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Princess Diana Predicted Her Fatal Car Crash in Chilling Letter Two Years Before It Happened

Written in 1995, the note documented Diana’s belief that efforts were being made to 'get rid of her' through a staged car accident.

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Princess Diana at a banquet in New Zealand. (Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Tim Graham Photo Library)

While Princess Diana’s tragic death in August 1997 stunned the world, she herself knew she would die in a car crash. As per the documentary, The Diana Investigations, the Princess had anticipated the fatal accident two years earlier. As reported by The Independent, the Mishcon Note, a document written by her legal adviser Victor Mishcon, claims the Princess allegedly stated that efforts were being made to 'get rid of her' in a staged car accident.

Image Source: Getty Images| Anwar Hussein
Princess Diana attends an event. (Image Source: Getty Images| Anwar Hussein)

The note, jotted during a meeting between Diana, Mishcon, and her personal secretary, Patrick Jephson, on October 30, 1995, cited that Diana had been warned by ‘reliable sources’ that a car crash would be orchestrated to either kill her or cause injuries that would make her appear ‘unbalanced.’ As predicted, the Princess died in a high-speed crash in Paris alongside her partner Dodi Al-Fayed and driver Henri Paul. On September 18, 1997, just weeks after Diana’s death, Mishcon handed the note to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Condon, who reportedly chose not to disclose it, instead keeping the document locked away in a police safe where it remained for six years. In 2003, the Mishcon Note was eventually handed over to the coroner leading Diana’s inquest.

Princess Diana Arriving For Shirley Bassey's Concert At The Palladium, For The Charitable Works Of The Prince Of Wales. (Photo by Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images)
Princess Diana Arriving For Shirley Bassey's Concert At The Palladium, For The Charitable Works Of The Prince Of Wales. (Image Source: Getty Images | Tim Graham Photo Library)

Lord John Stevens, who led Operation Paget, the British police investigation into Diana’s death, later revealed, “The letter was given by Lord Mishcon to my predecessor, Paul Condon, and he put it in his safe. I was only made aware of that when I was made commissioner myself.” He added, “When the coroner announced his inquest, I made sure that letter was immediately given to the royal coroner.” Stevens personally interviewed Mishcon three times regarding the note. He claimed that when he met Lord Mishcon a month before he passed in early 2005, the legal adviser thought Diana was 'paranoid' and at the time "hadn’t held much credence to it.”

Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Georges De Keerle
Prince Charles and Princess Diana at an event. (Image Source: Getty Images | Georges De Keerle)

The Mishcon Note was not the only document in which Diana expressed fears​ about a potential car crash. In October 1996, just two months after her divorce from then-Prince Charles, Diana wrote a letter to her butler, Paul Burrell, claiming that she believed her husband was planning 'an accident'. The letter, later published in Burrell’s 2003 book A Royal Duty, read, “This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous—my husband is planning ‘an accident’ in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for him to marry Tiggy.”

Tiggy Legge-Bourke, Charles’s personal assistant, was falsely rumored to be romantically involved with him. The BBC later admitted that journalist Martin Bashir had manipulated Diana into believing the affair rumors using fake documents, leading to an apology and damages paid to Legge-Bourke. According to reports, Prince William and Prince Harry were unaware of the Mishcon Note for years. During Operation Paget, Lord Stevens personally briefed both brothers at Kensington Palace, explaining the details of their mother’s final moments. He recalled, “Some questions were in detail—which I answered, because they hadn't been told of the circumstances.”

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