Date Posted 05-19-13
Dodi and Diana - Their Story
It was a love affair. Two people who had known each other for years but then came together during a summer that
was all too brief.
On the day before they would have announced their engagement to marry, they were brutally killed in a tunnel beside
the River Seine.
"On the 31st I was due to be flying home to be with my boys. I wanted to be with Harry on his 14th birthday on
September 15th 1997. They having spent some weeks at Balmoral with their father and his family."
Dodi Fayed and Diana, Princess of Wales, were on their way from L’Hotel Ritz to his apartment, just off the Champs d’
Elysses, near the Arc de Triomphe. Dodi’s butler had put a bottle of vintage champagne on ice.
On their bedside table was the engagement ring they had selected. Dodi had collected it from the jeweller during the
afternoon, whilst Diana had her hair done at the Ritz salon. The ring was called “Dit moi oui”--- “Tell me yes”.
"Ever the romantic soul he was, Dodi had a very real reason
for our returning to his apartment that evening and of course it
was an engagement ring from such a collection, what else could
it possibly have been? And, yes, I was aware of that naturally,
I helped in choosing it.
I have said William and I argued before I died as he was not
impressed by my behaviour with Dodi publicly captured by the
Media cameras but easier to understand my behaving this way
with my fiancee than with someone I saw as a summers fling;
or as the press labelled him " Diana's Arab Playboy ".
I had a point to make! Diana was making headlines and not as the rejected wife but having found happiness in her life
again and celebrating it openly, so sharing the fact with the world!"
The appalling tragedy that ended two young lives stunned the world. For two families, the Fayeds and the Spencers,
the burden of grief continues. In his eulogy to his sister, at the funeral service in Westminster Abbey, Earl Spencer
listed the ways in which Diana had illuminated the world in which she lived and gave thanks that, at the end of her life,
she had at last found true personal happiness.
"My brother and my sisters as well as of course my closest friends knew it too as they could see it for themselves and
were happy for me, one can never determine a relationship lasting, they take working at naturally but this is
something both Dodi, a divorcee himself, and I were prepared to do. We understood one another and related to each
other on many levels but I think the magic was that we had fun together!"
Diana and Dodi met long before the summer of 1997 and during their romance had more time together than people
knew. When her sons were very young, the Princess went to Turnbull & Asser, the celebrated gentleman’s shirt
maker in Jermyn Street, St James’s. She wished to order pyjamas and a selection of shirts for the Princes William and
Harry.
There was a board meeting in progress when she entered Turnbull & Asser, but the Managing Director, Ken Williams,
left the meeting to serve the Princess. “What are you doing upstairs, Ken?” she asked. “Come and see”, he replied.
Diana joined the meeting. “Ah”, she said, “so this is how you waste your time”. The Princess was introduced to the
directors, including Dodi.
They got on well and saw each other from time to time at film premieres and fashion shows. Dodi played polo at Smith’
s Lawn, Windsor, and the Princess attended the tournament for the magnificent silver gilt Harrods Trophy.
Ever since her mother walked out when she was six years old, the Princess had been looking for a happy family life.
She did not find this during 15 years within the House of Windsor. She had been reduced to misery and had come
close to despair.
Spending time with the Fayed family in St. Tropez in July, 1997, she experienced the joy of waking up in a world
where everyone loved each other. When Dodi went to the trouble of hiring a famous disco so that everyone could
have a night out without media intrusion, the Princess was impressed not just by his thoughtfulness, but by his infinite
kindness towards his four brothers and sisters and her own two sons.
"Absolutely the al - Fayeds know the meaning of the word Family and did all that they could to make sure Wills and
Harry enjoyed themselves during the summer holiday with them. I have seen it reported that they didn't and
personally I would question that as they showed no indication of it to anyone and I as there Mother would have
known if this had been so naturally!"
After that first family holiday, the Princess told a friend that she and her sons were sitting in Kensington Palace,
“suffering the most awful withdraw symptoms” because they had had “the best holiday of their lives”. Both Princes
wrote gracious letters of thanks to Mr Al Fayed for the great time they had enjoyed.
The Princess and Dodi began their love affair soon after. It was weeks before the media found out and during that
time they enjoyed a week end away in Paris, went to the screening of a new film at a private cinema in Soho, and
enjoyed intimate dinners at his apartment in Park Lane, eating take-aways, sitting on the floor while watching videos.
The telephone line across Hyde Park from his apartment to hers at Kensington Palace was almost constantly busy. It
was only when they embarked on a holiday together on board the yacht Jonikal, that their secret became public
knowledge.
"I have said we were both gladly surprised our secret was not discovered sooner affording us the time and space to
get to know one another as this was something very important to us both as we knew the problems our relationship
being exposed would cause. Well upon reflection now saying not clearly the full extent of them, but it reminds me of
Penny Thornton having a dream about us in which I approached her on a sandy beach in a tropical setting and
showed her a yacht and it was called "Eternity" and saying to her " It was the only way we could be together!"
A media whirlwind raged around them after a picture taken at long range, purporting to show them embracing on the
deck, was published under the headline, “The Kiss”. Undercover paparazzi had hired a boat and stalked the Jonikal
for days before invading their private world in such a devastating way.
Despite the intense Press attention, and stories published with a reckless contempt for the truth, their relationship
stood strong. The Princess disregarded the hurtful allegations about Dodi and blamed herself for putting him at the
centre of the storm.
"I did, yes, because I was determined we would be publicly known as being united but not as it was inferred by some
to make Hasnat jealous. I have spoken about our relationship elsewhere on my site. I wanted people including my
boys to know I was truly happy and of course, I admit it, to steal the headlines from Charles and Camilla who were
also in the news at that time as he was exposing their relationship to the world openly too! I therefore called the
Media and used them to assist me in this, an offer I knew they wouldn't refuse as after all for years they had used me
to increase sales of their papers and magazines!"
Dodi was undismayed. There was nothing more important to him from that moment on than his love for the Princess.
He told friends that she was the love of his life and, despite the relentless media pressure, he had never been
happier. The Princess confided in a woman, who knew her better than almost anyone, that in Dodi she had found the
man she had always been seeking but never found: a strong, kind and loving man who fulfilled her completely.
The couple even flew to consult a fortune-teller in whom the Princess put her faith. What she told them must have
been encouraging, because they then embarked on their third holiday together, and sadly their last.
The Pirncess’s affair with Dodi was the first she had had as a free woman. Other relationships that have come to light
were when she was married or separated from Prince Charles, at a time when she was often miserable because of
her husband’s flagrant affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.
It is inconceivable that the Princess would have continued with her love affair with Dodi had she not intended their
relationship to become a permanent one. With two young sons at school, a mother as sensitive as Diana would not
have exposed them to teasing were she not serious about Dodi as their future step-father. It was not as if there was
anyone else on board Jonikal, just the crew, their staff and the two of them. There was no group of friends to disguise
the nature of their relationship, a ruse used by the Duke of Windsor when he cruised with Mrs Simpson on the yacht
Nahlin.
"Absolutely which is why I would not have become pregnant before marriage as this would have been devastating to
the boys who would have known it being something easily avoided from happening, that and the fact I had a
reputation to maintain publicly and knowing that knives were already out to get me hardly likely to give reason for
their blades to be sharpened!"
Dodi had bought the Julie Andrews house in Malibu, California, as their first home. The house is right on the beach.
The Princess was thrilled that it had a dance studio where she could work out. She had told her butler Paul Burrell to
get ready to move to Malibu and asked him if his wife Maria would come too. She was immediately working out which
of the bedrooms her sons would occupy on their visits.
There would also be a home in Paris. They had visited the Windsor Villa in the Bois de Boulogne, restored by Dodi’s
father to the splendour it had enjoyed when it was the final residence of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
The Princess wanted to be near England, so that her sons were close. But she did not want to live in the UK
permanently any more, because of media harassment. Ironically, she considered that in Paris she would be safer
from prying lenses. She was enthusiastic about life in America because she had always had a good time there and
felt the openhearted natives would give her and Dodi a chance to live their lives in happily and privately.
"I have made no secret of the fact I loved America, with New York being my favourite city, and the Media were much
kinder to me there as well as friends like Lucia living there too. Yes it was ideal and Dodi loved it too and the house
was perfect. Living in Paris was appealing, the romantic capital city where Mohamed owns the Ritz Hotel as well as
the lease of the Villa Windsor which with new decor had possibilities but of course there would likewise have been
other options to consider but it would have meant my being somewhere close to the boys but not in England which
would have been extremely uncomfortable for their father and now his second wife naturally and giving the press a
field day in consistent media competitiveness but also of course embarrassing for Her Majesty"
Like many other couples after an idyllic holiday in the Mediterranean, Dodi and Diana decided to say goodbye to their
summer with a last night in Paris. From the moment they left the aircraft in Paris, their every step was dogged by the
massed ranks of the paparazzi. There were confrontations. There was a high-speed chase.
For dinner, Dodi had booked Chez Benoit, a fashionable but cosy restaurant. They had to abandon their attempt to
go there because of the harassment by pursuing photographers. So, they returned to L’Hotel Ritz. Even in the
Espadon restaurant, there were prying eyes. So, they retired to a suite for dinner a deux.
Had they returned to London on the Sunday morning, as was planned, Diana would have told her sons about her
engagement to Dodi before they returned to school for the autumn term. The Princess had hinted to reporters that
the next thing she would do would surprise them. Now, she had a plan for her life ahead.
"I was anticipating a future of emotional happiness with my charity work continuing and with a partner who
supported me with this, which Mohamed also had intentions of doing, in financing hospices to have been built so it
would have been a very exciting and productive time ahead but of course it never was but why it is my intention to
prove "She Won't Go Quietly...unfortunately for some!"
She and Dodi were to visit Hong Kong and then fly across the Pacific, stopping in the Hawaii Islands for a holiday on
one of the outer islands. Then, they would go on to Los Angeles and the house at Malibu.
To the endless regret of those who knew and loved Dodi Fayed and Diana, Princess of Wales, it all ended in the
Alma tunnel, in the early hours of a day that should have been such a propitious and happy one for them both.
A mother's wish is about to become a reality.
Earl Spencer, the younger brother of Diana, Princess of Wales is to close down the exhibition at Althorp next year.
Lord Spencer, who vowed to protect Diana’s memory from the pulpit at Westminster Abbey during her funeral, is to
hand over its contents to his nephews, the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry.
“It will close worldwide in August 2014,” confirms a spokesman for Charles Spencer, who took the show, 'Diana: A
Celebration,' on tour to the U.S.A.
The collection includes 28 of Diana’s dresses, two tiaras and other priceless family jewels as well as pictures, letters
and home movies.
Lord Spencer says Diana’s will stated that her belongings were to be “looked after” by him until both of her sons
turned 30, at which point the contents would transfer into their possession. Prince Harry will be 30 next year.
There is speculation that the items could eventually go on display at Kensington Palace where Diana, Princess of
Wales lived in London until her death in 1997.
"Hello ,
As regarding this being a Mother's wish, I would say as much as I have
appreciated people have been fascinated in viewing my things that ultimately,
and particularly my most personal possessions like pictures drawn by me, letters written by me and Daddy's home
movies, I would like to see my boys receive it all naturally and how thrilled I would be to see Catherine wearing the
Spencer Tiara which I so loved.
Andrew's personal extensive "Diana Memorabilia Collection" likewise is bequeathed in his will to William and
Harry and their families as he instinctively knew that they are the people who will gain the most benefit from it!"
With love from,
Diana xx
Dodi and Diana - Their Story
It was a love affair. Two people who had known each other for years but then came together during a summer that
was all too brief.
On the day before they would have announced their engagement to marry, they were brutally killed in a tunnel beside
the River Seine.
"On the 31st I was due to be flying home to be with my boys. I wanted to be with Harry on his 14th birthday on
September 15th 1997. They having spent some weeks at Balmoral with their father and his family."
Dodi Fayed and Diana, Princess of Wales, were on their way from L’Hotel Ritz to his apartment, just off the Champs d’
Elysses, near the Arc de Triomphe. Dodi’s butler had put a bottle of vintage champagne on ice.
On their bedside table was the engagement ring they had selected. Dodi had collected it from the jeweller during the
afternoon, whilst Diana had her hair done at the Ritz salon. The ring was called “Dit moi oui”--- “Tell me yes”.
"Ever the romantic soul he was, Dodi had a very real reason
for our returning to his apartment that evening and of course it
was an engagement ring from such a collection, what else could
it possibly have been? And, yes, I was aware of that naturally,
I helped in choosing it.
I have said William and I argued before I died as he was not
impressed by my behaviour with Dodi publicly captured by the
Media cameras but easier to understand my behaving this way
with my fiancee than with someone I saw as a summers fling;
or as the press labelled him " Diana's Arab Playboy ".
I had a point to make! Diana was making headlines and not as the rejected wife but having found happiness in her life
again and celebrating it openly, so sharing the fact with the world!"
The appalling tragedy that ended two young lives stunned the world. For two families, the Fayeds and the Spencers,
the burden of grief continues. In his eulogy to his sister, at the funeral service in Westminster Abbey, Earl Spencer
listed the ways in which Diana had illuminated the world in which she lived and gave thanks that, at the end of her life,
she had at last found true personal happiness.
"My brother and my sisters as well as of course my closest friends knew it too as they could see it for themselves and
were happy for me, one can never determine a relationship lasting, they take working at naturally but this is
something both Dodi, a divorcee himself, and I were prepared to do. We understood one another and related to each
other on many levels but I think the magic was that we had fun together!"
Diana and Dodi met long before the summer of 1997 and during their romance had more time together than people
knew. When her sons were very young, the Princess went to Turnbull & Asser, the celebrated gentleman’s shirt
maker in Jermyn Street, St James’s. She wished to order pyjamas and a selection of shirts for the Princes William and
Harry.
There was a board meeting in progress when she entered Turnbull & Asser, but the Managing Director, Ken Williams,
left the meeting to serve the Princess. “What are you doing upstairs, Ken?” she asked. “Come and see”, he replied.
Diana joined the meeting. “Ah”, she said, “so this is how you waste your time”. The Princess was introduced to the
directors, including Dodi.
They got on well and saw each other from time to time at film premieres and fashion shows. Dodi played polo at Smith’
s Lawn, Windsor, and the Princess attended the tournament for the magnificent silver gilt Harrods Trophy.
Ever since her mother walked out when she was six years old, the Princess had been looking for a happy family life.
She did not find this during 15 years within the House of Windsor. She had been reduced to misery and had come
close to despair.
Spending time with the Fayed family in St. Tropez in July, 1997, she experienced the joy of waking up in a world
where everyone loved each other. When Dodi went to the trouble of hiring a famous disco so that everyone could
have a night out without media intrusion, the Princess was impressed not just by his thoughtfulness, but by his infinite
kindness towards his four brothers and sisters and her own two sons.
"Absolutely the al - Fayeds know the meaning of the word Family and did all that they could to make sure Wills and
Harry enjoyed themselves during the summer holiday with them. I have seen it reported that they didn't and
personally I would question that as they showed no indication of it to anyone and I as there Mother would have
known if this had been so naturally!"
After that first family holiday, the Princess told a friend that she and her sons were sitting in Kensington Palace,
“suffering the most awful withdraw symptoms” because they had had “the best holiday of their lives”. Both Princes
wrote gracious letters of thanks to Mr Al Fayed for the great time they had enjoyed.
The Princess and Dodi began their love affair soon after. It was weeks before the media found out and during that
time they enjoyed a week end away in Paris, went to the screening of a new film at a private cinema in Soho, and
enjoyed intimate dinners at his apartment in Park Lane, eating take-aways, sitting on the floor while watching videos.
The telephone line across Hyde Park from his apartment to hers at Kensington Palace was almost constantly busy. It
was only when they embarked on a holiday together on board the yacht Jonikal, that their secret became public
knowledge.
"I have said we were both gladly surprised our secret was not discovered sooner affording us the time and space to
get to know one another as this was something very important to us both as we knew the problems our relationship
being exposed would cause. Well upon reflection now saying not clearly the full extent of them, but it reminds me of
Penny Thornton having a dream about us in which I approached her on a sandy beach in a tropical setting and
showed her a yacht and it was called "Eternity" and saying to her " It was the only way we could be together!"
A media whirlwind raged around them after a picture taken at long range, purporting to show them embracing on the
deck, was published under the headline, “The Kiss”. Undercover paparazzi had hired a boat and stalked the Jonikal
for days before invading their private world in such a devastating way.
Despite the intense Press attention, and stories published with a reckless contempt for the truth, their relationship
stood strong. The Princess disregarded the hurtful allegations about Dodi and blamed herself for putting him at the
centre of the storm.
"I did, yes, because I was determined we would be publicly known as being united but not as it was inferred by some
to make Hasnat jealous. I have spoken about our relationship elsewhere on my site. I wanted people including my
boys to know I was truly happy and of course, I admit it, to steal the headlines from Charles and Camilla who were
also in the news at that time as he was exposing their relationship to the world openly too! I therefore called the
Media and used them to assist me in this, an offer I knew they wouldn't refuse as after all for years they had used me
to increase sales of their papers and magazines!"
Dodi was undismayed. There was nothing more important to him from that moment on than his love for the Princess.
He told friends that she was the love of his life and, despite the relentless media pressure, he had never been
happier. The Princess confided in a woman, who knew her better than almost anyone, that in Dodi she had found the
man she had always been seeking but never found: a strong, kind and loving man who fulfilled her completely.
The couple even flew to consult a fortune-teller in whom the Princess put her faith. What she told them must have
been encouraging, because they then embarked on their third holiday together, and sadly their last.
The Pirncess’s affair with Dodi was the first she had had as a free woman. Other relationships that have come to light
were when she was married or separated from Prince Charles, at a time when she was often miserable because of
her husband’s flagrant affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.
It is inconceivable that the Princess would have continued with her love affair with Dodi had she not intended their
relationship to become a permanent one. With two young sons at school, a mother as sensitive as Diana would not
have exposed them to teasing were she not serious about Dodi as their future step-father. It was not as if there was
anyone else on board Jonikal, just the crew, their staff and the two of them. There was no group of friends to disguise
the nature of their relationship, a ruse used by the Duke of Windsor when he cruised with Mrs Simpson on the yacht
Nahlin.
"Absolutely which is why I would not have become pregnant before marriage as this would have been devastating to
the boys who would have known it being something easily avoided from happening, that and the fact I had a
reputation to maintain publicly and knowing that knives were already out to get me hardly likely to give reason for
their blades to be sharpened!"
Dodi had bought the Julie Andrews house in Malibu, California, as their first home. The house is right on the beach.
The Princess was thrilled that it had a dance studio where she could work out. She had told her butler Paul Burrell to
get ready to move to Malibu and asked him if his wife Maria would come too. She was immediately working out which
of the bedrooms her sons would occupy on their visits.
There would also be a home in Paris. They had visited the Windsor Villa in the Bois de Boulogne, restored by Dodi’s
father to the splendour it had enjoyed when it was the final residence of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
The Princess wanted to be near England, so that her sons were close. But she did not want to live in the UK
permanently any more, because of media harassment. Ironically, she considered that in Paris she would be safer
from prying lenses. She was enthusiastic about life in America because she had always had a good time there and
felt the openhearted natives would give her and Dodi a chance to live their lives in happily and privately.
"I have made no secret of the fact I loved America, with New York being my favourite city, and the Media were much
kinder to me there as well as friends like Lucia living there too. Yes it was ideal and Dodi loved it too and the house
was perfect. Living in Paris was appealing, the romantic capital city where Mohamed owns the Ritz Hotel as well as
the lease of the Villa Windsor which with new decor had possibilities but of course there would likewise have been
other options to consider but it would have meant my being somewhere close to the boys but not in England which
would have been extremely uncomfortable for their father and now his second wife naturally and giving the press a
field day in consistent media competitiveness but also of course embarrassing for Her Majesty"
Like many other couples after an idyllic holiday in the Mediterranean, Dodi and Diana decided to say goodbye to their
summer with a last night in Paris. From the moment they left the aircraft in Paris, their every step was dogged by the
massed ranks of the paparazzi. There were confrontations. There was a high-speed chase.
For dinner, Dodi had booked Chez Benoit, a fashionable but cosy restaurant. They had to abandon their attempt to
go there because of the harassment by pursuing photographers. So, they returned to L’Hotel Ritz. Even in the
Espadon restaurant, there were prying eyes. So, they retired to a suite for dinner a deux.
Had they returned to London on the Sunday morning, as was planned, Diana would have told her sons about her
engagement to Dodi before they returned to school for the autumn term. The Princess had hinted to reporters that
the next thing she would do would surprise them. Now, she had a plan for her life ahead.
"I was anticipating a future of emotional happiness with my charity work continuing and with a partner who
supported me with this, which Mohamed also had intentions of doing, in financing hospices to have been built so it
would have been a very exciting and productive time ahead but of course it never was but why it is my intention to
prove "She Won't Go Quietly...unfortunately for some!"
She and Dodi were to visit Hong Kong and then fly across the Pacific, stopping in the Hawaii Islands for a holiday on
one of the outer islands. Then, they would go on to Los Angeles and the house at Malibu.
To the endless regret of those who knew and loved Dodi Fayed and Diana, Princess of Wales, it all ended in the
Alma tunnel, in the early hours of a day that should have been such a propitious and happy one for them both.
A mother's wish is about to become a reality.
Earl Spencer, the younger brother of Diana, Princess of Wales is to close down the exhibition at Althorp next year.
Lord Spencer, who vowed to protect Diana’s memory from the pulpit at Westminster Abbey during her funeral, is to
hand over its contents to his nephews, the Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry.
“It will close worldwide in August 2014,” confirms a spokesman for Charles Spencer, who took the show, 'Diana: A
Celebration,' on tour to the U.S.A.
The collection includes 28 of Diana’s dresses, two tiaras and other priceless family jewels as well as pictures, letters
and home movies.
Lord Spencer says Diana’s will stated that her belongings were to be “looked after” by him until both of her sons
turned 30, at which point the contents would transfer into their possession. Prince Harry will be 30 next year.
There is speculation that the items could eventually go on display at Kensington Palace where Diana, Princess of
Wales lived in London until her death in 1997.
"Hello ,
As regarding this being a Mother's wish, I would say as much as I have
appreciated people have been fascinated in viewing my things that ultimately,
and particularly my most personal possessions like pictures drawn by me, letters written by me and Daddy's home
movies, I would like to see my boys receive it all naturally and how thrilled I would be to see Catherine wearing the
Spencer Tiara which I so loved.
Andrew's personal extensive "Diana Memorabilia Collection" likewise is bequeathed in his will to William and
Harry and their families as he instinctively knew that they are the people who will gain the most benefit from it!"
With love from,
Diana xx
