Lord John Stevens, an investigator into the car accident that killed Princess Diana nearly 25 years ago, is recalling an emotional discussion he had with Prince William and Prince Harry surrounding the tragic events of their mother’s untimely death at just 36 years old on August 31, 1997.
“Yes, of course, it was a difficult thing [to do],” Stevens tells Us Weekly surrounding the release of Discovery+’s The Diana Investigations docuseries. “So, I went along with two other people who were part of the investigation, [including a] detective inspector, and [when we were] outside the door [at Kensington Palace], it was said ‘No, they only want to see you,’ that’s me.”
Stevens says he spoke to the boys for over an hour.
“I outlined what the conclusions were for about 10 or 15 minutes, and then the rest of the time was them asking me questions, which you’d expect because they didn’t know the circumstances of their mother’s death, where [and] when she’d died, what did she say and, beyond that, I don’t want to declare what the conversations were,” he says.
Stevens is a former police chief who led the years-long investigation into the late Princess of Wales’ death. He calls the discussions with William and Harry “very emotional” and noted that he, too, was emotional about the accident. He told the outlet that the boys were, naturally, very upset by the circumstances of her death in Paris.
“What they were angry about, they declared it publicly, were the paparazzi who they thought were very much behind what had taken place by chasing the car and making the car or inducing the car to go at 75 miles an hour,” Stevens says. “They weren’t too happy about that, I can tell you.”
The Diana Investigations docuseries premiered on Discovery+ on August 18 and is set to offer viewers new insight into Diana’s death with new interviews with the case’s lead investigators, including Stevens.
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“The bottom line is we worked on this for three years, and then every single aspect of what we did, every single allegation, we brought it down to 104 allegations and each and every one was investigated,” Stevens says. “This is one of the reasons for doing the program. We’re doing a program with people who we can trust, who put it forward and not spin it in any way, one way or the other.”
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.
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