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Topics: Princess Diana, Royal Family, UK News
Lucy Devine
Topics: Princess Diana, Royal Family, UK News
A letter written by Princess Diana years before her fatal car accident may have revealed how the royal tragically 'predicted her own death'.
In 1997, Princess Diana, then 36, was travelling through a tunnel in Paris when the car she was in tragically crashed.
The 'People's Princess' had been enjoying her evening in the French capital with her rumoured boyfriend Dodi Fayed, when the incident occurred.
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Diana and Dodi had been travelling through the Pont de l'Alma underpass when, according to reports, the driver lost control of the vehicle.
The car crashed inside the tunnel, and Diana sadly passed away in the Pitié Salpêtrière hospital later that night.
Following Diana's death, a chilling letter written by the royal years before was unearthed and published in the press.
In the letter, revealed by her former butler Paul Burrell and published in the Mirror, Diana allegedly said that an unnamed person - referred to as 'X' in the note - was 'planning an accident'.
"I am sitting here at my desk today in October longing for someone to hug me and encourage me to keep strong and hold my head high," she wrote.
"This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous - X is planning 'an accident' in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for Charles to marry.
"I have been battered, bruised and abused mentally by a system for 15 years now, but I feel no resentment... I am strong inside and maybe that is a problem for my enemies.
"Thank you Charles for putting me through such hell and for giving me the opportunity to learn from the cruel things you have done to me."
On the 20th anniversary of her death in 2017, French firefighter Xavier Gourmelon spoke to Good Morning Britain about what the princess said to him on the night of the accident.
Gourmelon claimed that upon attending the scene, rescuers were not initially aware that Princess Diana had been one of the victims.
When she regained consciousness in the back of the car while talking to him, she allegedly asked him: "Oh my god, what's happened?"
He said the Princess then became temporarily agitated before losing consciousness again.
"I tried to calm her down and tell her we’d look after her, and she fell into a coma again," he said.
It was during her removal from the car, however, that Xavier says her health rapidly deteriorated.
"At that moment, the doctor said she was in cardiac arrest. So, we gave her CPR and after 20 seconds, she regained consciousness, and we transferred her to the ambulance."
In 2008, it was ruled that Diana died unlawfully due to 'grossly negligent driving of the following vehicles [the paparazzi] and of the Mercedes driver, Henri Paul'.