This episode of the Sofa King Podcast looks at the life, death, and conspiracies surrounding Lady Diana. Born to the royal Spencer family in Norfolk, England, she lived a life of privilege, even playing with the princes at some of the queen’s summer homes in her childhood. By the age of nineteen, she was working at a school for children, and she caught the eye of Prince Charles, the heir to the throne. They married a year later in a lavish wedding that dominated the world.

However, their relationship was not very stable. Prince Charles was having an affair with his now wife Camilla Bowles, and Diana had an affair of her own.

When they finally divorced in 1996, Diana was allegedly on the outs with the royal family, taking shots at Camilla in the tabloids and even frustrating the queen. Diana spent this time using her celebrity to advocate for curing AIDS, homelessness, and land mine disposal, among others. A year later, she died in a famous car accident with her boyfriend Dodi Al Fayed at the Pont D’Alma tunnel in Paris. And this is the where the conspiracies start to rear up.

On the surface, yes, it could have been a case of the driver Henry Paul having too much to drink and crashing while trying to escape a horde of paparazzi. However, the evidence doesn’t add up. The official Paget Report which was sanctioned by the government claimed Paul had ten drinks. However, the official coroner’s inquest a year later claimed he was sober. Blood samples taken at the scene of the accident were possibly swapped and old, so DNA tests and blood tests run in 2006 said he was sober but had high amounts of carbon monoxide in his blood. So a lot of strange things didn’t add up with the driver, who was called in to drive at the last minute.

Also, there is the matter of the white Fiat Uno. Eyewitness claimed this car sped out of the tunnel, and Dodi Fayed’s father claimed it belonged to a member of the paparazzi named James Andanson. Andanson was found later in a burned out BMW with a bullet in his head. From there, everyone from MI6 to the British Secret forces have been blamed for the car crash.

Some theorize she was pregnant with Dodi’s baby, and the royal family wanted her killed and silences. Even Diana herself wrote a letter to her butler Paul Burell saying her life was in danger and that she was going to be killed in a car crash.

So, was her death a case of simple drunk driving, or was she taken out by the British government? Was there a secret strobe light weapon deployed against her driver in Paris that night? Why did the French scrub all evidence from the tunnel so quickly and embalm her body? Was it a cover up? Listen, laugh, learn.