PRINCESS Diana would still be alive today if she still had proper security, her bodyguard of six years insists.
Ken Wharfe told The Sun how three mistakes led to the beloved royal, 36, being killed in a horror car crash in Paris 27 years ago today.
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Princess Diana with her bodyguard Ken Wharfe in August 1992Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
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Diana arriving at the Headway charity launch at the Hilton Hotel in December 1992Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
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Diana and Wharfe chat during a visit to Oxford in November 1990Credit: Tim Graham – Getty
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The wreckage of Diana’s car after the fatal crash on August 31, 1997Credit: AFP
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Diana and Dodi Fayed (both partially visible in back seat), bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones (front, left) and driver Henri Paul in the Mercedes shortly before the crashCredit: Getty – Contributor
And he revealed how he had urged Diana to keep her ring of steel Scotland Yard security team before her tragic death.
Diana, Egyptian film producer Dodi Fayed, 42, and Ritz security chief Henri Paul, who was driving, were killed in the 1997 crash.
The sole survivor of the crash was Dodi’s bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones.
Paul had been drinking before getting behind the wheel and was driving at a high speed when the car smashed into the 13th pillar of the Pont de l’Alma underpass.
Wharfe – who was Diana’s personal protection officer from 1997 until 1993 – insisted his former boss would still be alive if Rees-Jones had driven instead of intoxicated Paul.
He said Dodi was a “difficult person” and the decision over who drove would have been out of the security team’s hands.
Wharfe added: “Rees-Jones was plateaued out at the bottom of the pyramid, it was very difficult for him to say to others what you should do and what you shouldn’t do.
“The one thing that would have saved Diana’s life that night would have been if they’d kicked out the chauffeur and for Rees-Jones to have driven.
“He couldn’t do that, because he couldn’t speak to Dodi Fayed – he told him what to do.
“And that’s a shame, because had Rees-Jones taken that command, had he taken that decision to boot out Henri Paul, you and I would not having this discussion.”
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Diana’s death sparked an outpouring of public grief from millions around the world who saw her as the People’s Princess.
And images of the smashed-up car sparked shockwaves globally.
Diana and Dodi intended to head a short distance to an apartment he owned off the Champs-Elysees from the Ritz hotel in the French capital.
But in a desperate bid to fool press outside, they decided to use two decoy cars to cover their tracks.
A Range Rover was posted outside the Ritz’s main entrance, with Dodi’s usual driver at the wheel.
Meanwhile, Dodi and Diana climbed into a hired jet-black armoured Mercedes at the back entrance.
Paul, who was four times the legal drinking limit in France, was drafted in from home to drive the couple – and is said to have earlier goaded media outside the hotel waiting to spot them.
A probe after the crash concluded he lost control of the car while driving at high speed, under the influence of both alcohol and prescription drugs.
But Wharfe argues the whole incident could have been avoided if Dodi and Diana’s security hadn’t excluded local police and treated the media as “the enemy”.
He said: “The security also failed because of their inexperience to involve the local police, to have a relationship with the assembled paparazzi.
“You cannot treat the paparazzi or the media as an enemy – that doesn’t work.
“Yes, they can be annoying – but actually not one of them was out to kill Diana, they were there to photograph her.
“So you needed a dialogue, you needed a relationship.
“My relationship working with the media was at times difficult, but most of the time enjoyable.
“I often referred to the media as my Dad’s Army, because they would always keep the princess alive, which they did.
“And so that was the failure of the Fayed security. And that’s a tragedy.”
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Diana clutches flowers as Wharfe looks on in September 1992Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
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Charles and Diana pose with their sons Prince William and Prince Harry at Highgrove on July 14, 1986Credit: Getty – Contributor
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The Prince and Princess of Wales attend a welcome ceremony in Toronto at the beginning of their Canadian tour in October 1991Credit: Getty – Contributor
Wharfe also believes that Diana could have been saved from such an early death if the late Queen had retained her Scotland Yard security.
Diana and Charles announced their separation in 1992, and the following year Wharfe decided to step down as her bodyguard.
Just weeks later, Diana decided to axe her entire team – but was not urged to maintain her protection.
Wharfe said: “Yes, Diana had run ins with the Queen occasionally, and other senior members of the royal family.
“But had the Queen insisted that Diana retain her Scotland Yard security, Diana would have accepted it.
“You cannot force security on somebody, they have to say ‘yes, I’ll take it’.
“But the fact that it wasn’t offered, this was her way of saying I want a new life.”
Dian’s decision to cut ties with her security team came just four weeks after Wharfe had implored her to keep them on.
Three weeks after he resigned, Diana asked him to visit her at Kensington Palace.
Wharfe added: “She said, ‘you’ve always been great with advice. If there’s one piece of advice you’d give me, what would it be?’
“I said look, I don’t know what you’re going to do, where you’re going to go.
“But you’re going to need us [Scotland Yard]. Even if you change your sex, you will always be Diana, Princess of Wales.
“So I said I urge you, I urge you, not to lose the Scotland Yard security because we have given you that freedom, we’ve broken rules to allow you to have the normality that you crave for, and there’s no reason why that shouldn’t continue, even with me gone.
“Four weeks later, she abandoned the entire security.”
