Three fatal security failures led to Princess Diana’s tragic death — at least, that’s what her former bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, claims.
It’s hard to believe that nearly 30 years have passed since Princess Diana’s tragic death. The world lost an icon, a humanitarian, and two young boys lost their mother. It’s impossible not to wonder what she would be like today — how she would look, what role she would have taken on, and how she might have continued to shape the world.
First meeting with Diana
Ken Wharfe, her former bodyguard who spent six years working closely with her, remembers her fondly. Reflecting on Diana’s impact, he praised her ”wicked sense of humor” and said he felt ”incredibly privileged” to have been part of her life.
Wharfe recalled that from the very first time he met Princess Diana, she showed just how down-to-earth she truly was.
”As I walked into the room, I was introduced, and Diana said, ‘I don’t envy you, Ken, looking after my kids. They can be a bloody nuisance,’” Wharfe told The Sun.
Right on cue, young William, who had been attempting to play the piano, spun around and objected, “No, we’re not a bloody nuisance!” Just as he spoke, Harry tumbled off a table.
”Diana immediately got up and said, ‘Come here, both of you!’ before chasing them out of the room. I hadn’t even said a word yet,” Wharfe recalled.
She returned moments later, shaking her head.
”You see what I mean, Ken?”, she said.
That moment, he explained, changed everything.
”Suddenly, instead of talking to a royal, you were speaking to a parent, a young mother, someone you could truly relate to.”
And that, he said, was Diana in a nutshell—full of fun, laughter, and, at times, deep sadness.
A dangerous driver behind the wheel
Having served as her personal protection officer from 1987 to 1993, Wharfe insists that the People’s Princess might still be alive today if key decisions had been made differently.
One of the most critical mistakes, according to Wharfe, was who was driving the car that fateful August night in 1997.
Diana was traveling with her boyfriend, Egyptian film producer Dodi Fayed, as well as Ritz security chief Henri Paul, who was behind the wheel, and Dodi’s bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones — the crash’s sole survivor.
Sadly, Paul had been drinking before getting behind the wheel and was driving at dangerously high speeds when the car slammed into the 13th pillar of the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris. Wharfe is convinced that Diana could have survived if someone else had been driving.
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”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 stated.
“But 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 be having this discussion.”
A fatal attempt to outsmart the paparazzi
Diana and Dodi’s original plan was to travel a short distance from the Ritz Hotel to an apartment near the Champs-Elysées. Another critical mistake that night was the lack of planning and coordination — or rather, the complete lack of coordination— with the local police regarding the car journey.
Wharfe believes the tragedy could have been prevented entirely if Dodi and Diana’s security team had worked with local police instead of shutting them out and viewing the press as “the enemy.”
In an effort to evade the press, they devised a plan using decoy cars. A Range Rover was positioned at the front entrance of the Ritz with Dodi’s usual driver behind the wheel, while Diana and Dodi secretly exited through the back in a black armored Mercedes.
Henri Paul — who was four times over the legal drinking limit in France — had been called in from home to drive them. The high-speed chase that followed ended in disaster, with the Mercedes crashing at over 60 mph.
The lack of a security team
Perhaps the most avoidable mistake, according to Wharfe, was Diana’s decision to dismiss her Scotland Yard security team. After separating from Prince Charles in 1992, she eventually let go of her royal protection.
Wharfe recalls urging Diana to reconsider just weeks before she cut ties with them. ”She said, ‘You’ve always been great with advice. If there’s one piece of advice you’d give me, what would it be?’”
His response was clear: “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.”
Despite his warning, Diana dismissed her entire security team just four weeks later. Wharfe firmly believes that had Queen Elizabeth insisted she keep them, Diana would have agreed.
”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.”
Diana’s death sent shockwaves across the globe, dominating headlines for weeks. While her funeral became a historic moment of mourning, the haunting images of her wrecked car remain etched in the minds of many.
More than two decades later, the debate over what could have saved Diana continues. But for Ken Wharfe, the answers are clear — three crucial decisions sealed her fate that night. Do you agree with him?
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