Does Harry honestly think Diana was killed by the paps?

[leopardskincolour]

Just that really. I'm still reading the book so I might be wrong, but so far he seems she "went into hiding" because of the paps, and not the fault of the RF?

Who's to blame for her death; the RF or the paps?

Yes, that's what I mean. Not who killed her, but who's responsible for his mother's death

He thinks that if they were not chasing her car and blinding the driver with flashes, the accident would never have happened. Harry explains that he was in denial for several years convincing himself Diana was not really dead but had gone into hiding.

She wouldn't have jumped in a car with a drunk driver if she hadn't been being harassed. If the paparazzi hadnt been there, there's nothing to say it wouldn't have just been a normal, sedate, uneventful drive.

Repeated harassment over a period of years (which is what she was subjected to) can certainly cause someone to make risky, ill thought out decisions in an attempt to escape the torment.

So yeah, I can see why he blames them. The paparazzi didn't kill her, but they certainly created the circumstances which led to her death.

Yes, he blames the paps - he explains it well in the interviews, that it was like a bicycle chain and if one link hadn’t been there (paps, drunken chauffeur, lack of seatbelts etc) then she wouldn’t have died.

Of course not. Not even he is that stupid. But if he thinks that pretending he does will flog a few more copies of his crappy book, that’s what he will do.

In what way is it stupid, IE?

If the paps had not been outside the ritz, Henri Paul would not have been called back. If they hadn’t chased, he wouldn’t have been doing twice the speed limit.

The driver was speeding because the paps were chasing. Higher speed = higher likelihood of fatality in a crash.

I haven't read Harry's explanation of it, but there was a sequence of 'links' which came together to result in a fatal crash. It's a good analogy.

That was the general belief at the time and he will have heard it from many sources, I imagine. It depends on how you view it. Technically she could have stayed at the Ritz that night or chosen to wear a seatbelt or checked her driver hadn't been drinking. It's not clear that anyone was chasing the car in a way that meant it had to be driven fast- not even sure it was being driven too fast (?). She had had many other such photos taken and none of those were in a situation that led to her death. It was an accident that could have been avoided, that is for sure. But you could say that of many accidents. She also courted the media, so there is that. Not one of the paparazzi would have wanted her death as she was worth a lot more to them alive. So it's not a reasonable conclusion to make (but much spoken of at the time, as I've said).

The driver was drunk though, and drunk people don’t make good driving decisions paps or no papa. He didn’t have to speed. The bodyguard had no choice to be there. He knew it was a dangerous situation and put his seatbelt on( usually bodyguards don’t) why didn’t Diana sense the danger too? It’s so sad to think if she’d just made that quick decision to flick on on she would have walked out of that crash. I was only a child when it happened but I remember the collective guilt at the time like it was all our faults she was dead. People are chased by reporters all the time and don’t die at the same time we know drunk drivers crash and kill people every day.

I also don’t agree entirely with the chain description. How far do you go back? Technically you could keeep going back until you found the reason you wanted. I can understand why it’s therapeutic for him to blame the paps though.

But then, wasn't C so ready to move on and marry the love of his life, or would it have been possible even if D was alive?

The formal investigation established that the bodyguard did not have his seat belt on, although it was initially reported that he did.

my understanding was that the car was going at twice the speed limit, and the paps were right there, so presumably also speeding.

Many sudden deaths have a chain. If my elderly relative was steadier on her feet, she wouldn’t have fallen in her garden. If she had a call pendant, someone might have got to her. If it had been summer, not winter, she might have lain there, cross but not badly affected, rather than suffering from the cold and ultimately dying. Change any factor, she would have probably lived.

Same here, in my view.

Yes, I think he blames the paps.

However I think the situation is far more complex and he's barking up the wrong tree.

We now know Bashir got his interview by sowing paranoia to D, so successfully she felt she was being spied on by Met protection officers to the point of refusing them. William, in his interview after the Bashir investigation was complete certainly believe this was a significant factor as does his Uncle Earl Spencer.

Ultimately D died because she was driven by a speeding drunk driver and didn't wear a seatbelt, however it does raise the question as to if Bashir had not lied/fabricated evidence of payments to spy on D would she have ever got in that car in the first place?

I think it's fair to say, possibly not.

However, it's been pretty roundly discounted that the paps caused the accident, but I don't think H wants to accept that.

Sure. If she hadn’t been so pretty, then Charles wouldn’t have married her, she wouldn’t have had such press interest etc. Of course you can keep going back.

But she died in a car, without a seatbelt, driven by a drunk, going too fast, chased by paps. That chain is immediate, the few minutes leading up to the fatal crash.

Of course. He and Diana were divorced. He could do what he liked. As could she.

.The driver was drunk though, and drunk people don’t make good driving decisions paps or no papa. He didn’t have to speed.
This^ 100%
Diana could put on seatbelt. She could have said no to the speeding. Yes, it was a chain of events but the main part of the chain was drunk speeding driver. Of course it’s Harry’s mum, he wanted to blame paps do he’s created this narrative about paps being responsible otherwise it’s a very simple tunnel to drive through with a drunk driver and twice over speed limit.

Why was the driver speeding? Because of the paps. Link in the chain.

“However, it's been pretty roundly discounted that the paps caused the accident,”

What has been discounted? That the paps crashed into the car? Yes, I think that was ruled out.

But if there were no paps, there would have been no chase. (Equally, if Diana had decided to stay in the ritz, there would have been no chase. ) The speeding was to get away from them.

Blame, or link in the chain, or guilty, or a factor… call it what you will.

But if the paps had not been there that night, Diana wouldn’t have died that night. That, I think, is Harry’s point, without assigning them all the responsibility for the death.

Agree with this.

I always thought manslaughter charges should have been brought against the paps. They literally chased her until she crashed then took photos as she lay dying. Yeah sure the driver had a few drinks but he wouldn’t have crashed without what they did and would probably have crashed even if sober.

The speeding driver who had had a few drinks is responsible, and Diana herself is partly responsible for choosing not to wear a seatbelt.

This.

Apart from he focuses on the single link of the paparazzi and glosses over the need for every other link to be connected to have caused the outcome they did.

All of them needed to happen for Diana to die…but Harry’s not heading up an initiative to ensure we all wear seatbelts or highlighting the risks of drinking and driving is he.

Hmm… but he and his wife can (and do) put on their seatbelts and ensure their drivers are sober. They cannot stop the paps chasing them, though.

FYI - the photographers were cited as one factor.

Ten years after the crash, a verdict of "unlawful killing" was returned at a UK inquest, citing Mr Paul being drunk and driving too fast and the car being chased by photographers.

(Sky News)

@DrWhoNowww

Exactly.

He doesn't realise his own theory doesn't make sense by focusing on one link.

Change one dynamic (not the paps) and there's a good chance she would still be alive.