Diana's friends say `interview' is fake

The French magazine `Paris Match' has published what it claims is the last interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed. But people close to the princess have grave doubts about its authenticity. Kim Sengupta examines the extraordinary saga.

In the preface to its "world exclusive" interview with the princess and Dodi Fayed, Paris Match editor, Roger Therond, writes: "This couple, united and looking forward to the future, speak to us, as if from beyond the grave". What follows, over four pages, is in a similar sugary, gushy vein, with the couple allegedly talking about their hopes of a future together. According to those who knew Diana, it simply does not ring true.

The interview is written anonymously, and no details are given about when and where it took place. There is also no explanation why it surfaced three months after the princess and Mr Fayed were killed in a car crash, although the magazine claims it was told about the piece in a phone call the morning after the accident.

Mr Therond "authenticated" the "unique document "by saying the phone call came from "a person I know and value"; however, he would not say who this was.

The only other person who vouched the interview's veracity was Dodi's father, Mohamed Al Fayed. But there is discrepancy about the timing of the interview between Paris Match and Mr Fayed.

The magazine claims it took place while Diana and Dodi were on holiday in the south of France few weeks before their death, when Mohamed Al Fayed was the host. But according to friends of the couple, their romance was yet to begin. And the Harrod's owner claims that in fact the interview took place towards the end of Diana and Dodi's last holiday at the end of August.

Mr Fayed's backing for Paris Match has became more qualified over time. When the news of the interview first broke, his spokesman stated categorically: "We can confirm that the interview did happen at the end of their last holiday, at the end of August." By yesterday afternoon, this had changed to: "Mr Al Fayed is aware that an interview took place towards the end of their last holiday together. As he has not been party to the content of that interview, it's impossible to say whether or not it was this interview".

Coincidentally, the interview, which painted Mr Fayed in a positive light, appeared in the British newspapers the day after an ITV documentary titled Sex, Lies and Audiotape alleged that he molested and harassed female members of the store's staff.

Friends of the princess were dismissive about the piece. Some recalled Mr Fayed's involvement in another controversy in which he alleged Diana had uttered some secret last words as she lay dying after the crash, an account of events which had been strongly disputed by medical staff at the scene.