princess diana dodi yacht photos

file photo dodi al fayed and diana, princess of wales

Inside the Superyacht Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed Spent Their Final Vacation On

A look at the vessel that saw the beloved royal’s last vacation.

It was hot gossip, this adventure that the princess took abroad after having finalized her divorce from then Prince Charles less than a year before—something that was hinted at at the end of season 5 of The Crown as Queen Elizabeth is pressed to endorse a vacation a-sea with Fayed and her grandchildren, Prince Harry and Prince William. Diana was famously photographed sitting on the passerelle of this boat. Years later, in real life, Harry described the trip in his memoir, Spare , with fond recollection. “Everything about that trip to St. Tropez was heaven,” he wrote.

While the series was filmed on a lookalike super yacht in Mallorca , the real boat was equally lavish. The 208-foot ship was commissioned by Dodi’s father, former Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, who brought on naval architect Vincenzo Ruggiero to design it in the late 1980s. It was built by Italian shipyard Codecasa and launched in 1990. The steel and aluminum super yacht boasted nine staterooms that altogether accommodate up to 18 people, in addition to a crew of 26. Amenities included a Jacuzzi, swim platform, sun deck, formal dining room, a bar, and office space. Mohamed had named the yacht Jonikal (it has subsequently been called Sokar and is currently called Bash ) .

Shortly after Diana’s and Dodi’s deaths, Mohamed gave the interior a redesign by H2 Yacht Design and a refit that included extending the hull. He attempted to sell the yacht on a number of occasions, ultimately parting with it in 2014 to an anonymous buyer. The new owner carried out further work, including machinery upgrades, a repaint, and fresh teak decks. In 2021, the yacht came into the hands of Bassim Haidar , the founder of Intercomm and GMT, who gave it a further $9.7 million refit after a reported bridge deck fire—and its current name Bash . It’s now back to turn-key condition after an 18-month remodel completed in April 2023 by marine engineering and management company Capax and boat interior company Bobic Yacht Interiors . It features a beauty salon, massage area, high-tech gym, and a spacious main salon.

In May, Robb Report reported that Bash is available for charter in the Mediterranean starting at $278,000 per week, plus expenses. In June, Haidar listed Bash for $16.8 million, according to Boat International .

There was a second motor yacht named Cujo, which Diana and Fayed also took earlier that summer. It was built in Italy in 1972 for John von Neumann, who commissioned the Italian Baglietto shipyard to build the world's fastest motor yacht. She was given two 18-cylinder engines that allowed it to go as fast as 42 knots. Fayed had bought the boat from his cousin, Saudi businessman and arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. In August, the Mediterranean Sea reclaimed Cujo, as the 62-foot artifact of Diana’s life hit an unidentified object off Beaulieu-sur-Mer on July 29 and sprang a leak, Vanity Fair reported. The seven people on board were rescued by teams from Antibes and safely returned to shore.

An imitation of Jonikal will feature in The Crown season 6, a set that was intended to visually illuminate the tension between Diana and the royal family. “Diana’s south of France adventure was bright and lovely pastel colors, and her world even in Kensington Palace is optimistic and warm, compared to the queen’s residence at Balmoral, which is very static, with gloomy light and drab colors,” set decorator Alison Harvey tells ELLE DECOR.

Filming on the yacht off the island of Mallorca (a St. Tropez stand-in) required many moving parts with few do-overs. “We brought in the drapes, the artwork, many furnishings,” Harvey explains. “Everything was set in the early ’90s, so we thought hard about the colors and textures that we brought in.” Harvey’s team had just half a day to dress the yacht, and then it was off to sea. “There was no getting on or off after that,” Harvey says, adding that they were “subsumed by the logistics of what we had to achieve and the time we had to do it.”

However painstaking the process, the yacht scenes will offer an intriguing context—though largely fictitious—for the iconic photographs that exist of those final weeks leading up to Diana’s death.

Rachel Silva, the Assistant Digital Editor at ELLE DECOR, covers design, architecture, trends, and anything to do with haute couture. She has previously written for Time, The Wall Street Journal, and Citywire.

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Diana's last day: Dodi's yacht, a Ritz suite, a diamond ring and relentless photographers

Diana, divorced from Prince Charles after he cheated on her, was the mother of the future king of England and the most photographed woman in the world

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By Michael S. Rosenwald

The last day of Princess Diana’s life began on the top deck of her lover’s yacht, with croissants and fresh jams.

Diana and her beau, Dodi Al Fayed, sipped their coffee marveling at the breathtaking Emerald Coast in Sardinia. Diana took hers with milk. Fayed took his black. There were kiwis, too.

“They were in a good mood,” his butler remembered later. “They were always laughing, holding hands.”

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Their romance was a whirlwind — passionate, thrilling, scandalous. Fayed, the son of Harrod’s department store owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, was a rich playboy. Diana, divorced from Prince Charles after he cheated on her, was the mother of the future king of England and the most photographed woman in the world.

That Saturday — Aug. 30, 1997 — promised to be a moment of change. The princess knew it. She snuck a call to Richard Kay, a friend who covered the Royals for the Daily Mail, and told him, as he later wrote, “she had decided to radically change her life.”

“She was going to complete her obligations to her charities,” Kay continued, “and then, around November, would completely withdraw from her formal public life.” Diana had not told Kay why, but he had a hunch: “They were, to use an old but priceless cliche, blissfully happy. I cannot say for certain that they would have married, but in my view it was likely.”

In the 20 years since she’s been gone, there have been countless revisions to this love story. Her friends and relatives: They weren’t in love! His friends and relatives: They were in love!

Get a dash of perspective along with the trending news of the day in a very readable format.

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Last week, in the Daily Mail, Kay published an article with this headline: “Was Diana about to dump Dodi?” In it, he quoted Diana’s private secretary saying she’d planned to return home after becoming bored with Fayed.

“It’s very much a personal view,” the secretary said, “but I don’t think she would have seen Dodi again once she got back.”

Whatever the case, Fayed wanted to propose that fateful night. It was summer. As they were on holiday, Britain announced plans to invite the Irish Republican Army for peace talks. Conspiracies theories about the suicide of Vincent Foster, President Bill Clinton’s lawyer, were spreading. Israel and Lebanon were sparring with one another.

Fayed’s primary concern was the six-figure diamond ring waiting in Paris. People close to Fayed said the couple picked it out a week earlier even though they had been dating less than a month.

The danger of their relationship wasn’t its brevity. To royal watchers, to Buckingham Palace, and no doubt to the British tabloids whose photographers were hounding them, the threat was something the couple apparently had not yet considered, even as rumours swirled that Diana was already pregnant.

“For the mother of the future king of England to bear the child of a Muslim Arab, a child who would be the half sibling of the heir to the throne, would be embarrassing in the eyes of the royal family and the ruling Establishment,” former Time magazine reporters Tom Sancton and Scott MacLeod wrote in their book, Death of a Princess .

Fayed’s calendar that day had just one entry — at 6:30 p.m., he was to pick up the ring at a store near his father’s hotel in Paris, The Ritz. They left the boat for Fayed’s plane around 11:30 a.m., taking along the butler and a masseuse for Fayed’s painful back.

As soon as they landed in Paris, Fayed saw the paparazzi out his window.

“Dodi did not want this special occasion ruined by a bunch of a shutter-happy cowboys trying to corral them on motorcycles and shoving lenses in their faces,” the ex-Time reporters wrote. “As soon as the door opened, cameras started clicking.”

The aggressiveness of the photographers — and their sheer numbers — would increase as the day progressed.

Diana and Fayed arrived at The Ritz in the late afternoon. She went to the salon for a hair appointment. He went to the jeweler. The couple then rested in the hotel’s Imperial Suite before going to Fayed’s apartment to get dressed for dinner. She checked in with her children, who were in Scotland with Prince Charles and the queen.

“On that Saturday evening, Diana was as happy as I have ever known her,” her friend Kay wrote in the Daily Mail. “For the first time in years, all was well with her world.”

They left for Fayed’s apartment around 7 p.m., trailed by photographers. More were waiting at the building’s front door when they arrived. Fayed fumed. There was an ugly shoving match.

Once inside, Fayed pulled his butler aside, telling him about his plan to propose that night.

“The ring was on the nightstand in his bedroom,” author Christopher Anderson wrote in “The Day Diana Died.” “Dodi had checked to make sure they had several bottles of Dom Pérignon on ice for the big moment.”

But dinner was a bust.

The first restaurant they tried — Chez Benoit, a cozy, casual bistro not far from the city centre – was quickly overrun by photographers. They split and headed for The Ritz, ducking into the dining room hoping to be left alone.

The princess ordered vegetable tempura. Fayed ordered grilled turbot.

“No sooner had they ordered,” the ex-Time reporters wrote, “they began to feel the indiscreet stares of other diners.”

The couple left and had the food delivered to the Imperial Suite. Fayed’s plan was in shambles. They had to get back to the apartment. But how? The hotel was swarming with photographers.

Fayed devised a plan: The couple’s driver and bodyguards would make a big show out front, appearing to get their caravan of Mercedes sedans ready to leave. Meanwhile, the Princess and Fayed would slip out the back door, in a borrowed car driven by a hotel security officer.

What happened next was the subject of lengthy investigations and conspiracy theories that live on today. The couple did get away. But the driver, it turned out, was drunk.

As the couple sped off, the photographers out front got tipped off about the escape, quickly catching up on their motorcycles. Their driver darted in and out of traffic, wrecking spectacularly inside the Pont de l’Alma tunnel near the Eiffel Tower.

Fayed died instantly. Diana died at the hospital.

Her death startled the world.

An up-and-coming anchor named Brian Williams broke into regular coverage on MSNBC to announce the news to Americans in the early morning hours of Aug. 31.

“I’ve just been handed from the Reuters news service what has been marked ‘bulletin,'” Williams said, speaking slowly. “It says, ‘Princess Diana has died.'”

She was 36.

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See Inside the Superyacht Princess Diana Shared With Dodi Fayed

By Katherine McLaughlin

Princess Diana jumping on the deck of a yacht

Since her untimely death in August of 1997, Princess Diana’s last summer spent with Dodi Al-Fayed has been described in various ways: a passionate love affair, a fake publicity stunt, a temporary fling, a rouse to infuriate another suiter, or the beginning of a lifelong commitment. Although the stories change, the setting remains: a summer tour through the Mediterranean aboard a multi-million dollar superyacht. Later this year, nearly 25 years to the day, the 208-foot vessel will launch for sale again.

Study and seating area in the super yacht

The yacht is full of glossy and dark wood paneling.

Originally named Jonikal , then Sokar , and most recently Bash , the luxury vessel was first owned by Mohamed Al-Fayed, former owner of Harrods and father of Dodi Al-Fayed. During the fateful summer, Al-Fayed hosted Princess Di and her two sons aboard the Jonikal . After the couple’s tragic death, Mohamed Al-Fayed attempted to sell the yacht numerous times before it was finally bought in 2014. It was most recently purchased by Bassim Haidar in June of 2021, who is selling it just over a year later as he reportedly has plans to upgrade to a larger vessel. “She is in the yard being refitted, and will be launched for sale in September,” said John Wood, director at Seawood Yachts.

Image of stateroom in yacht with large sectional and various seating areas

Coffered ceilings add a dramatic, yet timeless feel.

Bash , as the yacht is currently named, was designed by navel architect Vincenzo Ruggiero in the 1980s and built by the superyacht building firm Codecasa before launching in 1990. The vessel can hold up to 18 people across nine staterooms in addition to rooms for 26 crew members. Among many notable features, Bash includes a jacuzzi, swim platform, sun deck, a formal dining room, main saloon, a bar, and office space. Full of dark wood paneling and coffered ceilings, the interiors are reminiscent of the Arts and Crafts style of the early 1900s.

The vessel includes nine staterooms in addition to plenty of space for the crew.

Powered by Wärtsilä engines, the yacht has a cruising speed of 15 knots and top speeds of 20 knots. Even though an exact price hasn’t been advertised just yet, the last time the boat was sold, it was listed for $10,000,000.

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Diana’s final hours: Dodi’s yacht, a Ritz suite, a diamond ring and relentless photographers

The last day of Princess Diana’s life began on the top deck of her lover’s yacht, with croissants and fresh jams.

Diana and her beau, Dodi Al Fayed, sipped their coffee marveling at the breathtaking Emerald Coast in Sardinia. Diana took hers with milk. Fayed took his black. There were kiwis, too.

“They were in a good mood,” his butler remembered later. “They were always laughing, holding hands.”

Listen to this story on “Retropod” :

For more forgotten stories from history, subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Amazon Echo | Google Home and more

Their romance was a whirlwind — passionate, thrilling, scandalous. Fayed, the son of Harrod’s department store owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, was a rich playboy. Diana, divorced from Prince Charles after he cheated on her, was the mother of the future King of England and the most photographed woman in the world.

[ How Britain and the world mourned Diana, the ‘People’s Princess’ ]

That Saturday — Aug. 30, 1997 — promised to be a moment of change. The Princess knew it. She snuck a call to Richard Kay, a friend who covered the Royals for the Daily Mail, and told him, as he later wrote , “she had decided to radically change her life.”

In the 20 years since she’s been gone, there have been countless revisions to this love story. Her friends and relatives: They weren’t in love! His friends and relatives: They were in love!

“It’s very much a personal view,” the secretary said, “but I don’t think she would have seen Dodi again once she got back.”

Fayed’s primary concern was the six-figure diamond ring waiting in Paris. People close to Fayed said the couple picked it out a week earlier even though they had been dating less than a month.

As soon as they landed in Paris, Fayed saw the paparazzi out his window.

Diana and the media: She used them, and they used her. Until the day she died.

The aggressiveness of the photographers — and their sheer numbers — would increase as the day progressed.

“On that Saturday evening, Diana was as happy as I have ever known her,” her friend Kay wrote in the Daily Mail. “For the first time in years, all was well with her world.”

They left for Fayed’s apartment around 7 p.m., trailed by photographers. More were waiting at the building’s front door when they arrived. Fayed fumed. There was an ugly shoving match.

Once inside, Fayed pulled his butler aside, telling him about his plan to propose that night.

But dinner was a bust.

The first restaurant they tried — Chez Benoit, a cozy, casual bistro not far from the city center — was quickly overrun by photographers. They split and headed for The Ritz, ducking into the dining room hoping to be left alone.

The Princess ordered vegetable tempura. Fayed ordered grilled turbot.

“No sooner had they ordered,” the ex-Time reporters wrote, “they began to feel the indiscreet stares of other diners.”

JFK’s last birthday: Gifts, champagne and wandering hands on the presidential yacht

The couple left and had the food delivered to the Imperial Suite. Fayed’s plan was in shambles. They had to get back to the apartment. But how? The hotel was swarming with photographers.

What happened next was the subject of lengthy investigations and conspiracy theories that live on today. The couple did get away. But the driver, it turned out, was drunk.

Fayed died instantly. Diana died at the hospital.

Her death startled the world.

An up-and-coming anchor named Brian Williams broke into regular coverage on MSNBC to announce the news to Americans in the early morning hours of Aug. 31.

“I’ve just been handed from the Reuters news service what has been marked ‘bulletin,’” Williams said, speaking slowly. “It says, ‘Princess Diana has died.’”

She was 36.

‘The Crown’: Behind the Photo of an Embrace That Changed Princess Diana’s Life

In the show, Mohamed al-Fayed sends the photographer Mario Brenna to capture shots of Diana and al-Fayed’s son, Dodi, on vacation. The portrayal is inaccurate, Brenna says.

In a blurry photo from 1997, a woman in a pink swimsuit is seen from behind, embracing a topless man wearing sunglasses.

By Alex Marshall

Reporting from London

It’s summer 1997, and Princess Diana is flirting with Dodi Fayed, a globe-trotting playboy, on the Jonikal, a yacht floating on sparkling Mediterranean waters.

Diana, teasingly, says that she likes men who have lips that are “just the right temperature.”

“Are mine the right temperature?” Dodi replies.

“I don’t know,” Diana says: “Need to check.” Then, the couple kiss, blissfully unaware that just a few meters away, Mario Brenna, a slick Italian photographer, is on a boat, with a long-lens camera trained on the couple.

A few days later, Brenna’s shots of the princess and her new beau are on the front pages of newspapers worldwide.

This is a central scene in the sixth and final season of Netflix’s royal drama “The Crown” — the first batch of episodes premiered on Thursday — and a moment that signaled the start of a tabloid frenzy around the couple that many blame for their deaths on Aug. 31, 1997, in a car crash in Paris as they were chased by photographers.

Yet the depiction is far from accurate, according to Brenna, speaking in what he said was his first interview with an English-language newspaper.

For a start, “The Crown” has Mohamed al-Fayed — Dodi’s father, and a retail and hotel tycoon who died this year — appearing to hire Brenna to take the shots, in an effort to push Diana and Dodi’s relationship into the public eye, and cajole the pair to marry.

In an email, Annie Sulzberger, the head of research for the show — she is also the sister of The Times’s publisher, A.G. Sulzberger — said that “there are a few theories about how Brenna managed to find the Jonikal moored somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea,” but the one the team found most credible was that one of al-Fayed’s employees leaked the boat’s location to Brenna.

But Brenna said the idea that al-Fayed hired him was “absurd and completely invented,” and that no one leaked information about the yacht’s whereabouts to him. Every summer at that time, he was in Sardinia so he could take paparazzi shots of famous people, he said, and coming across Diana and Dodi was simply a “great stroke of luck.”

On Aug. 1, 1997, Brenna said he approached Diana’s yacht on a fast moving inflatable boat after mistaking a blonde woman making a telephone call on its upper deck for an old acquaintance. As he got closer, he was stunned to realize it was the princess.

Bruno Malka, Brenna’s agent at the time who helped sell the images to Paris Match magazine, said in an email that he thought Brenna was familiar with the yacht, “without knowing it was Diana and Dodi” onboard that day. Brenna was successful, Malka added, because he had spent so many years working in the region.

After spotting the couple, Brenna said he spent the next few days stalking the boat, including climbing a cliff to get a better view. From that elevated position, about 400 meters away from Diana, he took several photos of Diana and Dodi in an embrace. The shots were almost blurred, Brenna said, because the heat haze meant he struggled to get the pair in focus.

Still, he knew immediately he’d secured “a historic photo.” He’d also captured an image that “solved my personal and family problems,” he said, at a time when he had recently divorced and so “was not swimming in wealth.”

He unloaded the rolls of film from the camera, then buried them to make sure they didn’t get exposed to the sun as he tried to take more images, and also as he feared a competitor might have seen him at work and try to steal his camera and so obtain the images every other photographer in the Mediterranean had been hoping to get first.

On Aug. 10, the Sunday Mirror, a British tabloid, splashed Brenna’s image on its front page . “The Kiss,” the headline read. Soon, Brenna said, he was selling the pictures worldwide. In the following six-to-eight months, he said, he made about 1.7 million pounds, or $2.1 million, from his photos of the couple.

Brenna’s pictures — and the prices news outlets paid for them — sparked a frenzy. In 2013, Jason Fraser, a British photographer who helped Brenna sell his images, told The Daily Mail that after they were published, over 2,000 photographers arrived in the Mediterranean hoping to get their own snaps of Diana and Dodi. “I felt the whole thing was spinning out of control,” Fraser said. Weeks later, the couple died.

In “The Crown,” Brenna (portrayed by Enzo Cilenti) explains his methods to camera. To capture celebrities misbehaving, the fictional Brenna says, you have to take risks. Paparazzi also have to act like “hunters … killers.”

Brenna said in the email interview that he did not share this opinion of his work (“I do not identify with the term ‘killer,’”) and that he was never contacted by anyone from “The Crown” to learn about his experiences (Netflix did not respond to a request for comment).

After Diana and Dodi’s death, al-Fayed sued Fraser, the British photographer, for taking photos of Diana and Dodi on a boat, saying it was an invasion of privacy. Brenna said he did not face any such action, adding his images were legal as they “were taken outdoors, in a public place.” And he regretted the privacy crackdown that happened since, with governments and stars trying to stop the paparazzi from taking photos: “There is still the right to report,” he said.

Today, Brenna lives near Lake Como, in Italy, where he said he’s photographed celebrities including George Clooney, Miley Cyrus and Beyoncé, even as the dawn of social media had impacted his profession significantly, including its financial rewards.

Brenna said he and his family enjoyed the success of the photos throughout August 1997. But then, Diana died. When he heard the news, Brenna said, he “couldn’t believe it” and cried, not least because he had two children himself and so could understand what her death would mean for Diana’s boys. He made a decision “not to speak or disclose anything about the incident until William and Harry reached adulthood.”

The mere thought that his images “could have contributed to fueling the hunt for Diana and Dodi obviously saddens me,” Brenna said. But he did not think his work added significantly to the furor around the princess.

“If it hadn’t been me,” he added, “someone else would certainly have captured those images.”

Alex Marshall is a European culture reporter, based in London. More about Alex Marshall

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Article content

The last day of Princess Diana's life began on the top deck of her lover's yacht, with croissants and fresh jams.

Diana and her beau, Dodi Al Fayed, sipped their coffee marveling at the breathtaking Emerald Coast in Sardinia. Diana took hers with milk. Fayed took his black. There were kiwis, too.

"They were in a good mood," his butler remembered later. "They were always laughing, holding hands."

Their romance was a whirlwind - passionate, thrilling, scandalous. Fayed, the son of Harrod's department store owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, was a rich playboy.

Diana, divorced from Prince Charles after he cheated on her, was the mother of the future king of England and the most photographed woman in the world.

That Saturday - Aug. 30, 1997 - promised to be a moment of change. The princess knew it. She snuck a call to Richard Kay, a friend who covered the Royals for the Daily Mail, and told him, as he later wrote, "she had decided to radically change her life."

"She was going to complete her obligations to her charities," Kay continued, "and then, around November, would completely withdraw from her formal public life." Diana had not told Kay why, but he had a hunch: "They were, to use an old but priceless cliche, blissfully happy. I cannot say for certain that they would have married, but in my view it was likely."

In the 20 years since she's been gone, there have been countless revisions to this love story. Her friends and relatives: They weren't in love! His friends and relatives: They were in love!

Last week, in the Daily Mail, Kay published an article with this headline: "Was Diana about to dump Dodi?" In it, he quoted Diana's private secretary saying she'd planned to return home after becoming bored with Fayed.

"It's very much a personal view," the secretary said, "but I don't think she would have seen Dodi again once she got back."

Whatever the case, Fayed wanted to propose that fateful night. It was summer. As they were on holiday, Britain announced plans to invite the Irish Republican Army for peace talks. Conspiracies theories about the suicide of Vincent Foster, President Bill Clinton's lawyer, were spreading. Israel and Lebanon were sparring with one another.

Fayed's primary concern was the six-figure diamond ring waiting in Paris. People close to Fayed said the couple picked it out a week earlier even though they had been dating less than a month.

The danger of their relationship wasn't its brevity. To royal watchers, to Buckingham Palace, and no doubt to the British tabloids whose photographers were hounding them, the threat was something the couple apparently had not yet considered, even as rumors swirled that Diana was already pregnant.

"For the mother of the future king of England to bear the child of a Muslim Arab, a child who would be the half sibling of the heir to the throne, would be embarrassing in the eyes of the royal family and the ruling Establishment," former Time magazine reporters Tom Sancton and Scott MacLeod wrote in their book, "Death of a Princess."

Fayed's calendar that day had just one entry - at 6:30 p.m., he was to pick up the ring at a store near his father's hotel in Paris, The Ritz. They left the boat for Fayed's plane around 11:30 a.m., taking along the butler and a masseuse for Fayed's painful back.

As soon as they landed in Paris, Fayed saw the paparazzi out his window.

"Dodi did not want this special occasion ruined by a bunch of a shutter-happy cowboys trying to corral them on motorcycles and shoving lenses in their faces," the ex-Time reporters wrote. "As soon as the door opened, cameras started clicking."

The aggressiveness of the photographers - and their sheer numbers - would increase as the day progressed.

Diana and Fayed arrived at The Ritz in the late afternoon. She went to the salon for a hair appointment. He went to the jeweler. The couple then rested in the hotel's Imperial Suite before going to Fayed's apartment to get dressed for dinner. She checked in with her children, who were in Scotland with Prince Charles and the queen.

"On that Saturday evening, Diana was as happy as I have ever known her," her friend Kay wrote in the Daily Mail. "For the first time in years, all was well with her world."

They left for Fayed's apartment around 7 p.m., trailed by photographers. More were waiting at the building's front door when they arrived. Fayed fumed. There was an ugly shoving match.

Once inside, Fayed pulled his butler aside, telling him about his plan to propose that night.

"The ring was on the nightstand in his bedroom," author Christopher Anderson wrote in "The Day Diana Died." "Dodi had checked to make sure they had several bottles of Dom Pérignon on ice for the big moment."

But dinner was a bust.

The first restaurant they tried - Chez Benoit, a cozy, casual bistro not far from the city center - was quickly overrun by photographers. They split and headed for The Ritz, ducking into the dining room hoping to be left alone.

The princess ordered vegetable tempura. Fayed ordered grilled turbot.

"No sooner had they ordered," the ex-Time reporters wrote, "they began to feel the indiscreet stares of other diners."

The couple left and had the food delivered to the Imperial Suite. Fayed's plan was in shambles. They had to get back to the apartment. But how? The hotel was swarming with photographers.

Fayed devised a plan: The couple's driver and bodyguards would make a big show out front, appearing to get their caravan of Mercedes sedans ready to leave. Meanwhile, the Princess and Fayed would slip out the back door, in a borrowed car driven by a hotel security officer.

What happened next was the subject of lengthy investigations and conspiracy theories that live on today. The couple did get away. But the driver, it turned out, was drunk.

Fayed died instantly. Diana died at the hospital.

Her death startled the world.

An up-and-coming anchor named Brian Williams broke into regular coverage on MSNBC to announce the news to Americans in the early morning hours of Aug. 31.

"I've just been handed from the Reuters news service what has been marked 'bulletin,'" Williams said, speaking slowly. "It says, 'Princess Diana has died.'"

She was 36.

Princess Diana's final hours: Dodi's yacht, a Ritz suite, a diamond ring and relentless photographers Back to video

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Boat of the Week: Meet ‘Cujo,’ the 80-Foot Yacht Where Late Movie Producer Dodi Al-Fayed Once Wooed Princess Diana

The couple spent some of their final summer cruising around saint-tropez aboard this fast, military-looking yacht., howard walker, howard walker's most recent stories.

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Cujo is an 80 foot motoryacht that was owned by Dodi Al-Fayed and used by Princess Diana before their deaths in 1997.

For a few brief weeks back in the summer of 1997, Cujo was the most famous boat in the world.

Not because of her intimidating military lines, or blistering 40-knot performance. It’s because Diana, Princess of Wales, hung out aboard in Saint-Tropez with the boat’s owner, and romantic partner Dodi Al-Fayed.

Countless paparazzi shots show the once future Queen of England on Cujo‘s narrow sidedecks, soaking up the Mediterranean sun. By the end of August that year, both Diana and Dodi would be dead after that fatal car wreck in Paris.

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Yacht that Princess Diana spent last summer on with Dodi Al-Fayed sinks to bottom of Mediterranean

Cujo, which made front-page news around the world back in the summer of 1997 when Diana was entertained on board a year after her divorce from Prince Charles, went down in 2500m (8200ft) of water.

Thursday 3 August 2023 17:00, UK

A motor yacht used by Princess Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed on their final summer holiday in the South of France before they died in a Paris car crash has sunk.

The 19m (62ft) Cujo went down 21 miles (35km) off Beaulieu-sur-Mer after sending out a mayday call last Saturday.

The seven people on board the luxury vessel, which was taking on water, were rescued by teams from Antibes before it sank to the bottom of the Mediterranean at a depth of 2500m (8200ft).

They were safely returned to shore.

The area was monitored for pollution as the boat sank with 7,000 litres of diesel in its tanks.

Cujo made front page news around the world back in the summer of 1997 when Al-Fayed entertained Diana onboard, a year after her divorce from Prince Charles, which was finalised in August 1996.

That summer, Diana was also photographed on Sokar, the yacht then owned by al Fayed's billionaire father Mohamed.

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What Really Happened During Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed’s Vacation?

The Crown depicts her jaunts on Mohamed Al-Fayed’s yacht, the Jonikal, where her romance with Dodi kicked off.

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Diana was invited by Mohamed, a friend and businessman, to vacation in Saint-Tropez with her sons in July 1997. The Harrods owner would also goad his own son to join, too. The invitation came at a good time, after a few rough blows for Diana: Prince Charles was throwing a lavish birthday party for Camilla Parker Bowles at Highgrove, the house he and Diana once shared. And she had just broken up with surgeon Hasnat Khan, due to the media frenzy around their relationship. It was the month before William and Harry would be at Balmoral with their father and the rest of the royals, who no longer accepted her. So off she went, straight to the $20 million yacht that Fayed bought just before the trip to impress her—Tina Brown writes in The Diana Chronicles .

Prince Harry has looked back fondly at that trip, mostly because of the quality time they spent with their mom. “Actually, we’d been with Mummy weeks earlier when she first met him [Dodi], in St. Tropez,” he writes in her memoir Spare , per Today . “We were having a grand time, just the three of us, staying at some old gent’s villa.

“There was much laughter, horseplay, the norm whenever Mummy and Willy and I were together, though even more so on that holiday. Everything about that trip to St. Tropez was heaven. The weather was sublime, the food was tasty, Mummy was smiling.”

But the cameras followed her, like they always did. The Crown depicts photographers sailing out toward the Jonikal to snap images of the princess sunbathing and swimming in her one-piece. It also shows her approaching the boats filled with paparazzi to forge a deal: She’ll pose for them for a few shots if they’ll leave her and her kids alone.

princess diana, elizabeth debicki, poses for photographers in the crown season 6, part 1

Part of this is true. The New York Times reported in 1997 that Diana was quite cooperative with the press, at least during the first trip in July: “Three times, on separate occasions, she went out to the sea front and jumped off a small pier into the water, with photographers around her. Then, after leaving for 10 days with Mr. Fayed on the boat trip during which the photographs of the embracing couple were taken, she returned.”

“It was clear enough to all of us that she wanted to show the British establishment she was free,” Frederic Garcia, who photographed Diana on the trip, told the paper at the time. But her and the Al-Fayeds’ exasperation with the media grew after helicopters flew over the boat, according to the NYT .

Perhaps her openness to being photographed was her response to Camilla’s birthday party. “She just wanted to make the people at Balmoral as angry as possible,” her friend, art collector Lord Palumbo, told Brown. Now it wasn’t just a revenge dress; it was a revenge photo shoot with revenge swimsuits on a revenge vacation.

Brown even writes that the biggest photos from the trip, of the princess kissing a shirtless Dodi on the boat, “were the direct result of tips from Diana herself.” After they were published, she called photographer Jason Fraser, who “was in cahoots” with Mario Brenna, who shot the images, to ask why the pictures were so grainy. But she wasn’t the only one working with the press. Mohamed also had a publicist tip gossip columns on her and Dodi’s whereabouts and frame their getaway as a sensational romance, according to Brown.

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Meanwhile, Dodi was juggling this burgeoning love story with another one. He was already engaged when he first joined Diana on the boat at his father’s behest in July. His fiancée was Kelly Fisher , an American actress and model, and their wedding was scheduled for the following month, on August 9, 1997. He had even left Fisher in Paris to board the Jonikal in St. Tropez. She joined later but, just as it’s shown in The Crown , she was relegated to a different Al-Fayed boat, where Dodi would visit her at night, Brown writes. Fisher soon caught on. In August, she sued Dodi for breach of contract, and was represented by high-profile lawyer Gloria Allred. But she withdrew the suit after his death.

In Spare , Harry remembered thinking Dodi was “cheeky” but overall was content with the relationship: “As long as Mummy’s happy, I told Willy, who said, he felt the same.” But Brown reported in her 2007 book that Prince William grew concerned. He told friends it was weird that they were on vacation with what seemed like a “substitute family.” When photos of Diana and Dodi on the boat were published, William complained to her that the boys at school would mock him for it.

After doing significant charity work in Bosnia with land mine victims, Diana reconvened with Dodi on the Jonikal in August. “The fact that she came back for a second visit so soon really shows her loneliness more than it does a passion for Dodi,” Dominick Dunne reported for Vanity Fair in 2008. But the privacy—or whatever amount of it that they had—might have appealed to her. “A splendid yacht. A helicopter. A private plane. Guards to keep the paparazzi at bay. She probably knew that she was being used by a social climber for his and his son’s advancement in London society, but in high society it was a fair deal. Each benefited.”

Dodi and Diana’s romance would be short-lived, but he showered her with gifts during their six-week relationship, including a pearl bracelet and diamond wristwatch, according to Vanity Fair . With him, the princess felt “so taken care of,” her confidant Lady Elsa Bowker told Brown. And on top of that, he was a “sympathetic, unthreatening listener,” wrote Tom Bower, author of Mohamed Al-Fayed’s unauthorized biography.

thecrown221007ep603stillsdanielescale0042arw

But their relationship probably wasn’t going to be a lasting one. According to Brown, Diana suspected Dodi might propose to her, but told a friend that the ring would go “firmly on the fourth finger of my right hand,” meaning she would not have accepted. Her sister Sarah McCorquodale later testified, “I just did not think the relationship had much longer to go.”

It’s been believed that the romance was even orchestrated by Mohamed himself. According to Bower, the older Al-Fayed would check in on Dodi and Diana during the trip (which is also portrayed in The Crown this season). McCorquodale also told the court that Diana “thought the boat was being bugged by Mr Al-Fayed Senior.”

On that second trip in August, Diana and Dodi were photographed together in the South of France and Sardinia, before heading to Paris for their tragic final days. There, they would be chased by cameras again for the last time.

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Inside the £13m 208ft ‘love boat’ yacht where Princess Diana & Dodi Fayed had their romantic fling which is on The Crown

Becky Pemberton
Published : 12:36, 16 Nov 2023
Updated : 12:36, 16 Nov 2023

THE famous £13million superyacht where Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed enjoyed their romantic fling is featured on the new season of The Crown.

The glamorous royal and her wealthy boyfriend were famously pictured kissing on the luxury “love boat” Jonikal, which is now called Bash, before their tragic deaths in 1997.

Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed on their romantic Mediterranean break on his family yacht, Jonikal

Photos of the couple’s Mediterranean getaway circulated around the world, with The Sunday Mirror paying £250,000 for first rights to the collection.

The fall out of the photos was depicted on the sixth and final season of Netflix’s The Crown, with the Queen , played by Imelda Staunton , seen viewing the multi-page spread back home.

The stunning 208ft yacht can hold up to 18 people across nine staterooms, along with 26 crew members.

It also offers a range of impressive amenities including a jacuzzi, swim platform, sun deck, formal dining room, a bar, and office space.

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The yacht belonged to Dodi’s multi-millionaire father Mohamed Al-Fayed .

The billionaire former Harrods owner amassed his astonishing fortune running several high-profile business ventures and a Premier League football club prior to the announcement of his death in August 2023.

The ship was first launched in 1990, and has had a number of owners over the years.

According to Boat International, it was sold earlier this year, and although the sum hasn’t been disclosed, the asking price was €15,500,000 (£13million).

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Diana’s final month included two cruises on The Jonikal.

The holidays sparked unfounded rumours that Diana was pregnant and about to announce plans to marry Dodi .

Dodi died aged 42 in a Paris car crash with Diana 26 years ago.

The pair first met at a polo match in 1989, but they did not get together until Dodi invited the princess to stay at his father's 30-bedroom villa in St Tropez in July 1997.

Much of Dodi's fortune was spent on impressing a string of beautiful models and actresses.

The playboy was linked to Blue Lagoon actress Brooke Shields, Val Kilmer’s ex-wife Joanne Whalley, Stranger Things star Winona Ryder and Frank Sinatra’s daughter Tina.

Following the 1997 car crash that led to the couple's deaths, Mohamed attempted to sell the yacht on a number of occasions before ultimately parting with it in 2014.

It was most recently purchased by Bassim Haidar in June of 2021, who sold it just over a year later with plans to upgrade to a larger vessel.

Photos of Diana sitting on the yacht circulated around the world

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‘The Crown’: The Story Behind That Princess Diana Yacht Photo

Perched on the edge of a diving board in a blue swimsuit, the famous paparazzi shot caught the former royal in a moment of reflection

It’s telling that the lead image in the promotion of the final series of The Crown, a show ostensibly about Queen Elizabeth II and her ascendent line of heirs, is not of HRH. Instead, it’s an iconic shot of the person who's really at the centre of the Netflix show's sixth season: the late Princess Diana.

The photo in question has become embedded in popular culture since it was taken on Diana’s last holiday before her death. The ex-royal sits, pensively, on the diving board of a superyacht, looking out to sea in a turquoise swimsuit. But what is the true story behind one of the most famous images of the Princess Of Wales?

The backstory

In July 1997, Diana was on a Mediterranean holiday with her boyfriend at the time, Dodi Al Fayed, son of the then-Harrods’ boss, the late Mohammed Al Fayed. Diana and Dodi – and the Princes William and Harry – all spent time together in Castle St. Therese, Al Fayed’s 30-bedroom villa in St. Tropez in the South of France.

But Diana was called to Milan on 22 July, where she attended the funeral of her friend Gianni Versace, who was murdered by a fan on the steps of his Miami home on 15 July.

The author and friend of Diana, Tina Brown, later wrote: “The murder of the flamboyant fashion star Gianni Versace... while Diana was on Al Fayed's yacht, was a meteor shower in the exploding sky of her final summer.”

With the weight of the death of her friend still on her mind, in early August, Diana travelled alone to Sarajevo to publicise the fight against landmines in the country. Here, she came face to face with some horrific tales of mutilation of the people, and spent time working with rehabilitation groups of survivors.

By early August, after an emotionally turbulent few weeks, Diana was back on holiday with Dodi, this time on his yacht, known as Jonikal.

But on 10 August, pictures of Diana and Dodi kissing in Sardinia were published in the Sunday Mirror , and all hell broke loose; especially when it was claimed Diana could possibly be engaged, or even pregnant. In the trailer for series six, Imelda Staunton’s Queen is shown the front-page splash and told: “Interest in the princess’ private life is unlikely to die down any time soon”, and it’s likely that in real life Diana would have received a stern phone call from the palace.

From this point onwards, it only intensified the swarms of paparazzi clamouring for pictures of the pair on holiday. Video footage from the trip shows dinghies filled with men with long-lens pictures surrounding the yacht, desperate to catch another money-spinning shot of the couple together – with figures going as high as £1 million a photo.

On 24 August, Diana, dressed in just the teal swimsuit, took a walk out to the diving board of the yacht and sat down on it. She would have had a lot to process from the past few weeks.

She would also have known the press were desperate for pictures of her and Dodi together – perhaps she told him to stay below deck to protect him while she gave photographers a shot to appease them.

But according to one paparazzo in the documentary Sex & Power , the romance was just for show: “No-one knows this, so it’s actually quite interesting. [The crew member] said, ‘They don’t share the same bedroom, he calls her ma’am, is incredibly deferential and respectful. But as soon as she goes outside to wave to the paps, she’s bending over and kissing him and hugging him’... The truth [of their romance] is the opposite.”

Was this then another posed shot designed to reset the narrative, or was it simply a candid picture of the troubled princess in genuine thought? Whatever the case may be, the photo's melancholy pull is still being felt.

The first half of The Crown series 6 streams on Netflix from November 16.

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The True Story Behind ‘Back To Black'

How The Crown Recreated the Iconic Princess Diana Diving Board Photo

Spoiler alert: It wasn't actually a diving board she was sitting on.

"It's the platform you [use to] get on and off the yacht," reveals Alison Harvey, The Crown 's series set director. Or the passerelle, as it is more commonly known in the boating world.

Nevertheless, it was that haunting image, which would later send shockwaves around the world following Diana's passing, that was poignantly chosen as the main poster of the sixth and final season of The Crown . And according to the show's production team, recreating the photo took a village.

"We were very lucky to go to a real superyacht. I think if we tried to do it from scratch we would have never made that," Harvey says of remaking Mohamed Al Fayed 's 208-ft yacht, Jonikal, for the series. "We had the bones of the set that we then enhanced with more period details to make it feel more like the Fayed's world."

The result: the interior of the yacht featured a blue and yellow motif with Egyptian art, paintings, fabrics and patterns from the '90s. "Everything [was] stylized to fit the Fayed world to counteract with The Queen's world, which is a much more dreary environment," continues Harvey. "It was that old money, new money [kind of thing]."

Getting Elizabeth Debicki , who plays Diana in the series, to look exactly like the Princess of Wales in that moment also required some reimagining. "There were some restrictions in term of copyright and what we could show, what we couldn't show, and how the picture was taken," explains Harvey, "so it was slightly adapted for our purposes."

For starters, the hair and makeup department were tasked with making a wig that looked like Diana's hair post-swim. "The challenge was really this thing of realizing that iconic Diana but without being able to fall back on her very manufactured hair and makeup that we're used to seeing in the media," Cate Hall, hair & makeup designer of The Crown , explains. "Obviously [Elizabeth's wearing] a wig, but it's about if you look at the shading, the color, the tone and the way it's sitting. Most of our efforts go into any which way we can into making [wigs] look natural and I think it does look natural and lived in."

Then the costume department had to recreate the turquoise bathing suit to look identical to the one Diana wore in real life. "We didn't get the [actual] designer to do it," says Sidonie Roberts, The Crown 's co-costume designer, "so it was our version of it."

While "it was relatively simple" to do so, "the question with us with Elizabeth was what does she feel comfortable in? Because '90s to 2000s swimwear is pretty high on the thigh," says Roberts. "That I think was our first fitting with her, so it was getting a balance between the actual shape and also what Elizabeth, as an actress would feel comfortable, being quite exposed, in this scene. But in terms of color, we just went similarly as the other one because it is a moment in itself and we wanted to keep that iconic moment as it was."

In the days that followed that photo, Princess Diana and Dodi traveled to Paris, where they died in car crash on August 31 . Diana was 36 and Dodi 42. The first part of The Crown, which is available to stream on Netflix now , follows the weeks leading up to and after their death. The rest of the season is set to hit the streaming platform Thursday, December 14.

preview for The Crown: Season 6 Part 1 Official Trailer (Netflix)

Sophie Dweck is the associate shopping editor for Town & Country, where she covers beauty, fashion, home and décor, and more.

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1,009 Princess Diana Dodi Fayed Photos and High-res Pictures

Browse 1,009 princess diana dodi fayed photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more photos and images..

Diana, Princess of Wales and son HRH Prince William are seen holidaying with Dodi Al Fayed in St Tropez in the summer of 1997, shortly before Diana...

Princess Diana in The Crown and on holiday in 1997.

Here Are The Real Photos Of Diana On Vacation That Inspired Those Scenes In The Crown

The Princess of Wales did indeed have a little chat with paparazzi on a boat.

The sixth and final season of The Crown got off to an emotional start by depicting Princess Diana’s final weeks before her death in August 1997. At the time, Princess Diana was newly dating Dodi Fayed, son of Harrod’s owner Mohamed Al-Fayed and famously spent time on Al-Fayed’s yacht in the south of France that summer with 12-year-old Prince Harry and 15-year-old Prince William. She was being constantly followed by the paparazzi, and is seen confronting photographers in The Crown in an effort to get them to leave her sons alone so they could enjoy their holiday. Which, according to photos taken of the princess at the time, appears to be at least somewhat based on a real event.

Season 6, Part 1 of The Crown saw Princess Diana (played by Elizabeth Debicki) vacationing off the coast of Saint-Tropez with her sons, Prince Harry and Prince William (played by Fflyn Edwards and Rufus Kampa, respectively), on Al-Fayed’s yacht. If The Crown is to be believed, Prince William in particular was struggling to have a good time on his holiday because of the constant presence of the paparazzi. And so, Princess Diana decided to throw on a swimsuit and jet over to the photographers to pose for some shots in an effort to get them to leave.

The Crown’s version...

“Enjoying your holiday?” a member of the paparazzi asks Princess Diana in The Crown when she is seen approaching them on a boat, and she replies. “Yes, we’re having a lovely time, apart from one little thing, you lot. Seriously, how long are we going to have the pleasure of your company? The attention is starting to freak out the boys.”

She offered the paparazzi a “surprise” if they would leave her sons alone as they snapped photos of her. And while we don’t know if the real Princess Diana offered them a surprise, she absolutely did confront them that summer.

How it looked in real life...

SAINT-TROPEZ, FRANCE - JULY 17: Diana, Princess of Wales, wearing an animal print, halterneck swimsu...

A year after Princess Diana’s death in a car crash in Paris, journalist and biographer Sally Bedell Smith wrote about the royal’s relationship with the paparazzi for Vanity Fair — in particular, that fateful summer in the south of France. “On a holiday in July 1997 with her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and his family in Saint-Tropez,” Bedell Smith wrote at the time, “she first eluded paparazzi by crawling along a balcony and hiding behind a towel, then surprised a contingent of British tabloid reporters and photographers ... by addressing them from her motorboat in a fetching leopard-print bathing suit. ‘You will have a big surprise coming soon, the next thing I do,’ she teased, and implied that she was thinking of living abroad.”

This wasn’t the only moment that the Netflix series recreated from Princess Diana’s holiday that last summer. Princess Diana was also seen in a super colorful swim suit, hanging out on the beach with her sons. A scene The Crown pulled off perfectly.

In real life, most of the photos from that moment were taken with Princess Diana spending time with her sons on the yacht, even wrapping her son Prince Harry up in a big hug while wearing the iconic swimsuit.

ST TROPEZ, FRANCE - JULY 17 1997: (FILE PHOTO) Diana, Princess Of Wales and youngest son HRH Prince ...

Princess Diana was also photographed sitting on the diving board of Al-Fayed’s yacht, all alone in a bright blue bathing suit. Looking, some might say, quite lonely.

Princess Diana's final days were in 'The Crown.'

Like the series showed, Princess Diana in 1997 was also seen wearing a bright blue one-piece swimsuit, staring off into space.

While The Crown has certainly done an impeccable job of recreating real-life photos of moments from the lives of royals, it’s important to remember that these are dramatized and fictionalized versions of real events. No matter how spot-on they might look to us.

This article was originally published on November 20, 2023

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Princess Diana Paparazzo Fights Back at The Crown: “Absurd and Completely Invented”

By Chris Murphy

Princess Diana Paparazzo Fights Back at ‘The Crown “Absurd and Completely Invented”

Mario Brenna, the Italian photographer who made a small fortune after snapping photos of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed embracing on a yacht, says the final season of The Crown gets it all wrong. In what Brenna says is his first English-language newspaper interview, the paparazzo tells The New York Times via email that The Crown ’s depiction of how he captured Diana and Dodi is “absurd and completely invented.”

Episode two of The Crown season six, “Two Photographs,” follows the lengths to which Brenna (played by Enzo Cilenti ) went to capture the money shot of Diana ( Elizabeth Debicki ) and Dodi ( Khalid Abdalla ) yachting in the Mediterranean in the summer of 1997. As The Crown depicts it, Dodi’s father, Mohamed Al Fayed ( Salim Daw ), seemingly arranged for Brenna to take the photos of Princess Diana and Dodi on his yacht, the Jonikal, in the hopes that Brenna’s photographs of the couple would push their nascent relationship into the public eye. According to The Crown ’s head researcher, Annie Sulzberger —sister of Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger —“there are a few theories about how Brenna managed to find the Jonikal moored somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea,” and the Netflix series decided that the “most credible” explanation was that one of Mohamed’s employees leaked the location of the boat to Brenna.

But according to Brenna, The Crown ’s version of events is completely false. Brenna claims that he spent every summer in Sardinia, where the Jonikal was moored, and that he simply came across Diana and Dodi in a “great stroke of luck.” Per his account, Brenna approached the Jonikal on August 1, 1997, thinking that Diana was an acquaintance of his before realizing that she was, in fact, the People’s Princess.

Over the next few days, Brenna says, he worked tirelessly to take what he calls the “historic photo,” eventually scaling a cliff about 400 meters from the yacht to get the best angle. From there, he was able to capture Princess Diana and Dodi in a private moment.

With the help of his agent at the time, Brenna would sell those photos for about 1.7 million British pounds, or $2.1 million. At the time, Brenna was “not swimming in wealth” due to a recent divorce, he says, and the photos of Diana and Dodi “solved my personal and family problems.”

The photos substantially changed Diana’s and Dodi’s lives as well. After one of Brenna’s photos was plastered on the front page of the Sunday Mirror, more than 2,000 photographers flooded Sardinia in the hopes of capturing similar shots. Part one of The Crown ’s final season captures the media frenzy surrounding Diana and Dodi, which ultimately contributed to the fatal car crash that killed them both on August 31, 1997.

Brenna also takes issue with The Crown ’s depiction of his character. The episode shows Cilenti’s Brenna saying that for paparazzi to be successful, they must act like “hunters…killers.”

“I do not identify with the term ‘killer,’” Brenna tells the Times. He also says that he was not contacted by anyone involved in The Crown to discuss his experiences, despite playing a pivotal role on this season. (Netflix did not respond to the Times ’ request for comment.) A source previously told Vanity Fair that Prince Harry also was not consulted on this season; they added that he has no ill will toward the series or Netflix.

Brenna has some regrets about his unwitting role in Diana and Dodi’s fate, telling the Times that when the pair died, he “couldn’t believe it” and wept. The idea that his photos “could have contributed to fueling the hunt for Diana and Dodi obviously saddens me,” he says. Nevertheless, he pledged “not to speak or disclose anything about the incident until William and Harry reached adulthood.” Ultimately, he stands by the photos and his right to have taken them as a member of the free press. “There is still the right to report,” he says. “If it hadn’t been me, someone else would certainly have captured those images.”

Chris Murphy

Staff writer.

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Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed's iconic love boat is now at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea

The yacht on which Princess Diana holidayed with Dodi Fayed is now at the bottom of the sea, per The Times .
The boat, named Cujo, sank after it collided with an unidentified object off the French Riviera.
Cujo has changed hands multiple times in recent years and was most recently owned by a wealthy Italian family.

The yacht where Princess Diana spent part of her last summer with Dodi Fayed has sunk to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.

The boat, named Cujo, sank on July 29 after colliding with an unidentified object off Beaulieu-sur-Mer on the French Riviera, The Times reported.

The Gendarmerie des Alpes-Maritimes uploaded a statement onto their Facebook page confirming that they responded to a distress call from a boat that was in trouble about 35 kilometers, or 22 miles, off the coast.

By the time the coast guards arrived at the scene, the yacht was already partially submerged.

"The distressed yacht is already starting to sink from the front and the 7 shipwrecked are just next to it in a life raft," the statement said. "The cabins of the yacht are already flooded, only a few suitcases located in the kitchen and on the deck can be retrieved."

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Princess Diana's greatest quotes: what the 'People's Princess' said about love, kindness and her sons

The late princess of wales often had very wise words to share.

Princess Diana in a white outfit with a bowtie

The late Princess of Wales held a special place in the hearts of the nation in part due to how relatable she was. Whether it was stalling her car following her engagement announcement or the wise words that she imparted, the public always had time for the mum-of-two.

Tragically, Diana's life was cut short at the young age of 36 after the royal was involved in a car crash in Paris while travelling with boyfriend Dodi Fayed, who also died in accident. However, she imparted several quotes that are still something to live by.

Read on to discover the late royal's best quotes on subjects like love, kindness and her sons…

Although Diana didn't find her happy ending with the then- Prince Charles , the the late Princess of Wales was known as a romantic and her thoughts on the subject of love are something to live by.

Diana was always candid about her thoughts, whether it came to her struggles with mental health or within her marriage to Charles. In one instance, she famously declared: " I wear my heart on my sleeve ," a quality that many found endearing.

More on Diana

Princess Diana sitting on a set of stairs in a pink outfit

While royal etiquette might frown upon things like hugs, this was never an issue for Diana who was often seen embracing others. " Hugs can do great amounts of good ," she quipped, and it's certainly hard to disagree with her.

Humanitarian causes were always at the heart of Diana's royal activities, and she often spoke to those who may have been dismissed by wider society. In a particularly poignant quote, Diana explained how sometimes the best way to express self-love is to actually show love for others. " Every one of us needs to show how much we care for each other and, in the process, care for ourselves ," she famously said.

Princess Diana in body armour and a visor in a minefield

Born into high society, some of Diana's suitors might have believed that to win her affections would be as simple as lavishing her with gifts. However, as she explained, the main qualities she sought in a partner didn't carry a monetary value. " I don't want expensive gifts; I don't want to be bought ," she stated. " I have everything I want. I just want someone to be there for me, to make me feel safe and secure. "

Sometimes in life, there can be pressure to settle down with someone. However, this was not a mantra that the late Princess of Wales went, revealing that sometimes you can live a happier life without someone else in it. " People think that at the end of the day a man is the only answer ," she shared. " Actually, a fulfilling job is better for me ."

Prince Charles and Princess Diana in sunglasses

The royal truly understood how people felt and could quickly tap into the desire to be loved. She once shared how she believed one of the worst problems faced by some was a lack of love in their lives. Countering this, Diana shared: " I think the biggest disease the world suffers from in this day and age is the disease of people feeling unloved. I know that I can give love for a minute, for half an hour, for a day, for a month, but I can give. I am very happy to do that, I want to do that. "

William and Harry

Although Diana sadly did not live long enough to see her children fall in love and start their own families, she was able to impart wise words to her kids before she passed. Speaking about her son William, she said: " I went to the school and put it to William, particularly, that if you find someone you love in life, you must hang onto it, and look after it, and if you were lucky enough to find someone who loved you, then you must protect it. " And given that the Prince of Wales has a long-standing relationship with his university sweetheart, Princess Kate, we're sure he took it to heart.

Diana doted on her two sons, and it's clear from any photo of the family that her brood occupied a special place within her heart. It's no surprise that she once said: " Family is the most important thing in the world ," and this is a motto we believe she strongly lived by.

Princess Diana with her sons Prince William and Prince Harry at a piano

Just like any parent, Diana's sons meant the world to her, and this was clearly communicated when she stated: " I live for my sons. I would be lost without them. "

The late Princess of Wales was certainly attuned to other peoples' feelings, and this is a quality that she strove to instil in her sons as well. "I want my boys to have an understanding of people's emotions, their insecurities, people's distress, and their hopes and dreams ," she explained.

Prince Charles, Princess Diana and Prince Harry observing Prince William on his first day at Eton

Diana knew that her sons would have different lives than many, and while she wanted their lives to be as normal as possible, she also knew they would carry out public duties as they got older. Speaking on their futures, she said: " I will fight for my children on any level so they can reach their potential as human beings, and in their public duties. "

One of the best quotes that truly embodies how the late Diana was the 'People's Princess' was her attitude towards kindness. She said: " Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you ." What a selfless individual!

One of Diana's most endearing moments was when she visited patients living with HIV at a time when myths around the illness were rife and those living and dying from the virus were shunned by wider society. Countering one of the main myths in a statement, Diana said: " HIV does not make people dangerous to know. You can shake their hands and give them a hug. Heaven knows they need it. What's more, you can share their homes, their workplaces, and their playgrounds and toys. " Diana was one of the first major public figures to show support and it wasn't just in passing, as for the rest of her life, Diana would support people living with HIV, something her son Harry still does.

Princess Diana sitting with a patient in a hospital

Diana had an unconventional approach to her royal duties, and in part, this was due to a motto that she lived by on what best to listen to. " I don't go by the rule book… I lead from the heart, not the head ," she explained.

Princess Diana shaking hands with people while in Paris

The late Princess of Wales always saw the value in people and in one of her sweetest quotes, she said: " Everyone needs to be valued. Everyone has the potential to give something back. "

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Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed leave hotel on night they died

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See Photos of Princess Diana on Mohamed Al Fayed's Yacht in Saint
Here, some of the most memorable photos of Princess Diana with her sons and the Fayeds on the Jonikal in July 1997. Princess Diana on board the Jonikal yacht, where she first got to know Dodi ...
The true story behind Princess Diana's iconic yacht photo
It's ultimately unknown which photographer grabbed the photo of Diana on the side of the yacht, which was published on 24 August, a week before Diana died. The snap saw the Princess in her teal ...
Inside the Yacht Princess Diana Vacationed on With Dodi Fayed
Inside the Superyacht Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed Spent Their Final Vacation On. A look at the vessel that saw the beloved royal's last vacation. The Crown's sixth season debuts this week on Netflix, chronicling the final weeks before Princess Diana's untimely death in a car crash in Paris in August 1997.
Diana's last day: Dodi's yacht, a Ritz suite, a diamond ring and
The last day of Princess Diana's life began on the top deck of her lover's yacht, with croissants and fresh jams. Diana and her beau, Dodi Al Fayed, sipped their coffee marveling at the ...
See Inside the Superyacht Princess Diana Shared With Dodi Fayed
Since her untimely death in August of 1997, Princess Diana's last summer spent with Dodi Al-Fayed has been described in various ways: a passionate love affair, a fake publicity stunt, a ...
174 Princess Diana Yacht Stock Photos & High-Res Pictures
Browse 174 princess diana yacht photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more photos and images. Lady Diana, Princess of Wales, sitting on the diving board of Mohammed Al Fayed's private yacht "Jonikal" as a seagull flies overhead. ... Mohammed Al Fayed, père de l'homme d'affaires égyptien Dodi al Fayed et propriétaire ...
Diana's final hours: Dodi's yacht, a Ritz suite, a diamond ring and
The last day of Princess Diana's life began on the top deck of her lover's yacht, with croissants and fresh jams. Diana and her beau, Dodi Al Fayed, sipped their coffee marveling at the ...
Diana and Dodi Scene in 'The Crown' Is ...
The portrayal is inaccurate, Brenna says. Mario Brenna's photograph of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed on a yacht in the Mediterranean Sea plays a prominent role in Season 6 of "The Crown ...
Inside The Yacht Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed Toured the
At the start of The Crown's sixth season, Prince William and Prince Harry join their mother Princess Diana, for a vacation aboard the yacht of Mohamed Al Fayed.Fans have been anticipating what it ...
Princess Diana's final hours: Dodi's yacht, a Ritz suite, a diamond
(FILES) This file photo taken on August 31, 1997 shows shows the wreckage of the car that Britain's Diana, Princess of Wales was travelling in along with Dodi Al-Fayed, in the Alma Tunnel in Paris.
True Story Behind the Iconic Yacht Photo in 'The Crown'
Taken on Aug. 24th, 1997, the photo shows Diana sitting alone on the edge of a diving board in a turquoise one-piece swimsuit, on board a luxury yacht called the Jonikal. The Crown 's Season 6 ...
Meet 'Cujo,' the 80-Ft. Yacht Dodi Al-Fayed Used to Woo Princess Diana
The boat was eventually rescued by Dodi's cousin Moody Al-Fayed, who spent over $1 million bringing her back to life. Part of the work included uprating those massive diesels to deliver 1,650 hp ...
Yacht that Princess Diana spent last summer on with Dodi Al-Fayed sinks
A motor yacht used by Princess Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed on their final summer holiday in the South of France before they died in a Paris car crash has sunk.
'The Crown': The True Story of Diana and Dodi Fayed's Vacation
'The Crown' depicts Princess Diana's jaunts on Mohamed Al-Fayed's yacht, the Jonikal, where her romance with Dodi kicked off. ... When photos of Diana and Dodi on the boat were published ...
The Crown: The Sad, Strange Details of Princess Diana's Last Vacation
November 16, 2023. From API/Gamma Rapho/Getty Images. Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed are lounging on the sundeck of a reportedly £15 million yacht in The Crown 's season six episode "Two ...
Inside the £13m 208ft 'love boat' yacht where Princess Diana & Dodi
Scenes of Diana on the yacht are depicted in the new season of The Crown. Photos of the couple's Mediterranean getaway circulated around the world, with The Sunday Mirror paying £250,000 for ...
The Crown: The Story Behind That Princess Diana Yacht Photo
By early August, after an emotionally turbulent few weeks, Diana was back on holiday with Dodi, this time on his yacht, known as Jonikal. But on 10 August, pictures of Diana and Dodi kissing in ...
How The Crown Recreated the Iconic Princess Diana Diving Board Photo
In the days that followed that photo, Princess Diana and Dodi traveled to Paris, where they died in car crash on August 31. Diana was 36 and Dodi 42. Diana was 36 and Dodi 42.
1,009 Princess Diana Dodi Fayed Photos and High-res Pictures
Showing Editorial results for princess diana dodi fayed. Search instead in Creative? of 17. Browse Getty Images' premium collection of high-quality, authentic Princess Diana Dodi Fayed photos and royalty-free pictures, taken by professional Getty Images photographers. Available in multiple sizes and formats to fit your needs.
Princess Diana Boat Scenes In 'The Crown' Vs. Real Life Photos
At the time, Princess Diana was newly dating Dodi Fayed, son of Harrod's owner Mohamed Al-Fayed and famously spent time on Al-Fayed's yacht in the south of France that summer with 12-year-old ...
Princess Diana Paparazzo Fights Back at
Mario Brenna, the Italian photographer who made a small fortune after snapping photos of Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed embracing on a yacht, says the final season of The Crown gets it all wrong ...
Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed's Yacht Sank in the Mediterranean
The yacht where Princess Diana spent part of her last summer with Dodi Fayed has sunk to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. The boat, named Cujo, sank on July 29 after colliding with an ...
Princess Diana's greatest quotes: what the 'People's Princess' said
PHOTOS: Princess Diana is luscious in lace in Princess Kate-style wedding dress and royal bridal tiara in unearthed photos. MORE: Princess Diana's life and legacy honoured in new London photo ...
1,350 Princess Diana Dodi Photos & High-Res Pictures
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Inside the Superyacht Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed Spent Their Final Vacation On

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