Home / PRINCESS DIANA / Princess Diana

Princess Diana’s Last Words Revealed by Firefighter Who Held Her Hands in Dying Moments: 'Oh My...'

Firefighter Xavier Gourmelon was one of the first responders at the scene of Princess Diana’s fatal crash in Paris on August 31, 1997.

Princess Diana’s tragic death in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997, shocked the world. Among the first emergency responders at the scene was firefighter Xavier Gourmelon, who later revealed that he had no idea who the injured woman in the back of the wrecked car was. At first glance, he believed her injuries were not severe. He recalled, “The woman, who I later found out was Princess Diana, was on the floor in the back. She was moving very slightly and I could see she was alive," as per The Mirror. Before Diana was removed from the vehicle, Gourmelon held her hand and reassured her, urging her to remain calm. He claimed the Princess looked at him and asked, “Oh, my God, what’s happened?” This happened to be Diana's final words.

The firefighter added, “I could see she had a slight injury to her right shoulder, but other than that, there was nothing significant. There was no blood on her at all.” Just moments after Diana's inquiry, she suffered cardiac arrest. Gourmelon and his team immediately began CPR. He said, “I massaged her heart, and a few seconds later she started breathing again. It was a relief, of course, because, as a first responder, you want to save lives—and that’s what I thought I had done." He further explained, “To be honest, I thought she would live. As far as I knew, when she was in the ambulance, she was alive, and I expected her to live. But I found out later she had died in the hospital. It was very upsetting.”

Reflecting on that night, he shared that his team had arrived at the scene rather quickly. He stressed, “We were very close to there and it took less than three minutes to reach it...My ten-man team was in two trucks, and we were the first to arrive.” Describing also the scene inside the tunnel, he explained that the car was severely damaged, but his team worked quickly to assess the victims.

The ambulance arrived at 1:25 AM, and 41 minutes later, Diana was admitted to Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital. Despite efforts by doctors to save her, she was declared dead at 4 AM local time. According to Daily Star, the injuries she suffered would not have been immediately visible at the crash site, which is why first responders, including Gourmelon, initially believed she was in stable condition.

Gourmelon later learned Diana had also been speaking to paramedics before she was placed into the ambulance. However, by the time she reached the hospital, her injuries proved to be too severe. At the time, Gourmelon was not allowed to speak publicly about what had happened, given his position in the French military fire service. He shared his account for the first time after retiring, stressing that the memories of that night have never left him. “I know now that there were serious internal injuries, but the whole episode is still very much in my mind. And the memory of that night will stay with me forever,” he said.