?
DEVORIK: ... I think it's, the parents were large from - he's Pakistanian, he's another color skin, she was going to be the future mother of the King of England. It would have created problems.
WARD (voice-over):Diana sees it differently.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And she really delivered him an ultimatum and when she did that he stormed out.
BURRELL: I remember the Princess coming back and telling me that it was over. He was saying but if I marry you I'll become a nobody, I'll become your shadow and I've worked all my life to be a heart surgeon. It's what matters most to me, that has to be part of our equation. You can't just dismiss that. But Diana was Diana and she wanted it her way.
WARD: Was she devastated by the break up?
DEVORIK: I think that she was, she was. She really liked the man. And I think that after Charles that was the candidate.
WARD (voice-over):But it isn't the fist time Diana has had her heart broken, and days later she is on the rebound of the French Rivera.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mohamed Al Fayed invited her to spend that summer at his villa in San Tropex, on his yacht; the Jonikal.
WARD (voice-over):Mohamed Al Fayed is a wealthy Egyptian businessman who owns the iconic London department store, Harrods.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was in fact trying to arrange a meeting between his son and Diana, and he did.
WARD (voice-over):And it turns out Al Fayed's son Dodi and Diana have a lot in common.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He too was caught in the middle of his parents horrible divorce and a custody battle. He often felt like an outsider and was often - actually quite painfully shy.
WARD (voice-over):Shy? Yes and also immensely wealthy. Surrounded by body guards, Dodi can give Diana everything she needs and wants.
JEPHSON: The fact that she was a divorced mother of two growing young men, who was unable to offer them anything like the kind of holiday activities that their father could. So the attraction of a man and his family who had jets, and limousines and the trappings of royal life -- I would that played a pretty big part in it.
WARD (voice-over): Friends say Dodi also gives her unwavering love and loyalty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She demanded that people give up everything for her. I mean she was needy in that sense. And ...
WARD: She was needy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Terribly needy. Absolutely. No question about it. Very draining and very demanding, but Dodi was willing to give up everything for her. So he was there constantly.
WARD: Over the next six weeks, Diana and Dodi are practically inseparable -- meeting up in London, Paris and back here on the Riviera.
DEBBIE GRIBBLE, CHIEF STEWARDESS, JONIKAL: They (ph) spent (ph) their (ph) day sunbathing, swimming, taking trips into little bays.
WARD (voice-over): Debbie Gribble, now a yacht broker, is at that time the chief stewardess for the Al-Fayeds.
GRIBBLE: They would have champagne and caviar most evenings.
BURRELL: She said well Hasnat better watch out because I've met somebody else.
WARD: Was it an attempt to make him jealous?
BURRELL: Absolutely it was. I have no doubt of that because the princess played out this new romance completely in the public eye knowing that those pictures would be splashed on the front pages of the British tabloids.
PIERRE SU, PHOTOGRAPHER: It was like the dream story. The most photographed woman in the world. A new lover ...
WARD (voice-over): Pierre Su (ph) is a professional photographer.
SU: I had heard stories about my colleagues flying on private jets, hiring speed boats -- helicopter. Any media outlet would give you anything you wanted because they couldn't get enough.
WARD: So what was the picture that everyone was looking for? That Summer?
PAUL BENNETT, THE SUNDAY MIRROR, EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Her kissing Dodi. It was the picture of her kissing somebody who wasn't Prince Charles.
WARD (voice-over): Diana allegedly tips off a photographer about the yacht's location. And days later the kiss is splashed across The Sunday Mirror's front page. Paul Bennett was the executive editor of the paper.
BENNETT: It sold off the shelves. The interest was phenomenal.
WARD: But is it true that this photographer -- he made more than $1 million?
BENNETT: Oh. Absolutely. And he probably would have made $1 million the first week, I would have thought.
WARD (voice-over): The papers want more. The photographers will do anything to get it.
SU: It was like the media outlets didn't count the money. They were splashing the money around. They just wanted to shot.
WARD (voice-over): The game is on and there's no turning back. Diana's former secretary Patrick Jephson is watching from London and grows concerned.
JEPHSON: I got two very sharply contrasting pictures. One was of a woman who was -- yes -- free and liberated and rather determinedly happy. But another of a woman who was not nearly as grounded as she had been or needed to be. She chose the company of people who were rich jetsetters who tend to follow fashion rather than principle.
WARD (voice-over): When we come back tension mounts with the paparazzi.
GRIBBLE: There were times where Diana would be upset. I saw her crying on occasion.
WARD (voice-over): And then a high speed chase on the streets of Paris.
GRIBBLE: It felt like the whole situation was building up into something that was not going to be a good ending.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The French Riveria, a playground for the rich in famous. And in August 1997 the backdraw. For a summer romance between Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw particularly in the pictures of her on the Hasnat Khan playing games with boat loads of photographers. Somebody who had maybe found a terrific new freedom. But she had lost a lot too.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Diana's relationship with (inaudible) has recently ended.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hasnot Khan told me, he tried to reach the Princess. He wanted to tell her sorry, come back.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If Diana was trying to Hasnat Khan attention it worked, but it came at a cost. She and Dodi are now in a risky game of hide and seek on the Mediterranean with the paparazzi.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was a lot of media around a lot of paparazzi. Small boats, big boats, big lenses, small lenses.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The couple is protected by Dodi's two bodyguards, but it's no replacement for the elite British security team Diana had given up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There were times that Diana would be upset. I saw her crying on occasion. Dodi was agitated, it was starting to get to him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On Saturday August 30th, Diana and Dodi flee to Paris, but the photographers follow.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That drive from the airport was fast and furious. The car was swerving through the streets of Paris.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Debbie Grivel (ph) is traveling with the couple and riding in the car behind them.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was so much tension it felt like the whole situation was building up into something that was not going to be a good ending.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Later that night, Diana and Dodi leave his Paris apartment for dinner at the restaurant Benoit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When they tried to go to the restaurant, it was impossible. Just horrids and horrids of photographers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So they changed plans and go to the Ritz Hotel which is owned by Dodi's father. Photographer Pierre Su is standing outside.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When they arrived at the Ritz, the car stopped in front of the entrance. I went up to the car window and I took a picture.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you ever have a sense that were invading these people's privacy?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not really because as I said, she was the most photographed woman in the world. She was expected to be photographed everyday and she had been playing with the press all summer long.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Playing?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, she used the press a lot. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A dangerous game without Diana's usual army of
protection. Even after they get inside Dodi remains tense.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's really more and more upset hearing stories of how the press had gathered in Plaza Vendome right in front of the Ritz Hotel. But they weren't going to move, they weren't going to leave.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The hotels acting head of security, Henri Paul, is off duty but returns after Diana and Dodi arrive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Henri came out of the hotel and he talked to me and a colleague of mine. Oddly enough he was very reassuring in terms of, do not worry you will get your shot, they will come out through the front door and there was this Range Rover sitting up front so you could easily image that they would come out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But it's a ruse. Inside Henri Paul is seen on the hotel security camera talking to Diana, Dodi and bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones as they plan to escape through the hotel's back door and avoid the photographers. Paul will drive the couple to Dodi's apartment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I watched some of the footage of the footage of Diana on the CCTV from the Ritz Hotel. I could tell from her body language, the way she was holding herself and actually her interaction with Dodi, she wasn't happy. She knew something was wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They leave the hotel a little after midnight. A few photographers outback are immediately in pursuit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Diana and Dodi and the driver are all not wearing seat belts.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Henri Paul is now speeding through the streets of Paris trying loose the photographers behind them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The car is now hurtling into the Alma Tunnel surrounded by the press on motorcycles, cars and Henri Paul lost control of the car and it slams into a pillar.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pierre Su is still with the decoy car in front of the Ritz Hotel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I decided to call a friend of mine whom I know was following them and I could hear in the tone of his voice that something was wrong and very wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: American tourist Robin and Jack Firestone happen to pass the crash site in a taxi.
ROBIN FIRESTONE: And there was already police, it was certainly before the ambulance got there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They see some of Pierre Su's colleagues taking pictures. JACK FIRESTONE: What I saw was 6, 8, 9, 10 people taking photographs
of the outside of the car and running around taking photographs of the inside of the car from every angle that they could possibly get their flashes and their cameras into.
ROBIN FIRESTONE: I was just saying to myself, what are they doing? Like there can't possibly be anybody in the car at this point because clearly if there was somebody would be helping.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fire Chief Xavier Goremalone and his team of paramedics arrive at the tunnel minutes after the crash.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): So the front of the car was in the opposite way of traffic. The front was very much smashed in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dodi and driver Henri Paul are pronounced dead. The first responders work to save Trevor Rees-Jones and Diana.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (trough translator): When I get close to her, she was waving her arm
(AUDIO GAP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: August 31st, 1997. The morning after Princess Diana's tragic death, her brother Charles Spencer makes a bold statement.
CHARLES SPENCER: This is not a time for incriminations but for sadness. However, I would say that I always believed the press would kill her in the end. It would appear that every proprietor and editor of every publication that has paid for intrusive and exploitative photographs of her, encouraging greedy and ruthless individuals to risk everything in pursuit of Diana's image has blood on his hands today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nine photographers are under investigation for manslaughter and failing to render assistance to the victims. While the French investigate what happened, the world comes to grips with the loss of an icon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel like, everyone else in this country today, utterly devastated. We are today in a state of shock, in mourning, in grief that is so deeply painful for us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thousands of mourners gather around London and outside Kensington Palace in a public display of grief unlike any Britain has ever seen before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So (ph) this nation, lost complete -- well, it just lost all control of it's senses, you know? Everybody just was flooding to these different centers around the country and laying flowers and signing these books of condolences. So we all were gripped in this hysteria, losing this princess.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: While a nation known for keeping a stiff upper lip unleashes it's grief, the royal family remains in seclusion at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where William and Harry have just been told their mother was killed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were (ph) two boys up there, age 15 and 12 respectively, who lost their mother in the most tragic of circumstances. And the grandparents of dad were doing the best they could to support those two young men.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Princes William and Harry recently spoke about their mother's death for the first time, in a documentary on ITV.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Losing someone so close to you is utterly devastating, especially at that age. I think it sort of really spins you out. You don't quite know where you are, what you're doing and what's going on. Family came together and Sarah (ph) and I tried to talk as best we could about it but being so small at that age, it's very difficult to communicate or understand your feelings, it's very complicated.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To their grandmother, the Queen, the best course is to soldier on. London is in an uproar, demanding the Queen speak and show us you care.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can remember thinking or sensing even -- because I've done a lot of royal work over the years -- come on, guys, do something. People had quite naturally thought they should gravitate towards Buckingham Palace, the home of the monarchy. And there they were, thousands of them, in the dark, around the palace and I don't think there was a single light on. Everybody was away in Scotland. The people had come to the monarchy and the monarchy wasn't at home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this sets off, really, the most perilous period in modern times for the British monarchy. And Tony Blair was pressed into the fight by Charles and the two of them pretty much made it clear to the Queen that unless she did something and fast to show the people how much Diana meant to the world -- family as well as the people at large -- the monarchy could be in jeopardy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Seeming disconnected, Queen Elizabeth is facing a crisis of image and sensitivity.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The night before Diana's funeral, she gave the speech of her life because it was a speech she knew on which everything depended.
QUEEN ELIZABETH MARY II: As your Queen and as a grandmother, I say from my heart first I want to pay tribute to Diana myself. She was an exceptional and gifted human being.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think that the Queen perhaps underestimated or didn't realize right away what an enormous outpouring of grief there would be?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not just the Queen underestimated, everybody underestimated.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The next day, 2.5 billion people watch on T.V. and on the streets of London as Diana's coffin is carried to Westminster Abbey for her funeral. Her young sons walking solemnly behind. Inside the Abbey, Charles Spencer gives a surprising eulogy that is critical of the Royal family.
CHARLES SPENCER: Diana was the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty. Someone with a natural nobility who was classless and she proved in the last year that she needed no royal type of to continued to generate a particular brand of magic.
(APPLAUSE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We all clap so hardly that never happened inside an Abbey or in a church in England like that. I live in England 29 years of my life; the English once said that they are very cold blooded. But my god they show the world that they are not. That day - the days before the funeral, the world stopped following dispute.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Charles Spencer also has a word about the paparazzi.
CHARLES SPENCER: Out of all the ironies about Diana, perhaps the greatest was this. A girls given the name of the ancient goddess of hunting was in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was Diana hunted to death? After the Princess is laid to rest, the world wants answers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody's blaming everybody else.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For the next two years investigators and friends try to determine what really happened.
UNIDENTIFED MALE: Will we ever know exactly who or what was responsible fro the death of Diana?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The French investigation finds that the driver Henri Paul was speeding and intoxicated, deeming him solely responsible for the accident. The photographers are cleared and the case is close, but for years afterwards conspiracy theories linger. Especially with Dodi's father, Mohamed Al Fayed.
UNIDENTIFED MALE: Mohamed believes and will always believe that his son and the family's very dear friend Diana, Princess of Wales were murdered.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When we come back, an alarming new piece of evidence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a letter which says the next few months of the most difficult of my life, I few I am going to be killed in an automobile accident.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On the streets of London in January 2007, the press is in pursuit of a young, beautiful woman.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was about 40 photographers outside our flat. I don't picture, they pursued her down the street.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But this time, it isn't Diana, it's Kate Middleton, Prince William's girlfriend.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They chased her down the street just like they chased Diana down the street. And it angered William so much, it really angered him because he couldn't protect her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: While the paparazzi are on the hunt for Kate, a British inquest into what happened to Diana is set to begin here at the Royal Courts of Justice. It's been 10 years since Diana's death, but the conspiracy theories have lived on.
LORD JOHN STEVENS: I had a very skilled team of detectives, 14 in all.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lord John Stevens was Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
LORD JOHN STEVENS: The allegation that was made by Mr. (Al-Fayed) was that Prince Philip together with MI5 and MI6, the security services of the United Kingdom had conspired together to kill Dodi Al-Fayed and Princess Diana. That the French inquest that had taken place is flawed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So this was extraordinarily delicate.
LORD JOHN STEVENS: It was very delicate indeed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lord Stevens' team investigates all of Al- Fayed's claims that Diana was pregnant, that Diana and Dodi were soon to be engaged and that the Royal Family would not accept a Muslim step-father to the future king.
MICHAEL COLE: If Diana had married Dodi, if they'd had a couple of children who would the press be focusing on in this country today?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Michael Cole was Mohamed Al-Fayed's long time spokesman.
MICHAEL COLE: They would be focusing on what Princess Diana was doing and in effect you would have had an alternative Royal Family in this country.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The murder theory is far-fetched to some, but a real fear for Diana. One she shared with her butler, Paul Burrell.
BURRELL: I have a letter which says the next few months are the most difficult of my life. I fear I'm going to be killed in an automobile accident in order that Charles can remarry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And it turns out, Burrell wasn't the only one Diana shared her fears with.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Diana was completely convinced that the Royal Family or the men in grey who really run the operation, or British Intelligence would kill her if she became too big of a problem. She went to her lawyer, Lord Mishcon and said they're going to kill me and here's how. It's going to be either a helicopter accident or a car crash it'll be staged to look like a car crash. Her lawyer took notes, detailed notes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Patrick Jephson was Diana's private secretary and attended the meeting with her lawyer.
JEPHSON: And I can remember how shocked Lord Mishcon was by that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did she give any details as to why she was concerned for her safety?
JEPHSON: Not enough, the trouble was those last few years from '93, '94 onwards was a very, very unsettled time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But Lord Mishcon's notes from the meeting were never shared with French investigators even though they were given to British police just weeks after Diana's death. At the time, British police didn't believe they were relevant to the French investigation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you have a note like that and somebody then does end up dead in the way they predicted, the first thing you do is get the note. Examine the note and investigate.
CLARISSA WARD: Michael Mansfield represents Mohamed Al Fayed during the British inquest.
UNIDENTIFED MALE: But of course the powers that be felt that it shouldn't be handed over. Why? Because of course it would involve investigating the Royal family. Investigations by the French police.
CLARISSA WARD: Lord Stevens' investigation does look into Mishcon's notes and over 600 other pieces of evidence.
LORD STEVENS: We started with totally open minds. There's no point in going into an investigation like this and saying, oh, there's no evidence for this. Prove the point there is. We had to go and see 300 witnesses, at the same time we had to negotiate bringing back the car from Paris. We even examined the blood in the car.
CLARISSA WARD: After three years of detective work, Lord Stevens' team presents their findings to the high court.
LORD STEVENS: The finding of the investigation was that it was an accident. The car had been driven too fast. The driver had been drinking, lost control of that car going down the ramp at the underpass and that was our conclusions.
CLARISSA WARD: Did you find any indication whatsoever that the Princess and Dodi were murdered?
LORD STEVENS: No. No evidence whatsoever.
CLARISSA WARD: No evidence of murder or any involvement by MI5, MI6 or the Royal family.
What about reports that the Princess was pregnant?
LORD STEVENS: Those were totally disproved by her closest friends. Ad of course we brought the car back from Paris, analyzed the blood by the latest techniques at that time and found out that she was not pregnant.
CLARISSA WARD: What is the truth behind the reports that Dodi had bought Diana a ring that day in Paris?
LORD STEVENS: He may well have done that but we don't know what he was going to do with that ring and neither does anyone else.
CLARISSA WARD: Stevens also investigates the role of the paparazzi.
LORD STEVENS: They followed them around obviously but we didn't know how close they were up to the car, whether they actually played a part in the deaths of those people in that car. It's difficult to say.
CLARISSA WARD: It would be speculation?
LORD STEVENS: It would be speculation. We don't get into speculation. We deal with the evidence.
CLARISSA WARD: But you have said previously, I believe, that they were a link in the chain.
LORD STEVENS: No doubt about that. They were a link in the chain. If the paparazzi hadn't been in the front of Ritz they would have gone off in their normal cars without having Henri Paul taking over that duty.
CLARISSA WARD: While French investigators cleared the paparazzi of criminal charges the British jury believes that the photographers share some responsibility.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The deliberated carefully and they produced careful and reasoned decision.
CLARISSA WARD: Sir Scott Baker was the judge overseeing the British inquest.
SIR SCOTT BAKER: This was caused by a combination of the following paparazzi and the manner in which they were driving and the manner in which they were driving and a driver who was under the influence of drink and driving too fast into the tunnel.
CLARISSA WARD: No one was ever charged for the crash that killed Princess Diana.
Are there any lingering questions in your mind as to what happened that fatal night?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely none. It seemed to me that it was as tragic accident.
CLARISSA WARD: Do you believe that Mohamed Al Fayed was flat out lying then?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, Mohamed Al Fayed had lost his son and he genuinely believed, I think, that there had been some conspiracy to murder his son and Princess Diana and that's his right.
CLARISSA WARD: Did he strike you as a man who was shattered?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, he was shattered.
CLARISSA WARD: He never recovered from the loss of his son.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He looses a son 42 years old. It's part of you, like somebody chop your hand or chop your leg.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He still believes that the truth is out there and will come and I hope it happens in his lifetime but it might not.
CLARISSA WARD: Many who knew Diana best say the crash never would have happened if she had not given up her security detail after the divorce.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The truth is that the Paris paparazzi didn't kill Diana. Incompetent travel arrangements killed Diana. A failure to do up a seatbelt killed Diana and the paparazzi only became an actual naissance or a threat to Diana after she had chosen to get rid of her bodyguards.
If Charles Spencer or anybody else wanted to see the cause of Diana's unhappiness or ultimately the circumstances in which she died, they should look at the Royal organization which had taken responsibility for her at a very, very young age.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just 19 when she became engage to Prince Charles and dead at the age of 36, leaving behind two young boys.
PRINCE WILLIAM ARTHUR PHILLIP LOUIS, DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE: And everybody talks about losing your mother at such a young age.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: William was 15. Harry, just 12.
PRINCE WILLIAM: But you know, even Harry and I over the years have not talked enough about our mother.
PRINCE HENRY "HARRY" CHARLES ALBERT DAVID OF WALES: Never enough. I always thought to myself, you know, what's the point of bringing the past, ain't going to change it. It ain't going to bring her back. And when you start thinking like that, it can be really damaging.
PRINCE WILLIAM: But it's, I think -- what must -- what's happened with us and must happen with others as well is that you have to prioritize -- you know, prioritize your mental health. Someone has to take the lead and has to be brave enough to force that conversation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: William and Harry have forced that conversation, addressing mental health openly and often, in a way that was difficult for their mother. It's just one example of the change she brought to the Royal Family.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Without Diana, I don't think we'd have the monarchy today, in it's present form.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Diana dragged the Royal Family kicking and screaming into the 20th century. She said from the moment she set foot in that family, there was never any feeling in it and that she really wanted to lead from the heart and not the head.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Diana lived a life of fairy tale and tragedy. Hunted by the press, beloved by the people, a charismatic and yet complex character, vulnerable and manipulative but strong and sympathetic. There can be no question of the impact she made. Her boys, William and Harry, have combined the best of the traditions of the monarchy with the warmth and humanity of their mother.
A commitment to public service, deep personal compassion and a dedication to family. Qualities that make Diana's legacy as vibrant today as it was 20 years ago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
