On August 31, 1997, the United Kingdom woke up to the worst news: Lady Diana, one of the most popular personalities of the royal family (of which she is no longer a member since her divorce in 1992), is died suddenly in a car accident of great violence under the Alma bridge in Paris. Her boyfriend, Dodi Al-Fayed and the driver are also dead, her bodyguard, the only survivor, is traumatized for life.
And if millions of Britons immediately gather in London to pay their last respects, there is one who will never forget this Parisian night: the fireman, Xavier Gourmelon, who pulled Lady Diana out of the crashed vehicle first. The princess did not die instantly and it is to him that she will say her last words.
According to his testimony in the Mirrorthis “blonde woman“, whom he did not recognize at all at the time, was aware and immediately asked him “what had happened“. Before collapsing, struck down by cardiac arrest. “I massaged her heart and a few seconds later she started to breathe again. To be honest, I thought she would live. It was a real relief because obviously as a first aider you want to save lives and I thought I did. As far as I know when she was in the ambulance she was alive and I expected her to be alive. But I learned later that she had died in the hospital. It was very disturbing“, he recounted.
And probably even more disturbing when he realized who was the blonde woman he had tried to rescue. She died shortly after in the hospital, at 4am. Dodi Al-Fayed, meanwhile, was pronounced dead at the scene. The body of the princess will be repatriated to the United Kingdom during the day by prince Charles, who came from London with the two sisters of Diana.
His coffin was then paraded through the streets of London, followed by his sons, Princes William and Harry, at the time aged 14 and 12 and totally devastated by the death of their mother. Finally buried with great pomp, despite an obvious disagreement from Queen Elizabeth II, who had been very cold during her tribute to her ex-daughter-in-law, she remains one of the key personalities of the Crown.