Today would have been Princess Diana’s 64th birthday before her life was tragically cut short on that fateful night in August 1997.

In the 27 years since the fatal car crash in Paris – which also killed Dodi Fayed and Dodi’s driver Henri Paul – media interest has not faded but has often intensified.

Nowhere more so was this the case than in 2007 as the 10th anniversary of the tragedy approached.

At the time, a Channel 4 documentary announced controversial plans to show graphic images moments after the crash.

These included a particularly distressing image of the Princess still inside the car with her face blurred out. 

Unsurprisingly, the Royal Family were opposed to the pictures being broadcast due to the effect it might have on the young Prince Harry and Prince William – who were just 22 and 25 in 2007.

Writing in her bombshell fly on the wall expose, ‘The Palace Papers’, royal author Tina Brown revealed that William was so concerned about the documentary that he urged his private secretary to stop the images being broadcast.

Brown wrote that ‘William asked his private secretary Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton – without success – to do everything he could’ to stop the images being shown.

Prince William and Prince Harry the Service of Thanksgiving for the life of Princess Diana in August 2007. That same year, William asked is private secretary to stop distressing images of Diana from being shown in a Channel 4 documentary 

Diana in Saint-Tropez during the summer of 1997. In the 27 years since the fatal car crash in Paris – which also killed Dodi Fayed and Dodi’s driver Henri Paul – media interest has not faded but has often intensified

The final image if Diana and Dodi Al Fayed before their fatal car crash. As the 10th anniversary approached  Channel 4 documentary announced controversial plans to show graphic images moments after the tragedy 

The private secretary even wrote to Channel 4 saying that should the pictures be broadcast it would cause ‘the princes acute distress if they are shown to a public audience, not just for themselves, but also on their mother’s behalf, in the sense of intruding upon the privacy and dignity of her last minutes’.

In response, the broadcaster said that is had ‘weighed up the concerns’ from the Palace but the then-head of Channel 4, Julian Bellamy, stressed that there was a ‘legitimate public interest’ in the documentary.

‘We would like to make clear that it was not our intention in commissioning this programme to cause them distress and we do not believe the film is in any way disrespectful to the memory of Princess Diana,’ Bellamy told The Guardian in 2007.

In a concession, the channel did decide to air a programme to debate the issues surrounding the broadcast.

Bellamy added that no images of the victims of the crash would be shown as Channel 4 had made a ‘clear decision from the outset to uphold the consensus quite properly reached by the British media’ not to use the pictures.

Despite this, Ofcom still received 62 complaints about the documentary however in September that year the media watchdog upheld Channel 4’s decision to air the documentary.

The investigation found that the images and themes of the programme were in line with viewers’ expectations of an investigative Channel 4 documentary and that ‘the photographs were integral to the credibility of the argument being made and the corroborated first-hand testimony’.

Especially when taking into account that the images were shown after the watershed.

Writing in her bombshell fly on the wall expose, ‘The Palace Papers’, royal author Tina Brown revealed that William asked his private secretary Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton ‘without success to do everything he could’ to stop the images being shown.

Diana sunbathing on a yacht in Portofino in 1997. Channel 4 said that is had ‘weighed up the concerns’ from the Palace but the then-head of the channel, Julian Bellamy, stressed that there was a  ‘legitimate public interest’ in the documentary

Prince William pictured with his private secretary Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton in 2005. The private secretary even wrote to Channel 4 saying that should the pictures be broadcast it would cause ‘the princes acute distress if they are shown to a public audience

Channel 4 headquarters in London. Ofcom received 62 complaints about the documentary but in September that year the media watchdog upheld Channel 4’s decision to air the documentary

One photograph showed the first French doctor on the scene leaning into the car assisting Princess Diana whose face had been blurred out.

Speaking in 2022, the doctor who desperately tried to save Diana said he will always feel responsible for her final moments.

Frederic Mailliez found the royal unconscious and struggling to breathe on the floor of the mangled Mercedes in the Alma Tunnel on August 31, 1997. 

The medic says he is still marked by what happened that night and the realisation that he was one of the last people to see the princess alive. 

‘I realise my name will always be attached to this tragic night,’ Mailliez, who was on his way home from a party when he came across the car crash, told The Associated Press. ‘I feel a little bit responsible for her last moments.’

Mailliez was driving into the tunnel when he spotted a smoking Mercedes nearly split in two but did not recognise the icon, despite acknowledging she was a ‘very beautiful woman’.

‘I walked toward the wreckage. I opened the door, and I looked inside,’ he said.

Describing the scene, he said: ‘Four people, two of them were apparently dead, no reaction, no breathing, and the two others, on the right side, were living but in severe condition.

One of the final images of Princess Diana as she left the Ritz Hotel on August 31 1997 

Writing in ‘The Palace Papers’, royal author Tina Brown (pictured) revealed that William was so concerned about the documentary that he urged his private secretary to stop the images being broadcast

‘The front passenger was screaming, he was breathing. He could wait a few minutes. And the female passenger, the young lady, was on her knees on the floor of the Mercedes, she had her head down. She had difficulty to breathe. She needed quick assistance.’

Millez ran to his car to call emergency services and grab a respiratory bag.

‘She was unconscious,’ he said. ‘Thanks to my respiratory bag (…) she regained a little bit more energy, but she couldn’t say anything.’

The doctor would later find out the news – along with the rest of the world – that the woman he treated was the beloved princess. 

‘I know it’s surprising, but I didn’t recognise Princess Diana,’ he said. ‘I was in the car on the rear seat giving assistance. I realised she was very beautiful, but my attention was so focused on what I had to do to save her life, I didn’t have time to think, who was this woman.’

‘Someone behind me told me the victims spoke English, so I began to speak English, saying I was a doctor and I called the ambulance,’ he said. ‘I tried to comfort her.’

As he worked, he noticed the flash of camera bulbs, of paparazzi gathered to document the scene. A British inquest found Diana’s chauffeur, Henri Paul, was drunk and driving at a high speed to elude pursuing photographers.

Mailliez said he had ‘no reproach’ toward the photographers’ actions after the crash. ‘They didn’t hamper me having access to the victims… I didn’t ask them for help, but they didn’t interfere with my job.’ 

‘It was a massive shock to learn that she was Princess Diana, and that she died,’ Mailliez said.

William and Harry hosting the Concert for Diana in 2007 

Tina Brown’s bombshell fly on the wall expose – ‘The Palace Papers’

Princess Diana in June 1997 

Then self-doubt set in. ‘Did I do everything I could to save her? Did I do correctly my job?’ he asked himself.

‘I checked with my medical professors and I checked with police investigators,’ he said, and they agreed he did all he could.

Also in 2007, William and Harry hosted a concert on what would have been Princess Diana’s 46th birthday.

The concert took place in the newly opened Wembley Stadium and featured performances from Elton John, Rod Stewart and Take That as well speeches from Nelson Mandela and Tony Blair.