Royals
Princess Diana Warned JFK Jr. About ‘the Worst Paparazzi’ Months Ahead of Her Death
Princess Diana was constantly followed by aggressive photographers following her 1992 split from now-King Charles III. Ultimately, in August 1997, the beloved royal was killed in a car crash in Paris following a high-speed chase with paparazzi at age 36.
Months ahead of her death, a new book reveals that Diana penned a heartfelt letter to John F. Kennedy Jr. — who had just wed Carolyn Bessette in September 1996 — warning him about the dangerous paparazzi.
“I hope the media are leaving both you and Carolyn alone. I know how difficult it is, but believe it or not, the worst paparazzi are here in Europe!” she wrote, according to Caroline Hallemann’s new book, The Kennedys and the Windsors: The Story of Two Dynasties, One Born, One Made, per Entertainment Weekly.
According to Hallemann, Diana underlined the word “hope” in her February 1997 exchange.
Similar to Diana, JFK Jr. and Bessette were the subject of tabloid fascination throughout the 1990s.
“She saw in him a fellow victim, if you can put it that way, of life in the public eye and difficulty of knowing who to trust,” Diana’s private secretary Patrick Jephson told Hallemann in her book. “And I think that that did create a connection between them. I wouldn’t call it a bond, but an affinity, a recognition of each other’s unusual hardships and difficulties.”
JFK Jr., 38, and Bessette, 33, tragically died less than two years after Diana in a plane crash off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard. Bessette’s sister Lauren was also on board.
