It was a night etched into collective memory. The world remembers where they were on August 31, 1997, when news broke that Princess Diana had been involved in a horrific car crash in Paris. The images from that night circled the globe, yet one of its most poignant details remained hidden for years: the last words spoken by the “people’s princess.”
Nearly three decades later, Xavier Gourmelon, a Paris firefighter who was among the first on the scene, broke his silence. His recollection still chills the heart.
The night that changed history
That evening, Diana, then 36, and her companion Dodi Al-Fayed attempted to evade a swarm of paparazzi. Their car sped through the Pont de l’Alma tunnel but lost control and struck a pillar. The impact was catastrophic. Driver Henri Paul and Dodi Al-Fayed were killed instantly. Hours later, Diana would also succumb to her injuries.
Only bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones survived, though with severe injuries.
When emergency services arrived, Gourmelon approached what he thought was simply a badly injured passenger: a blonde woman, shaken but conscious.
“She was moving, talking, breathing. Nothing suggested such a serious tragedy,” he later told The Sun.
Four words that echo through time
As he worked to free her from the wreckage, Diana spoke to him. Just four words—fragile, bewildered, devastating:
“My God, what happened?”
At that moment, Gourmelon still had no idea of her identity. It was only once she was placed in the ambulance that a colleague whispered the truth to him: he had been holding the hand of Princess Diana.
“The shock was immense,” he admitted.
A fleeting glimmer of hope
Gourmelon recalled performing CPR when Diana’s heart briefly stopped. “She started breathing again. I was relieved. I thought she was going to make it,” he said.
But at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, the world’s worst fears were realised. Doctors could not save her from the severe internal injuries she had sustained. By dawn, the global outpouring of grief had begun.
A wave of global mourning
The death of Diana sent shockwaves across the world. In London, seas of flowers and handwritten notes carpeted the gates of Kensington Palace. Her funeral, watched by an estimated 2.5 billion people, remains one of the most-watched broadcasts in history—a testament to the scale of public sorrow.
It was more than the passing of a princess. It was the loss of a woman admired for her warmth, her compassion, and her extraordinary bond with ordinary people.
A memory that endures
For Gourmelon, now retired from the fire service, that night has never faded. “I can still see her eyes, hear her voice, that sentence… It’s etched in my memory,” he reflected.
Her last words, simple yet haunting, serve as a reminder that even icons are mortal, even legends are human. And perhaps it is precisely that humanity which ensures Diana’s memory endures nearly three decades later.