CHAPTER 9
Farewell, Diana

Even though she would have preferred to keep her personal life private, Diana welcomed attention to her favorite causes. She used her celebrity status to help people in need. In late 1996, Diana turned her attention to helping victims who had been injured from hidden explosive land mines. Land mines are small bombs that have been buried in battlefields during wartime to prevent the enemy from advancing. After a war ends, land mines are often forgotten, and they can harm innocent people who step on the unmarked explosives.

Working with the Red Cross in January 1997, Diana visited the African country of Angola. A civil war had been going on in Angola for twenty years, and fifteen million mines—forgotten weapons—were scattered across the country. Close to fifty thousand people—including children—had lost an arm or leg in land-mine accidents. When Diana visited Angola, her goal was to achieve a worldwide ban on land mines. She wanted to be sure that these small, yet deadly, weapons could never be used again. Just as she had done with AIDS patients years before, Diana talked to and comforted the land-mine victims—many of whom had been injured simply by walking in the countryside. She soon made sure the world cared about this issue, too.

In June 1997, Diana used her own clothing to raise money. At Christie’s, an auction house in New York City, seventy-nine of Diana’s most beautiful gowns and dresses were each sold to the highest bidder.

The “Travolta Dress” alone was purchased for $222,500. It was the most expensive piece of clothing Christie’s had ever sold. In total, the dresses earned $3.25 million. The money was used to help cancer and AIDS patients.

But the world was interested in more than just Diana’s charitable work. Less than a year after her divorce, she began dating Dodi Fayed. He was a billionaire whose family owned Harrods, the famous British department store. Some people did not think Dodi was the right choice for Diana. He liked to spend his money on fancy cars, big boats, and expensive parties. But Diana liked him. She even introduced him to her sons, William, now fifteen, and Harry, age twelve. In the summer of 1997, they took the boys on a vacation to the South of France.

On August 30, Diana and Dodi visited Paris. They went out to dinner at the Ritz Hotel in the heart of the city. After finishing their meal, Diana and Dodi tried to sneak out the back door of the hotel. They wanted to avoid the photographers—called paparazzi—waiting to take pictures of them.

Hotel Ritz, Paris

Paparazzi (say: pa-pu-ROT-see)

Paparazzi is an Italian word that refers to photographers who take pictures of celebrities. While they often try to get their photos in public places, the paparazzi are also known to track famous people while they are simply going about their daily lives: having dinner, relaxing on a vacation, or even shopping for groceries.

Some paparazzi intentionally try to make a famous person angry in order to get a more valuable photo. The paparazzi are often accused of invading the personal space and the privacy of their subjects.

Diana and Dodi hopped into a black car, and their driver sped away. The paparazzi began chasing them in their cars, motorcycles, and scooters, desperate to get a photograph. A picture of the couple could be sold for thousands of dollars. Dodi’s driver sped up to try to get away from the cameramen. The driver was going too fast and lost control. The car crashed into a concrete pillar inside a Paris tunnel. Dodi and the driver died instantly in the accident. Diana was taken to the hospital, and she died shortly after. Princess Diana was only thirty-six years old.