Last August 31 was the 25-year anniversary of the deaths of Princess Diana, Dodi Fayed, and Henri Paul, who passed away as a result of a Parisian car accident in the early morning hours of that day in 1997. (Diana’s bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones was severely injured but survived the crash.) The summer of 1997 will come to the forefront once more in the forthcoming season six of Netflix’s The Crown, due to debut later this year, and we will no doubt see scenes of Diana and Dodi from their final summer together aboard the superyacht Cujo—a vessel that has made headlines this week.
In an unexpected twist to the story, 26 years after Diana and Dodi enjoyed its comforts, Cujo sunk to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea on July 29, with seven passengers aboard. (All seven are safe and unharmed, thankfully.) People reports that the yacht—of which thousands upon thousands of paparazzi photos were taken in the summer of 1997, as the press tried to figure out the relationship between Diana and Dodi—was “sinking due to a leak” after it allegedly hit an unidentified object on the French Riviera, according to an officer. “The skipper of the Cujo issued a Mayday,” an officer said, per The Independent. “Rescue boats were sent from Antibes and, after making sure everyone was safe, gendarmes detected a significant water leak at the level of the starboard front hull. Her owner had activated the pumps and kept the engines running, but this didn’t stop the boat sinking.”
Gendarmerie des Alpes-Maritimes, a branch of the French military, released a statement addressing the incident on its Facebook page, where it was disclosed that the Antibes Nautical Brigade first responded to a distress call at 12:30 p.m. local time for a yacht located 35 kilometers off the coast of Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France, People reports. “When they arrived at the scene 45 minutes later, the ship was already sinking, and the cabins had begun to flood,” the outlet writes. “The seven passengers were already transferred to a life raft and examined for injuries before being taken back to shore.”
After first meeting at a polo match in 1986—in which Dodi was playing against Diana’s then-husband, Prince Charles—Diana and Dodi reconnected romantically over a decade later after Dodi’s father, Mohamed al Fayed, invited the princess and her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, to vacation at their villa in St. Tropez, France. Diana and Dodi developed a connection aboard the 20-meter superyacht, as the world watched and wondered through paparazzi photos taken of them at the time. Dodi himself owned the Cujo and had spent around £1 million refitting the boat “and wooed Diana on board, as the world’s media looked on,” The Independent reports.
We’ll never know what would have come from the seemingly budding romance, as the two were killed riding side by side together through a tunnel in Paris—Dodi instantly in the tunnel, and Diana later at the hospital. The car in which they were riding was traveling at 121 mph in order to escape the aforementioned paparazzi chasing them on motorcycles—trailing them this time on land rather than, as they had all summer, at sea. The chase, plus driver Paul’s intoxication, led to the triple fatal crash and the end to any happiness Diana and Dodi might have shared together—the beginnings of which are now resting at the bottom of the Mediterranean.
Cujo—frequently moored off St. Tropez—saw other celebrity guests including Clint Eastwood and Bruce Willis. After Dodi’s death, Cujo fell into disrepair and was decommissioned two years later in 1999. It spent years in storage before being restored by new owners.
Stay In The Know
Marie Claire email subscribers get intel on fashion and beauty trends, hot-off-the-press celebrity news, and more. Sign up here.
Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.
-
Timeless Date Night Style (Taylor's Version)
The Grammy winner wore a classic look in Lake Como with Travis Kelce.
By Halie LeSavage Published
-
Selena Gomez Is Wearing a $20 Lipstick on the Cannes Red Carpet
She makes it look so expensive.
By Samantha Holender Published
-
Everything We Know About Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie's New Reality Show
The '00s icons are reunited for a new reality show—which won't be a reboot of 'The Simple Life.'
By Sadie Bell Published
-
Meghan Markle Wears Princess Diana's Cross Necklace During Mother's Day Weekend
The duchess made a powerful statement.
By Iris Goldsztajn Published
-
Princess Diana Didn’t Just Dance with John Travolta During That Famous Night at the White House—She Danced with Tom Selleck, Too
“I gotta say, she seemed to be having the time of her life,” Selleck said of their turn on the dance floor in 1985.
By Rachel Burchfield Published
-
Princess Diana’s First Work Contract—Which Includes a Fib from Diana Herself Written In Her Own Handwriting—Sells at Auction for a Staggering Sum
The then Lady Diana Spencer wrote she was looking to start work as “soon as possible” back in May 1979.
By Rachel Burchfield Published
-
Princess Diana Only Attended One Met Gala and Was, Unsurprisingly, the “Belle of the Ball”
Her “elegant, but revealing” John Galliano for Dior silk slip dress, worn to the event in 1996, is loaded with symbolism—and almost didn’t happen.
By Rachel Burchfield Published
-
Diana Spencer, Then 19, Started Sobbing in the Ladies’ Room As She Asked Princess Grace of Monaco for Advice About Marrying Royalty
As their stars collided that night in March 1981, neither the former Grace Kelly nor the future Princess of Wales had any idea that they’d both someday die far too young in the same manner.
By Rachel Burchfield Published
-
Princess Diana Revealed to a Royal Author the Real Reason Why Her Marriage to Prince Charles Ended Not Long Before She Died in 1997
And no, it apparently wasn’t Camilla Parker-Bowles.
By Rachel Burchfield Published
-
Princess Diana Told Queen Elizabeth Through Tears That Her Then-Husband Prince Charles Was “A Nightmare” and That She “Hated” Him, Royal Author Claims
Ingrid Seward’s new book examines the relationship between mother and son, Her late Majesty and her heir, Charles.
By Rachel Burchfield Published
-
Princess Diana Would Be "Absolutely Distraught" Over the State of Prince William and Prince Harry's Relationship, Expert Claims
She wanted them to have each other's backs.
By Iris Goldsztajn Published