Princess Diana died 21 years ago today at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital. Photo / Getty Images.
Princess Diana died 21 years ago today at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital. Photo / Getty Images.
Princess Diana died 21 years ago today at the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris after sustaining injuries from a car crash in a tunnel in the French capital, a year after her divorce from Prince Charles.
Firefighter Xavier Gourmelon, who was the duty officer at the nearby Malar fire station and one of the first to get to the scene of the crash, revealed to The Sun what the People's Princess's final words were in 2017, 20 years after her death.
As well as recalling what she said to him before her heart failed, the firefighter also said that when he arrived at the Pont de l'Alma tunnel, he did not know who he was treating, The Daily Mail reports.
According to The Guardian, in late August 1997, Princess Diana was spotted on Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed's yacht The Jonikal in St Tropez, with her rumoured beau, his son, Dodi Fayed.
After spending time on the French Riviera, Diana and Dodi flew from Sardinia to Paris for a final night together before the Princess returned to London. Deciding to have dinner at the Ritz, when the pair left their hotel, they were bombarded by paparazzi.
Because of the photographers, Dodi decided to use decoy cars which would leave the Ritz from the main entrance, while he and Diana would leave the restaurant from the rear entrance in a Mercedes S280.
The Guardian reported that the Acting Head of Security at the Ritz Henri Paul was asked to drive the couple, despite not being a regular limousine chauffeur. He had been called in off duty, but was seen drinking two measures of Ricard pastis at the bar beforehand.
With Henri Paul driving, Diana and Dodi left the Ritz at 00:18 the morning on August 31, 1997. Dodi's bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, the sole survivor of the crash, sat in the passenger seat of the car.
However, the paparazzi were not fooled by the decoy cars and realized Diana and Dodi were in the Mercedes and gave chase.
While being chased by photographers heading towards the Pont de l'Alma, Henri Paul clipped a white Fiat Uno and lost control of the car.
The driver had no time to brake and the car hit the 13th pillar at a speed of 120 mph. While Fayed and Paul died at the scene of the crash, Diana was driven to Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital where she suffered cardiac arrest after her pulmonary vein was found to be torn.
She passed away at 4am on August 31 and minutes later, the Press Association issued a news flash that read: "Diana, Princess of Wales, has died, according to British sources." BBC newsreader Martyn Lewis announced it to viewers shortly after 5am.
Princess Diana's last words
Speaking to The Sun last year, 20 years after Princess Diana's death, former firefighter Xavier Gourmelon said that he had kept his experience a secret, except when he gave evidence in Diana's inquest in 2007, because French fire departments are not permitted to speak with the media, as reported in Reader's Digest.
Xavier Gourmelon revealed to the publication that when he got to the scene of the crash, he had spoken to Princess Diana, who had then responded with: "My God, what's happened?"
Gourmelon added: "The car was in a mess and we just dealt with it like any road accident. For me this was simply a banal traffic accident, one of many that emergency services have to deal with and it was the usual causes, speed and a drunk driver.
"We were very close and it took less than three minutes to reach it. My 10-man team was in two trucks and we were the first to arrive," Gourmelon said. The firefighter also revealed that while "nothing that could be done" for Henri Paul and Trevor Rees-Jones had 'severe' injuries, the Princess did not seem affected.
He said: "Mr Fayed was in the back and in a bad condition, he had a cardiac arrest in the car and when he was taken out he was declared dead by a paramedic. The woman, who I later found out was Princess Diana, was on the floor in the back.
"She was moving very slightly and I could see she was alive. I could see she had a slight injury to her right shoulder but, other than that, there was nothing significant. There was no blood on her at all." Gourmelon then tried to reassure Diana and "told her to be calm and keep still".
It was then that Princess Diana spoke to him and asked what had happened. "I gave her some oxygen and my team and I stayed by her side as she was taken out of the car. It was very quick because we didn't have to cut any of the wreckage," the firefighter said.
Gourmelon then said that he believed that she would survive, but when she was placed on a stretcher, Diana suffered a cardiac arrest and stopped breathing. However, after he performed CPR on her, she started breathing again.
"To be honest I thought she would live. As far as I knew when she was in the ambulance she was alive and I expected her to live. But I found out later she had died in hospital. It was very upsetting. I know now that there were serious internal injuries, but the whole episode is still very much in my mind."
Princess Diana funeral
A multi-coloured sea of floral tributes to Diana, Princess of Wales, lie outside the gates of her London home. Photo / Getty Images.
After news of her death circulated, thousands left flowers in tribute to Princess Diana outside Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace before her funeral on September 6, 1997.
Her coffin was carried from the palace along Hyde Park to St. James's Palace, where her body remained for five days. As reported by Town & Country, the funeral procession saw Prince Harry and Prince William walk behind their mother's casket with their father, grandfather Prince Philip and their uncle, Earl Spencer.
In addition to the former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, members of the fashion industry including Catherine Walker, Donatella Versace, Karl Lagerfeld and Anna Wintour attended the service.
Hillary Clinton, Nicole Kidman, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, George Michael and Luciano Pavarotti were also among the mourners.
