At 12:15 a.m. on August 31, 1997, a black Mercedes crashed into a concrete pillar outside the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris. The world was shaken by the death of Princess Diana, whose funeral just days later on September 6, became a global moment of mourning. Killed along with Princess Diana were Egyptian film producer Dodi Fayed and their driver Henri Paul. The only survivor was bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones. His role as bodyguard to Princess Diana that fateful night was unusual. Typically, members of the royal family are assigned their own Royal Protection Officer (RPO), who provides protection for only that person. Princess Diana had voluntarily — and against the advice of her friends, family and staff — terminated her RPO because Martin Bashir, a BBC journalist, had lied to the princess and given her Photoshopped documents that suggested her personal bodyguard had been selling stories to the media. Bashir made the move to manipulate Diana into trusting him, which left her in an incredibly vulnerable and unsafe position. Would things have ended differently if Princess Diana had kept her RPO? There are a significant number of people who blame Princess Diana’s death on the accusations that she was being spied on by her RPO, the lie suggested by Martin Bashir. Had he not lied to Princess Diana, she would have had a proper RPO helping her to navigate her way around Paris safely. BBC investigated the charge that the interview of the century was obtained by deception and found that Bashir’s account of the events were “incredible, unreliable, and in some cases dishonest.” For its part, the BBC issued a statement: "While the BBC cannot turn back the clock after a quarter of a century, we can make a full and unconditional apology. The BBC offers that today.”
