Princess Diana had been enjoying a night out in Paris with her rumored partner, Dodi Fayed, when the evening took a tragic turn. The couple, accompanied by Dodi’s bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones and chauffeur Henri Paul, were attempting to escape the relentless paparazzi when their car entered the Pont de l’Alma tunnel at high speed. Moments later, the car slammed into a pillar. Henri Paul and Dodi Fayed were killed instantly. Diana, though critically injured, was still alive when emergency responders arrived.
One of the first firefighters on the scene, Sergeant Xavier Gourmelon, later revealed that he did not initially recognize Diana. He recalled that she appeared conscious and reportedly said, *“Oh my God, what’s happened?”*—words believed to be the last she ever spoke. Gourmelon described how Diana was still moving and seemed relatively stable at first. He and his team worked to free her from the wreckage, and she was rushed to the hospital.
Despite the efforts to save her, Diana succumbed to her internal injuries a few hours later. She was just 36 years old. Her death sent shockwaves around the world and marked one of the most devastating moments in modern royal history. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was the only survivor of the crash.
