\nPrincess Diana\u2019s bodyguard says 3 mistakes k.1.l.l.ed her\n
Three fatal security failures led to Princess Diana\u2019s tragic death \u2014 at least, that\u2019s what her former bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, claims.\n
It\u2019s hard to believe that nearly 30 years have passed since Princess Diana\u2019s tragic death. The world lost an icon, a humanitarian, and two young boys lost their mother. It\u2019s impossible not to wonder what she would be like today \u2014 how she would look, what role she would have taken on, and how she might have continued to shape the world.\n
Ken Wharfe, her former bodyguard who spent six years working closely with her, remembers her fondly. Reflecting on Diana\u2019s impact, he praised her \u201dwicked sense of humor\u201d and said he felt \u201dincredibly privileged\u201d to have been part of her life.\n
Wharfe recalled that from the very first time he met Princess Diana, she showed just how down-to-earth she truly was.\n
\u201dAs I walked into the room, I was introduced, and Diana said, \u2018I don\u2019t envy you, Ken, looking after my kids. They can be a bloody nuisance,\u2019\u201d Wharfe told The Sun.\n
Right on cue, young William, who had been attempting to play the piano, spun around and objected, \u201cNo, we\u2019re not a bloody nuisance!\u201d Just as he spoke, Harry tumbled off a table.\n
\u201dDiana immediately got up and said, \u2018Come here, both of you!\u2019 before chasing them out of the room. I hadn\u2019t even said a word yet,\u201d Wharfe recalled.\n
\n
She returned moments later, shaking her head.\n
\u201dYou see what I mean, Ken?\u201d, she said.\n
That moment, he explained, changed everything.\n
\u201dSuddenly, instead of talking to a royal, you were speaking to a parent, a young mother, someone you could truly relate to.\u201d\n
And that, he said, was Diana in a nutshell\u2014full of fun, laughter, and, at times, deep sadness.\n
Having served as her personal protection officer from 1987 to 1993, Wharfe insists that the People\u2019s Princess might still be alive today if key decisions had been made differently.\n
One of the most critical mistakes, according to Wharfe, was who was driving the car that fateful August night in 1997.\n
Diana was traveling with her boyfriend, Egyptian film producer Dodi Fayed, as well as Ritz security chief Henri Paul, who was behind the wheel, and Dodi\u2019s bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones \u2014 the crash\u2019s sole survivor.\n
Sadly, Paul had been drinking before getting behind the wheel and was driving at dangerously high speeds when the car slammed into the 13th pillar of the Pont de l\u2019Alma tunnel in Paris. Wharfe is convinced that Diana could have survived if someone else had been driving.\n
\n
\u201dThe one thing that would have saved Diana\u2019s life that night would have been if they\u2019d kicked out the chauffeur and for Rees-Jones to have driven,\u201d he stated.\n
\u201cBut he couldn\u2019t do that because he couldn\u2019t speak to Dodi Fayed \u2014 he told him what to do. And that\u2019s a shame, because had Rees-Jones taken that command, had he taken that decision to boot out Henri Paul, you and I would not be having this discussion.\u201d\n
Diana and Dodi\u2019s original plan was to travel a short distance from the Ritz Hotel to an apartment near the Champs-Elys\u00e9es. Another critical mistake that night was the lack of planning and coordination \u2014 or rather, the complete lack of coordination\u2014 with the local police regarding the car journey.\n
Wharfe believes the tragedy could have been prevented entirely if Dodi and Diana\u2019s security team had worked with local police instead of shutting them out and viewing the press as \u201cthe enemy.\u201d\n
\n
In an effort to evade the press, they devised a plan using decoy cars. A Range Rover was positioned at the front entrance of the Ritz with Dodi\u2019s usual driver behind the wheel, while Diana and Dodi secretly exited through the back in a black armored Mercedes.\n
Henri Paul \u2014 who was four times over the legal drinking limit in France \u2014 had been called in from home to drive them. The high-speed chase that followed ended in disaster, with the Mercedes crashing at over 60 mph.\n
Perhaps the most avoidable mistake, according to Wharfe, was Diana\u2019s decision to dismiss her Scotland Yard security team. After separating from Prince Charles in 1992, she eventually let go of her royal protection.\n
Wharfe recalls urging Diana to reconsider just weeks before she cut ties with them. \u201dShe said, \u2018You\u2019ve always been great with advice. If there\u2019s one piece of advice you\u2019d give me, what would it be?\u2019\u201d\n
His response was clear: \u201cI urge you, I urge you, not to lose the Scotland Yard security because we have given you that freedom, we\u2019ve broken rules to allow you to have the normality that you crave for, and there\u2019s no reason why that shouldn\u2019t continue.\u201d\n
Despite his warning, Diana dismissed her entire security team just four weeks later. Wharfe firmly believes that had Queen Elizabeth insisted she keep them, Diana would have agreed.\n
\u201dYou cannot force security on somebody, they have to say \u2018yes, I\u2019ll take it\u2019. But the fact that it wasn\u2019t offered, this was her way of saying I want a new life.\u201d\n
Diana\u2019s death sent shockwaves across the globe, dominating headlines for weeks. While her funeral became a historic moment of mourning, the haunting images of her wrecked car remain etched in the minds of many.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Princess Diana\u2019s bodyguard says 3 mistakes k.1.l.l.ed her Three fatal security failures led to Princess Diana\u2019s tragic death \u2014 at least, that\u2019s what her former bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, claims. It\u2019s hard to believe that nearly 30 years have passed since Princess Diana\u2019s tragic death. The world lost an icon, a humanitarian, and two young boys\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":112532,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[670],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-112523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/GettyImages-903341218-edited.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112534,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112523\/revisions\/112534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inovatestory.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}