The Surprising Thing Princess Diana Admitted About Her Relationship With Dodi Fayed
At the time of her death, Princess Diana and Prince Charles were divorced and she was seeing Dodi Fayed, who was the son of Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed.
Pictures of the couple together surfaced in 1997 after the elder Fayed invited Diana along with her two children, Princes William and Harry, to spend a holiday on board his yacht in the South of France. Diana and Dodi began dating and from the outside, the couple seemed to have a blossoming relationship but the public didn’t know just how serious they actually were and what Diana thought about him until after their deaths.
Here’s more on that and what Diana admitted about being with her love interest.
What Diana thought about getting serious with Fayed
After the princess’ tragic death, one of her close friends, Lady Annabel Goldsmith, told an inquest jury that she had spoken with Diana about her relationship with Fayed and how serious she was about him.
Goldsmith recalled saying to Diana, “You’re not going to do anything silly like rushing off and eloping or getting married?”
“I would need marriage like a rash on my face,” Goldsmith said Diana told her, adding, “It was a very Diana expression.”
Diana’s confidant was then asked what she thought about the princess’ “rash” comment and she explained, “I took it to mean that she was not serious about marriage to Dodi. She might have been having a wonderful time with him, I’m sure, but I thought her remark that she needed marriage like a rash meant that she was not serious about it.”
Fayed did buy the princess an engagement ring
What Goldsmith told the jury is quite surprising. That’s because, if true, it would mean that Diana and her beau weren’t on the same page and she would have totally been caught off guard when he proposed to her since that’s what he was planning to do.
Author Martyn Gregory noted that Fayed was going to pop the question the night of the crash and that he had been shopping for a ring at Repossi Jewelers. In fact, a ring bearing the inscription “Dis-moi Oui” (Tell me Yes) was recovered by authorities in his flat after their deaths as well as a receipt dated Aug. 30, 1997, for a “bague de fiançaille” (engagement ring).
But Fayed never got the chance to ask for the princess’ hand in marriage.
Instead the pair and their driver, Henri Paul, were killed following a car accident in the tunnel under the Alma Bridge on their way to Fayed’s apartment. Paul and Fayed died at the scene but Diana was transported to the La Pitie Salpetriere Hospital where she was pronounced dead several hours later on Aug. 31, 1997. Diana’s bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, was traveling with the couple and was the only person to survive the crash.
Read more: The Truth Behind Those JFK Jr. and Princess Diana Affair Rumors
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