Conspiracy Theories Surrounding Princess Diana

*Originally published on 8/27/10


I'm a sucker for conspiracy theories. Even if they make no sense and only cause me to cringe at the ridiculousness, I find them fascinating. Whether it's UFO's, Kennedy's assassination, George W. Bush being behind 9/11, Bill O'Reilly being a member of the Illuminati, or Obama's administration being the culmination of 40 years of communist plotting and subterfuge to bring down America, I can't help but be fascinated by the ideas that some people come up with. Often times, the more ridiculous the theory, the better.

Even Princess Diana has a few conspiracy theories surrounding her, more specifically, her death.  The most mainstream one is that the paparazzi were behind it. It seems logical as they were in hot pursuit of the princess, trying to get photographs as they are wont to do. In an attempt to evade them, the driver sped up and became more reckless causing the crash. Considering they didn't seem all too shook up about it, on the contrary, they raced to get pictures even after the crash, it was pretty easy to blame them. One could have made the argument that they did it on purpose to sell papers. There don't seem to be any holes in this particular theory, although one site brings up that the limo driver was well over the legal B.A.C limit.

One of the zanier plots concocted is that it was an elaborate assassination plot by the royal family. The reason for this alleged hit? She was set to marry a Muslim, and was possibly even pregnant with his child. The tabloids talked about a mysterious figure posing as a press member. There was talk of a mysterious white Fiat Uno that blocked the path of the limousine to cause the crash. Diana's would be father in law was a major proponent of this theory as he refused to believe that it was a mere accident.

There was even talk of altering surveillance tapes to cover up the incident. Further analysis showed that Diana was not pregnant and the idea that the two were set to wed has also been called into question. The cameras whose tapes were allegedly altered weren't even positioned in such a way that they could record the crash anyway, making tampering a redundant process.

Another possible theory is that Dodi Al Fayed, the aforementioned Egyptian "fiance" was the true target and Diana happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's an interesting theory and not totally outside the realm of possibility, though if such a plot were set in motion, certainly there would be some way to verify it. Either that or they're just that good.

As with all celebrity deaths, there are certain factions that believe that the whole thing was staged and that Diana is still alive and well, living in hiding. She wouldn't be the first, Elvis, Tupac, and Kennedy are also said to still be alive somewhere. It also makes a fair bit of sense as she was not comfortable being in the spotlight, but forced into it constantly. Given that an examination was performed on her body, this seems rather unlikely.

Mankind is naturally curious, so it's not surprising when we question something that's been told to us. It's something to be encouraged, even if the results are somewhat wacky.