Diana 1961-1997: Dices with Di, and a death foretold

This is taken from an article by Marianne Macdonald published in the 'Sunday Review' in May.

Diana probably sees more of the five or six paparazzi who follow her than of her sons. Like a fatal disease, they will be with her until death. There is no moment she can be certain she is not being photographed. This is why she will not shower at her gym; why she rarely goes out at night. She has tried everything she can think of to stop them. She has worn the same clothes again and again. She has shielded her face with shoulder bags. She has stayed in. She has shouted, pleaded, lectured, run. She has given them the silent treatment, and, as her ability to bear them has given way, she has taken more violent measures.

It is chilling to hear the slang they use for photographing her. To take a number of pictures is to "hose her down". They also "blitz her", "target her" and "whack her". To do this they stick their cameras right in her face.

When her father died five years ago, she was in Lech, in Austria. Glenn Harvey, a paparazzo, was waiting outside her hotel. "The door ... was thrown open and a hysterical and tearful Diana raced out," he writes in Dicing With Di, the book he wrote with a fellow paparazzo, Mark Saunders.

"'NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NOT NOW,' she screamed, as Glenn's motordrive sprung into action. Diana crumpled ... Afterwards, for the only time in his career, he felt pangs of guilt ... Glenn decided to sell the pictures and within 20 minutes every single frame had been sold."

Saunders and Harvey also followed Diana up the M4 after her Panorama interview. "She indicated left and pulled across to the middle lane, slowing down considerably and forcing me to pass. And then ... she increased her speed and lurched back into the fast lane, coming up directly behind me. We were travelling at 90mph when I felt her bumper touch the rear of my car. [Glenn] gestured wildly at her: 'Back off ... back off.' But Diana made no attempt to slow down. The cars carried on, bumper to bumper

This is not an isolated incident. The book suggests that Diana often jumped lights and broke speed limits in a bid to escape her tormentors. They have then done the same. If this harassment continues, her story could no longer just end in tears. Someone could die, and it might not be a paparazzo.