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Princess Diana died following a car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997
She was in the vehicle with her love interest, Dodi Fayed
Dodi and the driver died instantly, while Diana was pronounced dead hours later
The world was gripped with sorrow 28 years ago when Princess Diana’s life was cut short in a devastating car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997.
Just 36 years old, the beloved royal was a devoted mother to Prince William, then 15, and Prince Harry, then 12, and had recently begun a new relationship with Dodi Fayed, the son of Harrods department store owner, Mohamed Al-Fayed.
That summer, Diana and Dodi had been enjoying time together in France, seemingly on the cusp of a new chapter. But in the early hours of Aug. 31, their car was being pursued by paparazzi when it collided with a support column inside Paris' Pont de l’Alma tunnel.
The impact killed Dodi and the driver instantly. Medical workers fought to save Diana, but despite hours of effort, she was pronounced dead at around 4 a.m.
Since then, Diana has continued to be remembered by her family and the public. The late royal has also been memorialized in pop culture. Netflix's The Crown depicted Diana's life when she entered the spotlight and how she changed different parts of the world.
Here’s a look at what unfolded the night of Diana's death and how her legacy continues today.
Princess Diana died from extensive injuries sustained in a car accident in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in Paris.
The princess was in Paris with Dodi when the paparazzi followed the car she was traveling in, hoping to get a photo of the couple.
The driver of the car, Henri Paul — who was later found to be inebriated — turned into a tunnel that ran next to the Seine River in an attempt to evade the photographers. But the vehicle quickly spun out of control while being driven at a speed of 121 mph.
"There was this huge, violent, terrifying crash followed by the lone sound of a car horn," Jerome Laumonier, who was near the crash site, told PEOPLE.
While Dodi and Paul were both pronounced dead at the scene, Diana was immediately taken to Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital. Doctors tried to restart her heart for hours by cardiac massage and electric shocks, but after they were unable to stop the internal bleeding, they decided to stop "by common consent," per Reuters. The princess was then pronounced dead.
Princess Diana died around 4 a.m. on Aug. 31, 1997.
The news was confirmed by British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who commented, "I am greatly shocked by this news. Our first thoughts must be with her children and family at this time of immense loss to them."
Following Diana's death, Prince Charles was joined by Princess Diana's sisters Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes on a flight to Paris to bring Diana's body back to London. When the trio arrived at the hospital, Diana's body was alone with her butler, Paul Burrell, and her driver, Colin Tebbutt.
A friend previously told PEOPLE of Burrell, "It was his sad duty to supervise her going into the casket and the way she looked."
Princess Diana died in Paris following a vacation with her sons in St. Tropez.
Diana and Dodi traveled to the French city via a jet that belonged to Dodi's father and were staying in a $2,000-a-night suite at the Ritz, also owned by the Al-Fayed family.
The couple had dinner at the hotel's restaurant that night, with one hotel employee telling PEOPLE, "They looked like two love-struck teenagers."
The pair were then notified that nearly 30 photographers were waiting outside the Ritz, and decided to head to Dodi's apartment off the Champs Élysées instead of staying at the hotel.
Despite using three decoy cars to get away from the photographers, most stayed put until Diana and Dodi got into a car with Paul and drove away.
Antony Jones/UK Press/Getty ; Aaron Rapoport/CORBIS OUTLINE/Corbis/Getty
Princess Diana ; Dodi Al FayedBoth Princess Diana's love interest, Dodi, and the driver, Paul, died instantly.
Paul, who was an employee of the Ritz at the time, was later found to be driving with an illegal blood alcohol level.
Dodi's bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, was the only survivor of the crash and the only passenger who wore a seat belt, although he suffered serious injuries.
Princess Diana was 36 years old when she died.
She celebrated her final birthday on July 1, 1997, by attending an event supporting the Tate Gallery's Centenary in London.
Diana greeted fans and well-wishers who had shown up outside the event to hand her birthday gifts, such as cards and flowers.
In 2015, firefighter Xavier Gourmelon revealed Princess Diana's last words in an interview with The Independent. Gourmelon said that Diana momentarily gained consciousness and asked, "My God, what has happened?"
Gourmelon was also one of the people who revived Diana after delivering chest compressions. At the time, he believed Diana would be okay. He said, "It was a relief, of course, because as a first responder you want to save lives — and that's what I thought I had done."
He added that finding out she had died the next day was "very upsetting" and "I know now that there were serious internal injuries, but the whole episode is still very much in my mind. The memory of that night will stay with me forever."
The Crown season 6 portrayed the final moments before Diana's death, including a phone call with her sons, Prince Harry and Prince William, who were at Balmoral Castle in Scotland at the time. This fictional phone call mimicked a real moment that Harry and William reflected on in the 2017 documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy.
"Harry and I were in a desperate rush to say goodbye, you know, 'See you later.' " William said of the phone call. "If I'd known now obviously what was going to happen, I wouldn't have been so blasé about it and everything else."
Harry added, "I can't really necessarily remember what I said, but all I do remember is probably regretting for the rest of my life how short the phone call was."
The general public was rocked by the loss of the royal, nicknamed the People's Princess. Thousands of people lined the streets outside Buckingham Palace, leaving notes, flowers and mementos in honor of Diana's life.
The royal family initially kept a distance between themselves and the public mourners. The family hid away at the Queen's residence at Balmoral, where Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth hoped to give Prince William and Prince Harry a bit of respite before their mother's funeral on Sept. 6, 1997.
Years after Princess Diana died, the British Metropolitan Police opened an inquiry into her death and requested to interview and question Prince Charles.
An excerpt of a note allegedly written by Diana in 1995 was leaked to the British media by her former butler, which said, "My husband is planning 'an accident' in my car, brake failure and serious head injury."
This fueled speculation that Diana believed that Charles might have been planning an accident so that he could marry the nanny of Prince William and Prince Harry at the time.
Nothing came of the investigation, and Charles participated fully.
Princess Diana is as relevant now as she has ever been, and that is in part due to the work that her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, have done to ensure that her legacy lives on both through themselves and through their own children.
While speaking at the Diana Awards on his mother's birthday in 2022, Prince Harry shared with attendees that he sees his mother's work lives on through them.
"I see her legacy in all of you. I see her legacy in a Diana Award community that spans multiple generations," he said. "I see her legacy every time I meet with families, young people, and children from all corners of the world. And, I see my mum's legacy when I look at my own children every day."
This echoed what Prince William told Diana Awards honorees in 2019, when they visited his home, Kensington Palace. As Tessy Ojo, the chief executive of the Diana Award charity, told PEOPLE, "He asked me, 'How did you find these young people? These are truly world changers.' And the other thing he said to the group was, 'My mother would be so proud of you.' "
Prince William and Prince Harry have also continued to honor their mother by carrying on with her work in their own lives. In May 2021, William worked with the organization Centrepoint, the same organization his mother had been a patron of in her lifetime, on a project aimed at combating homelessness.
In January 2022, Harry showed that his mother is never far from him as he traveled to Angola to walk the same landmine walk that his mother traversed in January 1997.
