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Prince Harry’s theory that paparazzi photographers “blinded” the driver before the crash that killed Princess Diana has been shunned by The Crown.
The show’s sixth and final season dropped on Netflix on November 16 and shows the crash in its very first scene.
However, the circumstances are very different both to Harry’s description in his book Spare and eyewitness accounts.
Chris Jackson/Getty Images for Invictus Games Dusseldorf 2023/Pierre Suu/GC Images
Most notably, in the fictionalized version there are no other vehicles on the road when the Mercedes that Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed were passengers in is seen swerving into the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris on August 30, 1997.
The screech of tires is audible before a bang and broken glass signal the moment the vehicle crashed into the 13th pillar of the underpass.
The paparazzi follow afterwards but are seen a significant distance behind Diana and Dodi, taking pictures only after the crash has already happened.
They are not seen swarming around the car—despite the fact there are pictures of The Crown filming just such a scenario on location in October 2022.
The sequence of events in Episode One is therefore very different to Harry’s suggestion in Spare that Henri Paul, the driver of Mercedes, was blinded by paparazzi flash bulbs.
He took aim at the official inquest into Diana’s death, which he described as “a joke” and added: “Above all, the summary conclusion, that Mummy’s driver was drunk and thereby the sole cause of the crash, was convenient and absurd.
“Even if the man had been drinking, even if he was s***-faced, he wouldn’t have had any trouble navigating that short tunnel.
“Unless paps had chased and blinded him. Why were those paps not more roundly blamed? Why were they not in jail? Who sent them? And why were they not in jail? Why indeed—unless corruption and cover-ups were the order of the day?”
Harry’s version of events itself clashes with some of the facts, particularly his swipe at the inquest, which in fact returned a verdict of “unlawful killing” based on five factors including both the driving of the paparazzi photographers and also Paul’s.
There was evidence from some witnesses of paparazzi photographers in the tunnel at the time Diana’s car crashed, however, a French magistrate also ruled that it “appears impossible to elicit a consistent version from this witness evidence.”
For example, eyewitness Benoît Boura, who was in the tunnel and saw the crash, told the French investigation: “At the time of the accident, or just before, I did not notice whether there were any flashes from cameras.
“All I can say is that before entering the tunnel, I did notice some flashes, but I cannot say whether they came from inside the tunnel.”
François Levistre, another witness, said:” I could see in the distance in my rearview mirror a vehicle surrounded on either side by motorbikes. I said to my wife: ‘That must be someone important.'”
“There were more than two motorbikes, travelling in tandem on each side of the car,” he added. “As I was about to start to climb out of the tunnel, I could distinctly see one motorbike cut across the front of the car. There was a large white flash. I did not notice a bang.”
Needless to say, whether Harry’s theory about the driver being blinded is right or wrong, The Crown chose not to depict paparazzi motorcycles swarming around the car.
There are a number of possible explanations, not least of all that there is still a second part to the series which is due to air in December.
Given that photographers witnessed The Crown‘s team filming a scene on location in which photographers did encircle the car, it is hypothetically possible the show will create a different impression in a flashback.
The experience for a viewer of Part I, however, is markedly different to the experience of reading either Spare or the Operation Paget police report.
Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek‘s The Royals Facebook page.
Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We’d love to hear from you.
Uncommon Knowledge
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