Mohamed Al-Fayed is an Egyptian-born businessman whose residence and chief business interests have been in the United Kingdom since the late 1960s. Fayed's business interests include ownership of Hôtel Ritz Paris and formerly Harrods department store and Fulham F.C., both in London.
Diana, Princess of Wales, was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of King Charles III and mother of Princes William and Harry. Diana's activism and glamour made her an international icon and earned her enduring popularity as well as almost unprecedented public scrutiny.
Frances Ruth Shand Kydd was the mother of Diana, Princess of Wales. She was the maternal grandmother of William, Prince of Wales and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, respectively first and fifth in the line of succession to the British throne. Following her divorce from Viscount Althorp in 1969, and Diana's death in 1997, Shand Kydd devoted the final years of her life to Catholic charity work.
Edward John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer,, styled Viscount Althorp until June 1975, was a British nobleman, military officer, and courtier. He was the father of Diana, Princess of Wales, and the maternal grandfather of William, Prince of Wales, and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.
Christina Hambley Brown, Lady Evans, is an English journalist, magazine editor, columnist, talk-show host, and author of The Diana Chronicles (2007) a biography of Diana, Princess of Wales, The Vanity Fair Diaries (2017) and The Palace Papers (2022). Born a British citizen, she now holds joint citizenship after she took United States citizenship in 2005, following her emigration in 1984 to edit Vanity Fair.
Lady Annabel Goldsmith is an English socialite and the eponym for a London nightclub of the late 20th century, Annabel's. She was first married for two decades to entrepreneur Mark Birley, the creator of Annabel's, her husband's inaugural members-only Mayfair club.
Charles Edward Maurice Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer,, styled Viscount Althorp between 1975 and 1992, is a British peer, author, journalist, and broadcaster. He is the younger brother of Diana, Princess of Wales, and is the maternal uncle of William, Prince of Wales, and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex.
John Henry Lanchester is a British journalist and novelist. He was born in Hamburg, brought up in Hong Kong and educated in England; between 1972 and 1980 at Gresham's School in Holt, Norfolk, then at St John's College, Oxford. He is married to historian and author Miranda Carter, with whom he has two children, and lives in London.
Selina Mary Scott is an English television presenter who co-hosted the first dedicated breakfast television programme in the UK before crossing the Atlantic to join West 57th, a prime-time current-affairs show broadcast from New York. Scott continues to write, and run her lifestyle brand Naturally Selina Scott.
The Institut Alpin Videmanette was a finishing school in the municipality of Rougemont, Switzerland. It was an all-girl school where the lessons were skiing, cooking, dressmaking and French.
In the early hours of 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, died from injuries sustained earlier that day in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris, France. Dodi Fayed, Diana's partner, and Henri Paul, the driver of the Mercedes-Benz W140 S-Class, were pronounced dead at the scene. Her bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, was severely injured, but survived the crash.
Georgia Arianna, Lady Colin Campbell, also known as Lady C, is a British Jamaican author, socialite, and television personality who has published seven books about the British royal family. They include biographies of Diana, Princess of Wales, which was on The New York Times Best Seller list in 1992, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
Raine Spencer, Countess Spencer was a British socialite and local politician. She was the daughter of Alexander McCorquodale and the romantic novelist and socialite Barbara Cartland and the stepmother of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Operation Paget was the British Metropolitan Police inquiry established in 2004 to investigate the conspiracy theories about the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997. The inquiry's first report with the findings of the criminal investigation was published in 2006. The inquiry was wound up following the conclusion of the British inquest in 2008, in which a jury delivered its verdict of an "unlawful killing" by the driver and the pursuing paparazzi.
Hasnat Ahmad Khan, FRCS is a British-Pakistani heart and lung surgeon. He is widely known for his romantic relationship with Diana, Princess of Wales from 1995 to 1997.
Paul Burrell is a former servant of the British Royal Household and latterly butler to Princess Diana.
Alexandra Shân "Tiggy" Pettifer is a British former nanny and companion to Prince William and Prince Harry. She was a personal assistant to Charles III from 1993 to 1999. She has used her married name since her marriage to Charles Pettifer in 1999.
Various conspiracy theories have arisen surrounding the death of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997. Official investigations in both Britain and France found that Diana died in a manner consistent with media reports following the fatal car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997. In 1999, a French investigation concluded that Diana died as the result of a crash. The French investigator, Judge Hervé Stephan, concluded that the paparazzi were some distance from the Mercedes S280 when it crashed and were not responsible. After hearing evidence at the British inquest, a jury in 2008 returned a verdict of "unlawful killing" by driver Henri Paul and the paparazzi pursuing the car. The jury's verdict also stated: "In addition, the death of the deceased was caused or contributed to by the fact that the deceased were not wearing a seat belt and by the fact that the Mercedes struck the pillar in the Alma Tunnel rather than colliding with something else".
"An Interview with HRH The Princess of Wales" is an episode of the BBC documentary series Panorama which was broadcast on BBC1 on 20 November 1995. The 54-minute programme saw Diana, Princess of Wales, interviewed by journalist Martin Bashir about her relationship with her husband, Charles, Prince of Wales, and the reasons for their subsequent separation. The programme was watched by nearly 23 million viewers in the UK, which was 39.3% of the population. The worldwide audience was estimated at 200 million across 100 countries. In the UK, the National Grid reported a 1,000 MW surge in demand for power after the programme, equivalent to 300,000 kettles being boiled. At the time, the BBC hailed the interview as the scoop of a generation.
The "revenge dress" is a dress once worn by Diana, Princess of Wales. It was worn for the first time at a 1994 dinner at the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens. The garment has been interpreted as having been worn "in revenge" for the televised admission of adultery by her husband Charles, Prince of Wales.
