The news of Princess Diana’s passing shocked everyone. The “People’s Princess” was mourned by millions of people throughout the world, and her funeral became the most watched broadcast in history. Many people believed they had lost a relative. But for some people, it was the case.
Princess Diana’s automobile collided in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris, France, at around 12.23 in the morning on August 31, 1997. She was accompanied by a driver and bodyguard as she left the Ritz Hotel in a car with her boyfriend, the film mogul Dodi Fayed, who was of Egyptian descent. They collided in the Paris tunnel at a high rate of speed while being followed by paparazzi photographers.
Dodi Fayed, Diana’s companion, and Henri Paul, the car’s driver, were discovered dead inside the vehicle. Trevor Rees-Jones, her bodyguard, managed to live. The cherished princess received extensive care from medical professionals at the site, but while in the ambulance, she experienced a heart arrest. Diana arrived at the hospital at six minutes after two in the morning.
Diana was taken in for an X-ray when she arrived at the hospital, which showed she had sustained serious internal wounds. She consequently had a blood transfusion right away. Diana experienced a second heart arrest only fifteen minutes after arriving. The princess underwent a medical surgery, but the injuries were too severe. Surgeon MonSef Dahman. Her heart refused to beat again.
The person in charge of making an effort to keep Diana alive was MonSef Dahman. He described what transpired that evening in an interview.
“The thought that you have lost an important person, for whom you cared personally, marks you for life,” he told the British news outlet.
“We tried electric shocks, several times and, as I had done in the emergency room, cardiac massage,” Dahman explained.
Diana’s survival was battled for by Dahman and his medical staff. However, in the end, they were helpless. The Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, he said, was one of France’s top facilities for these kinds of emergencies, and saving those who were brought in made him “happy and proud.
How William and Harry found out about Diana’s passing
Harry was born two years before William, but both boys had happy childhoods. Their mother understood how crucial their future was. She was aware that they weren’t like other kids, but she also realised that they needed to have a childhood that was as similar to normal as possible. Later in life, Prince William and his wife, Kate, would include it into the raising of their children.
Of course, the royal family was shocked when Princess Diana passed away. Despite the fact that Diana and Charles had split up less than a year ago, William, the eldest son, would one day become King, and Harry was expected to play a crucial part in the monarchy.
William, then 15 years old, and Harry, then 12 years old, were asleep when the news first broke. When the two princes came to, Queen Elizabeth II understood how crucial it was to keep them safe.
Before directing them to conceal all of the TVs and radios in the Castle, she gave her staff at Balmoral the order to let the little lads sleep in. Then, Her Majesty forbade everyone from bringing up Diana’s passing when they went to church the next morning.
Harry claimed in his book Spare that his father “didn’t hug him” after Diana’s death. The two children were, of course, in shock and were devastated. Speaking in the documentary Diana, 7 Days, William recalled how he felt “completely numb,” “disorientated,” and “dizzy” when the tragic news arrived.
“You feel very, very confused. And you keep asking yourself, ‘Why me?’ All the time, ‘Why? What have I done? Why? Why has this happened to us?’” William said.
William and Harry’s last-ever phone call to Diana
Howard Hodgson, a biographer and the author of Charles: The Man Who Will Be King in 2007, claims that Diana felt that Queen Elizabeth and Charles intended to keep her apart from her children.
“She was well aware that the Queen had the constitutional right and authority under common law to take control of both boys’ care and education,” Hodgson wrote, as quoted by Express.
“As such she could become the boys’ guardian or even appoint one: this would probably be their father and that might lead to Diana’s exclusion if she finally burned all her bridges with the Royal Family.”
Hodgson added that Queen Elizabeth never intended to separate Diana from her sons. But Diana believed the Queen and Charles “had already hatched such a plot and were only waiting for the right moment to execute it.”
Whether Diana was near her house or somewhere in the world, William, Harry, and her always stayed in touch. The evening of August 30, 1997, when she called her kids from Paris, was the same.
William and Harry revealed more about their last conversation with their mother in the documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy, however Harry claimed he couldn’t recall what they discussed.
