After decades of silence, Princess Diana’s ex-chauffeur has made the bold claim that she would still be alive today if he’d been the one driving on the night she died.

The former Princess of Wales passed away at the age of 36 on August 31, 1997, due to a fatal car crash in Paris. 

Now, Steve Davies has opened up about BBC reporter Martin Bashir’s role in what happened. 

Princess Diana’s former chauffeur says she wouldn’t have died on that fateful night if he’d been the one behind the wheel

Image credits: Georges De Keerle / Getty Images

Davies had been a royal chauffeur for eight years and had served as Princess Diana’s personal driver for half of that time. So, he was quite surprised when he was asked to leave his position in March 1996, without explanation.

But after years of wondering where he went wrong, Netflix’s The Crown finally allowed him to put the pieces together.

In a meeting in September 1995, Bashir allegedly lied to both Diana and her brother, Earl Spencer, in an attempt to win the princess’s trust and make her feel insecure, claiming that Davies had leaked information about her to the press.

Image credits: Carlo Allegri / Getty Images

“I was forced out of a job I wanted to be my life’s work,” Davies told The Mail on Sunday. “Royal service is about being trusted and loyal, showing discretion, having a sense of duty. Your reputation, your good name is everything. 

“Martin Bashir robbed me of mine by making those allegations to Diana.”

He added, “I’m not the kind of man who wastes time and energy being bitter or angry, but she died believing I had betrayed her and that’s something I can’t ever forget or forgive.”

The former driver claimed he would have “taken a bullet” for the princess, and that he was “always there for her”

Image credits: Brettmann / Getty Images

“All I know is that if life had taken a different trajectory, if I’d been driving her that night in Paris, she would still be here today… because I would’ve kept her safe,” he said. 

In May of this year, Davies received compensation for Bashir’s false allegations, but he still wasn’t satisfied.

“In essence, he told her I was a traitor, when all along the treachery was his,” he said. 

Although it’s been almost three decades since the princess’s passing, conversations regarding the details of her death continue

Image credits: Kaique Rocha / Pexels

LadBible reported that Diana had been traveling in a car with her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed, in the early hours of the morning on the day of her death. They were then chased by nine journalists through the Pont de l’Alma underpass when Henri Paul, the driver, lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a column.

He was killed instantly, along with Fayed. Diana and Fayed’s bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, were critically injured.

Image credits: Roméo / Pexels

Immediately, firefighters arrived at the scene to transport the two to emergency services. It was then that a firefighter heard Diana’s last words, “Oh my God, what’s happened?”

The former British princess sadly died at 4am in the hospital that day. 

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