Royals

Paparazzo who took pictures of Princess Diana as she was dying breaks silence on what he did with them

The photographer features in new documentary Diana and the Paparazzi

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Many people – members of the royal family included – blame the paparazzi for Princess Diana’s death.

Hounded by photographers home and abroad every day of her royal life, the 37-year-old was being pursued by French snappers when the Mercedes she was travelling in crashed into a pillar in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel.

The pack had been following the vehicle as it sped from the Ritz through Paris.

As the anniversary of Diana’s death – August 31, 1997 – approaches, new documentary Diana and the Paparazzi interviews photographers and newspaper editors whose appetites for pictures of her were insatiable.

It speaks to one photographer who even admits to taking pictures of the mother of two as she was dying in the smash, which also killed her companion Dodi Al Fayed and driver Henri Paul.

The paparazzo reveals that he snapped away as the emergency services attended the scene.

Read more: Princess Diana’s brother reveals attacks on her resting place

He then goes on to claim that he disposed of the pictures down a sewer to ensure they would never be seen or published.

A British inquest blamed driver Henri Paul, who was speeding and over the drink-drive limit, and the paparazzi photographers for the crash.

The significant anniversary is already attracting a lot of headlines.

Diana’s brother Earl Charles Spencer recently spoke out about the horrific incident and his enduring grief.

Talking to Radio 4’s Today, he also claimed that he was lied to about Princes William, then 15, and Harry, then just 12, wanting to walk behind their mother’s coffin.

Charles, 53, said it was a “bizarre and cruel thing” for the princes to have to do and that it was “the most horrifying half an hour of my life”.

Read more: Princes William and Harry reveal big regret about last time they talked to Diana

He added: “I was lied to and told that they wanted to do it, which, of course, they didn’t but I didn’t realise that.”

“It was the worst part of the day by a considerable margin, walking behind my sister’s body with two boys who were, obviously, massively grieving their mother.

“It was this sort of bizarre circumstance where we were told you just have to look straight ahead.

“But the feeling, the sort of absolute crashing tidal wave of grief coming at you as you went down this sort of tunnel of deep emotion, it was really harrowing actually and I still have nightmares about it now.

“So there was this sort of inner turmoil of thinking, ‘My God this is ghastly,’ but then the point of thinking these two boys are doing this and it must be a million times worse for them.”


Kaggie Hyland
Editor-in-Chief