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Three fatal security lapses led to Princess Diana\u2019s tragic death\u2014at least, that\u2019s what her former bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, believes.\n
It\u2019s almost unimaginable that nearly three decades have passed since that fateful night. The world lost a global icon, a compassionate humanitarian, and, most heartbreakingly, two young boys lost their mother. It\u2019s hard not to wonder how Diana would have shaped the world today\u2014what causes she would champion, how she would look, and what role she would play in modern society.\n
Ken Wharfe, who served as Diana\u2019s bodyguard for six years, remembers her warmly. He admired her \u201cwicked sense of humor\u201d and considered it \u201can incredible privilege\u201d to be part of her life.\n
From their very first encounter, Diana\u2019s down-to-earth nature was evident.\n
\u201cAs I walked into the room, I was introduced, and Diana said, \u2018I don\u2019t envy you, Ken, looking after my kids. They can be a bloody nuisance,\u2019\u201d Wharfe recalled in an interview with The Sun.\n
Right on cue, a young Prince William, who had been attempting to play the piano, spun around and objected, \u201cNo, we\u2019re not a bloody nuisance!\u201d\u2014just as Prince Harry tumbled off a table.\n
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\u201cDiana immediately got up and said, \u2018Come here, both of you!\u2019 before chasing them out of the room. I hadn\u2019t even said a word yet,\u201d Wharfe remembered.\n
She returned moments later, shaking her head.\n
\u201cYou see what I mean, Ken?\u201d she said.\n
That moment changed everything for him.\n
\u201cSuddenly, instead of talking to a royal, you were speaking to a parent, a young mother, someone you could truly relate to.\u201d\n
That, he said, summed up Diana\u2014full of warmth, laughter, and, at times, deep sadness.\n
As Diana\u2019s personal protection officer from 1987 to 1993, Wharfe insists that she might still be alive today had different choices been made.\n
One of the most critical errors, he believes, was allowing Henri Paul to drive the car that night.\n
Diana and her boyfriend, Egyptian film producer Dodi Fayed, were being driven by Paul\u2014security chief at the Ritz Hotel\u2014while Dodi\u2019s bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, sat in the front passenger seat. Tragically, Rees-Jones was the sole survivor of the crash.\n
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Paul had been drinking before getting behind the wheel and was speeding when the car slammed into the 13th pillar of the Pont de l\u2019Alma tunnel in Paris. Wharfe is convinced that Diana\u2019s life could have been saved had someone else been driving.\n
\u201cThe one thing that would have saved Diana\u2019s life that night would have been if they\u2019d kicked out the chauffeur and for Rees-Jones to have driven,\u201d he stated.\n
\u201cBut he couldn\u2019t do that because he couldn\u2019t speak to Dodi Fayed\u2014he told him what to do. And that\u2019s a shame because had Rees-Jones taken that command, had he taken that decision to boot out Henri Paul, you and I would not be having this discussion.\u201d\n
That night, Diana and Dodi were originally meant to take a short drive from the Ritz Hotel to an apartment near the Champs-Elys\u00e9es. However, a poorly thought-out plan to evade the paparazzi proved disastrous.\n
Instead of coordinating with local police, as would have been expected for someone of Diana\u2019s status, her security team attempted to outsmart the press using decoy cars. A Range Rover was stationed at the Ritz\u2019s front entrance with Dodi\u2019s regular driver, while Diana and Dodi discreetly exited through the back in an armored black Mercedes.\n
Henri Paul\u2014who was found to be over four times the legal alcohol limit in France\u2014had been called in from home to drive them. What followed was a high-speed chase that ended in catastrophe, with the car crashing at over 60 mph.\n
Perhaps the most preventable mistake, according to Wharfe, was Diana\u2019s decision to dismiss her Scotland Yard security team.\n
After her separation from Prince Charles in 1992, she eventually opted to forgo royal protection altogether. Wharfe recalls warning Diana against this decision just weeks before she let them go.\n
\u201cShe said, \u2018You\u2019ve always been great with advice. If there\u2019s one piece of advice you\u2019d give me, what would it be?\u2019\u201d\n
His response was direct:\n
\u201cI urge you, I urge you, not to lose the Scotland Yard security because we have given you that freedom, we\u2019ve broken rules to allow you to have the normality that you crave, and there\u2019s no reason why that shouldn\u2019t continue.\u201d\n
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Despite his plea, Diana dismissed her security team just a month later. Wharfe firmly believes that had Queen Elizabeth insisted she keep them, Diana would have agreed.\n
\u201cYou cannot force security on somebody, they have to say \u2018yes, I\u2019ll take it\u2019. But the fact that it wasn\u2019t offered, this was her way of saying, \u2018I want a new life.\u2019\u201d\n
A Death That Shook the World
\nDiana\u2019s sudden death sent shockwaves across the globe, dominating headlines for weeks. While her funeral became one of the most widely watched events in history, the haunting images of her wrecked car remain etched in the memories of many.\n
More than 25 years later, the debate over what could have saved Diana continues. But for Ken Wharfe, the answer is clear\u2014three fatal decisions sealed her fate that night.\n
Do you agree with him?\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three fatal security lapses led to Princess Diana\u2019s tragic death\u2014at least, that\u2019s what her former bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, believes. It\u2019s almost unimaginable that nearly three decades have passed since that fateful night. The world lost a global icon, a compassionate humanitarian, and, most heartbreakingly, two young boys lost their mother. It\u2019s hard not to wonder …\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":99709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1442,670],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrity","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99708"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99714,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99708\/revisions\/99714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}