If Princess Diana had heard even one word about the horrific allegations against Mohamed Al Fayed, the man exposed as a serial rapist in the recent BBC documentary Al Fayed: Predator At Harrods, I honestly believe she would still be alive today.
The documentary, which examined forensic allegations of rape and sexual abuse by the Harrods boss dating back to the 1980s, revealed him to be a monster who used his power and influence to exploit vulnerable young women and girls.
It is inconceivable that Diana would have had a relationship with Al Fayed’s son Dodi if she had known what kind of man his father was and the damage to his reputation that would have entailed.
She would never have harmed the royal family, if only for the sake of her sons William, then second in line to the throne, and Harry, the now infamous reserve.
She is said to have declined Al Fayed’s invitation to holiday with her sons at his French villa in the early summer of 1997. It was there that she had her first fateful encounter with Dodi, which led to a holiday romance that would last three months.
The Egyptian, who started his working life as a penniless soft drink vendor on the street in his native Cairo, was determined to gain acceptance and respect in Britain
And she would not have died in a high-speed car crash in a Paris tunnel.
The sinister puppet master who set this chain of events in motion was, of course, Mohamed Al Fayed.
In a desperate attempt to ingratiate himself and his family into royal circles, he forced his son to court the princess, despite the fact that he was already engaged.
Diana, meanwhile, was recovering from her failed romance with the love of her life, heart surgeon Hasnat Khan.
According to friends at the time, the motivation behind Diana’s decision to strut her stuff on Al Fayed’s 208ft, £13million superyacht, Jonikal, for the world’s cameras, was simple: ‘Look what you’re missing, Hasnat.’
The iconic photos of her in a turquoise swimsuit on the diving board of the Jonikal are the result of a tip from the princess’ camp to the paparazzi. The same goes for the photos of her and Dodi kissing and cuddling on board the yacht.
The images were published all over the world and created exactly the reverberations she had in mind. But there was never any chance of an engagement, as Al Fayed falsely boasted, nor was she pregnant with Dodi’s child, as he also claimed.
Photos of Diana on the Jonikal – Al Fayed’s £13 million, 208ft superyacht – were published around the world and created exactly the resonance she wanted
Her best friend Rosa Monckton, who had spoken to Diana four days before her death, said the princess had told her she had enjoyed herself, that she had made her meaning clear and that she was eager to get home to her boys.
She planned to cut short her trip to the Paris Ritz, Al Fayed’s luxury hotel in the French capital, from where she made her last, fateful journey.
Ultimately, however, Diana was not the master of her own destiny, but merely a pawn in Al Fayed’s sick chess game as she tried to climb the social ladder.
The Egyptian, who began his working life as a penniless soft drink vendor on the streets of his native Cairo, was determined to gain acceptance and respect in Britain, and he did so with the focus of a heat-seeking missile.
But it was a mission doomed from the start. The establishment saw him as a fraud – even the purchase of his one great asset, Harrods, was plagued by scandal.
Perhaps the fact that the Home Office twice refused him a British passport because he failed the ‘good character’ test following his ‘cash payments’ to MPs should have been a warning.
Only now have we discovered the true extent of Al Fayed’s depravity.
Diana on CCTV with Dodi Fayed in the elevator of the Ritz hotel during their final hours
It could all have been very different. The tycoon who exploited Diana’s innocence to such tragic effect had been under police investigation for decades over allegations of serial abuse of female employees.
But the billionaire successfully evaded prosecution by hiring an army of influential lawyers who threatened him with blood-curdling threats of legal action.
Take the case of Vanity Fair. When the American magazine commissioned an article exposing Al Fayed’s behavior in 1995, two years before Diana died and two years before she met Dodi, he responded with a scathing libel lawsuit, alleging that he had been the victim of malicious claims from disgruntled former employees and insisting that all allegations of his sexual predation be deleted.
Under pressure from the government, Vanity Fair heeded the call and all the evidence gathered against him was locked away and a watered-down version of the article was published.
In the years that followed, the Public Prosecution Service twice considered prosecuting Al Fayed, but both times decided against it.
So fast forward to today, 27 years after Diana died. As we have seen, it was only this month that we discovered the horrific, industrial scale of Al Fayed’s crimes.
Everyone involved in the appalling establishment foot-dragging that allowed this evil man to continue his breathtakingly vile activities should be deeply ashamed. Some, like Al Fayed, are dead, but I sincerely hope that his other accomplices to the abuse, now named and shamed, are held to account.
BBC journalists investigating Al Fayed’s predatory history have gathered testimonies from more than 20 women who said they were abused by him, including five who claimed they were raped. Since the BBC documentary aired last Thursday, more than 150 former female Harrods employees have come forward to testify.
If Diana had known any of this, she would never have traveled to Al Fayed’s Mediterranean villa and taken revenge, which ultimately led to her death.