lady diana dodi al fayed yacht

Inside the Superyacht Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed Spent Their Final Vacation On

A look at the vessel that saw the beloved royal’s last vacation.

It was hot gossip, this adventure that the princess took abroad after having finalized her divorce from then Prince Charles less than a year before—something that was hinted at at the end of season 5 of The Crown as Queen Elizabeth is pressed to endorse a vacation a-sea with Fayed and her grandchildren, Prince Harry and Prince William. Diana was famously photographed sitting on the passerelle of this boat. Years later, in real life, Harry described the trip in his memoir, Spare , with fond recollection. “Everything about that trip to St. Tropez was heaven,” he wrote.

While the series was filmed on a lookalike super yacht in Mallorca , the real boat was equally lavish. The 208-foot ship was commissioned by Dodi’s father, former Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, who brought on naval architect Vincenzo Ruggiero to design it in the late 1980s. It was built by Italian shipyard Codecasa and launched in 1990. The steel and aluminum super yacht boasted nine staterooms that altogether accommodate up to 18 people, in addition to a crew of 26. Amenities included a Jacuzzi, swim platform, sun deck, formal dining room, a bar, and office space. Mohamed had named the yacht Jonikal (it has subsequently been called Sokar and is currently called Bash ) .

Shortly after Diana’s and Dodi’s deaths, Mohamed gave the interior a redesign by H2 Yacht Design and a refit that included extending the hull. He attempted to sell the yacht on a number of occasions, ultimately parting with it in 2014 to an anonymous buyer. The new owner carried out further work, including machinery upgrades, a repaint, and fresh teak decks. In 2021, the yacht came into the hands of Bassim Haidar , the founder of Intercomm and GMT, who gave it a further $9.7 million refit after a reported bridge deck fire—and its current name Bash . It’s now back to turn-key condition after an 18-month remodel completed in April 2023 by marine engineering and management company Capax and boat interior company Bobic Yacht Interiors . It features a beauty salon, massage area, high-tech gym, and a spacious main salon.

In May, Robb Report reported that Bash is available for charter in the Mediterranean starting at $278,000 per week, plus expenses. In June, Haidar listed Bash for $16.8 million, according to Boat International .

There was a second motor yacht named Cujo, which Diana and Fayed also took earlier that summer. It was built in Italy in 1972 for John von Neumann, who commissioned the Italian Baglietto shipyard to build the world's fastest motor yacht. She was given two 18-cylinder engines that allowed it to go as fast as 42 knots. Fayed had bought the boat from his cousin, Saudi businessman and arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. In August, the Mediterranean Sea reclaimed Cujo, as the 62-foot artifact of Diana’s life hit an unidentified object off Beaulieu-sur-Mer on July 29 and sprang a leak, Vanity Fair reported. The seven people on board were rescued by teams from Antibes and safely returned to shore.

An imitation of Jonikal will feature in The Crown season 6, a set that was intended to visually illuminate the tension between Diana and the royal family. “Diana’s south of France adventure was bright and lovely pastel colors, and her world even in Kensington Palace is optimistic and warm, compared to the queen’s residence at Balmoral, which is very static, with gloomy light and drab colors,” set decorator Alison Harvey tells ELLE DECOR.

Filming on the yacht off the island of Mallorca (a St. Tropez stand-in) required many moving parts with few do-overs. “We brought in the drapes, the artwork, many furnishings,” Harvey explains. “Everything was set in the early ’90s, so we thought hard about the colors and textures that we brought in.” Harvey’s team had just half a day to dress the yacht, and then it was off to sea. “There was no getting on or off after that,” Harvey says, adding that they were “subsumed by the logistics of what we had to achieve and the time we had to do it.”

However painstaking the process, the yacht scenes will offer an intriguing context—though largely fictitious—for the iconic photographs that exist of those final weeks leading up to Diana’s death.

Rachel Silva, the Assistant Digital Editor at ELLE DECOR, covers design, architecture, trends, and anything to do with haute couture. She has previously written for Time, The Wall Street Journal, and Citywire.

Celebrity Style

Inside Kate Middleton’s Adelaide Cottage

Kate Middleton Has Been Diagnosed With Cancer

Inside Lady Rose Hanbury’s Houghton Hall Residence

A Look at the Homes of the British Royal Family

Alicia Keys Reveals Her Tips for Collecting Art

What, Exactly, Is American Riviera Orchard?

Is Kate Middleton Recuperating at This Estate?

Freddie Mercury’s London Mansion Is For Sale

Jeremiah Brent Is the New Bobby Berk on Queer Eye

RHOSLC Star Whitney Rose Is Selling Her House

Emma Stone’s Cute L.A. Home Sells in Record Time

Diana's last day: Dodi's yacht, a Ritz suite, a diamond ring and relentless photographers

Diana, divorced from Prince Charles after he cheated on her, was the mother of the future king of England and the most photographed woman in the world

You can save this article by registering for free here . Or sign-in if you have an account.

Article content

By Michael S. Rosenwald

The last day of Princess Diana’s life began on the top deck of her lover’s yacht, with croissants and fresh jams.

Diana and her beau, Dodi Al Fayed, sipped their coffee marveling at the breathtaking Emerald Coast in Sardinia. Diana took hers with milk. Fayed took his black. There were kiwis, too.

“They were in a good mood,” his butler remembered later. “They were always laughing, holding hands.”

Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.

• Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay, Rex Murphy and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.
• Unlimited online access to National Post and 15 news sites with one account.
• National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.
• Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.
• Support local journalism.

Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.

• Access articles from across Canada with one account.
• Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.
• Enjoy additional articles per month.
• Get email updates from your favourite authors.

Don't have an account? Create Account

Their romance was a whirlwind — passionate, thrilling, scandalous. Fayed, the son of Harrod’s department store owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, was a rich playboy. Diana, divorced from Prince Charles after he cheated on her, was the mother of the future king of England and the most photographed woman in the world.

That Saturday — Aug. 30, 1997 — promised to be a moment of change. The princess knew it. She snuck a call to Richard Kay, a friend who covered the Royals for the Daily Mail, and told him, as he later wrote, “she had decided to radically change her life.”

“She was going to complete her obligations to her charities,” Kay continued, “and then, around November, would completely withdraw from her formal public life.” Diana had not told Kay why, but he had a hunch: “They were, to use an old but priceless cliche, blissfully happy. I cannot say for certain that they would have married, but in my view it was likely.”

In the 20 years since she’s been gone, there have been countless revisions to this love story. Her friends and relatives: They weren’t in love! His friends and relatives: They were in love!

Get a dash of perspective along with the trending news of the day in a very readable format.

• There was an error, please provide a valid email address.

By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.

A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.

The next issue of NP Posted will soon be in your inbox.

We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again

Last week, in the Daily Mail, Kay published an article with this headline: “Was Diana about to dump Dodi?” In it, he quoted Diana’s private secretary saying she’d planned to return home after becoming bored with Fayed.

“It’s very much a personal view,” the secretary said, “but I don’t think she would have seen Dodi again once she got back.”

Whatever the case, Fayed wanted to propose that fateful night. It was summer. As they were on holiday, Britain announced plans to invite the Irish Republican Army for peace talks. Conspiracies theories about the suicide of Vincent Foster, President Bill Clinton’s lawyer, were spreading. Israel and Lebanon were sparring with one another.

Fayed’s primary concern was the six-figure diamond ring waiting in Paris. People close to Fayed said the couple picked it out a week earlier even though they had been dating less than a month.

The danger of their relationship wasn’t its brevity. To royal watchers, to Buckingham Palace, and no doubt to the British tabloids whose photographers were hounding them, the threat was something the couple apparently had not yet considered, even as rumours swirled that Diana was already pregnant.

“For the mother of the future king of England to bear the child of a Muslim Arab, a child who would be the half sibling of the heir to the throne, would be embarrassing in the eyes of the royal family and the ruling Establishment,” former Time magazine reporters Tom Sancton and Scott MacLeod wrote in their book, Death of a Princess .

Fayed’s calendar that day had just one entry — at 6:30 p.m., he was to pick up the ring at a store near his father’s hotel in Paris, The Ritz. They left the boat for Fayed’s plane around 11:30 a.m., taking along the butler and a masseuse for Fayed’s painful back.

As soon as they landed in Paris, Fayed saw the paparazzi out his window.

“Dodi did not want this special occasion ruined by a bunch of a shutter-happy cowboys trying to corral them on motorcycles and shoving lenses in their faces,” the ex-Time reporters wrote. “As soon as the door opened, cameras started clicking.”

The aggressiveness of the photographers — and their sheer numbers — would increase as the day progressed.

Diana and Fayed arrived at The Ritz in the late afternoon. She went to the salon for a hair appointment. He went to the jeweler. The couple then rested in the hotel’s Imperial Suite before going to Fayed’s apartment to get dressed for dinner. She checked in with her children, who were in Scotland with Prince Charles and the queen.

“On that Saturday evening, Diana was as happy as I have ever known her,” her friend Kay wrote in the Daily Mail. “For the first time in years, all was well with her world.”

They left for Fayed’s apartment around 7 p.m., trailed by photographers. More were waiting at the building’s front door when they arrived. Fayed fumed. There was an ugly shoving match.

Once inside, Fayed pulled his butler aside, telling him about his plan to propose that night.

“The ring was on the nightstand in his bedroom,” author Christopher Anderson wrote in “The Day Diana Died.” “Dodi had checked to make sure they had several bottles of Dom Pérignon on ice for the big moment.”

But dinner was a bust.

The first restaurant they tried — Chez Benoit, a cozy, casual bistro not far from the city centre – was quickly overrun by photographers. They split and headed for The Ritz, ducking into the dining room hoping to be left alone.

The princess ordered vegetable tempura. Fayed ordered grilled turbot.

“No sooner had they ordered,” the ex-Time reporters wrote, “they began to feel the indiscreet stares of other diners.”

The couple left and had the food delivered to the Imperial Suite. Fayed’s plan was in shambles. They had to get back to the apartment. But how? The hotel was swarming with photographers.

Fayed devised a plan: The couple’s driver and bodyguards would make a big show out front, appearing to get their caravan of Mercedes sedans ready to leave. Meanwhile, the Princess and Fayed would slip out the back door, in a borrowed car driven by a hotel security officer.

What happened next was the subject of lengthy investigations and conspiracy theories that live on today. The couple did get away. But the driver, it turned out, was drunk.

As the couple sped off, the photographers out front got tipped off about the escape, quickly catching up on their motorcycles. Their driver darted in and out of traffic, wrecking spectacularly inside the Pont de l’Alma tunnel near the Eiffel Tower.

Fayed died instantly. Diana died at the hospital.

Her death startled the world.

An up-and-coming anchor named Brian Williams broke into regular coverage on MSNBC to announce the news to Americans in the early morning hours of Aug. 31.

“I’ve just been handed from the Reuters news service what has been marked ‘bulletin,'” Williams said, speaking slowly. “It says, ‘Princess Diana has died.'”

She was 36.

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here .

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

Growing number of Canadians are moving abroad due to lack of affordability: McGill study

Activist who praised october 7 terror attacks arrested by vancouver police, wild scene from leafs, bruins game everyone is laughing about: 'the look of betrayal', jonathan kay: just ignore sarah jama's keffiyeh. next she'll be wearing a turban, rahim mohamed: justin trudeau goes full tinfoil hat over 'diagolon', how to prevent mosquito bites.

We explore various methods and evaluated their efficacy to find the most effective solution for you

Top 5 Mother’s Day gifts that are thoughtful and useful

No kitsch or tchotchkes, just utility and beauty

Advertisement 2 Story continues below This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

Beauty Buzz: Guerlain Abeille Royale Honey Treatment, Jouviance Youth Boosting Night Serum, and Comète by Chanel 

Three new buzzed-about beauty products we tried this week.

Q+A: Actor Michelle Pfeiffer brings her fragrance collection to Canada

The Golden Globe Award-winning actor set out to secure ingredient transparency, sustainable packaging — and really good scents

Top meal kits that make dining simple and delicious

Make eating at home easy and simple

This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here . By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy .

You've reached the 20 article limit.

You can manage saved articles in your account.

and save up to 100 articles!

Looks like you've reached your saved article limit!

You can manage your saved articles in your account and clicking the X located at the bottom right of the article.

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

• What Is Cinema?
• Newsletters

The Crown: The Sad, Strange Details of Princess Diana’s Last Vacation

By Julie Miller

Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed are lounging on the sundeck of a reportedly £15 million yacht in The Crown ’s season six episode “Two Photographs” when Dodi’s domineering father telephones an onboard employee with an urgent question.

“Are they sleeping together?” Mohamed Al Fayed demands to know. 

It’s an audacious question—but Mohamed really was checking in on the couple hourly during this August 1997 cruise, according to Tom Bower , who wrote an unauthorized biography of the billionaire called Fayed. The late princess was aware that these calls were coming in—so much so that she joked to Dodi, “God is calling,” when she heard a ring, according to Dodi’s spiritual healer, Myriah Daniels, who was onboard. In 2007, during the inquest into the 1997 crash that killed the princess, Dodi, and their driver, Henri Paul, Daniels said that this became one of Diana’s inside jokes with Dodi. “They’d both have a giggle,” she said. 

Diana had vacationed with Mohamed, as well as Prince William and Prince Harry, aboard the Jonikal earlier that summer. As depicted in The Crown ’s season six episode “Persona Non Grata,” that first Jonikal vacation featured Jet Skis and a flirtation between Diana and the flotilla of press nearby. 

“The young princes didn’t like [the trip] much,” Tina Brown writes in The Palace Papers. “The flash and excess of [Mohamed’s] hospitality—the groaning buffets and the palatial bathrooms—embarrassed William in particular.” Dodi, who was asked by his father to join the trip midway, did not help matters by making the “oddly flamboyant gesture of renting a disco for William and Harry to enjoy privately,” according to royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith in Diana in Search of Herself.

Mohamed was a controversial figure who long craved social acceptance by the British elite, and hoped a relationship between his son and the recently-divorced Diana would seal the deal. 

During the summer of 1997, the billionaire ordered Dodi to drop everything—including his model fiancée, Kelly Fisher —and romance the late princess. Speaking about Mohamed, Bedell Smith previously told Vanity Fair, “He was really the puppet master behind Dodi and Diana’s very brief, barely more than a month, romance…. Dodi basically did whatever his father told him to do.”

Diana’s association with Mohamed caused serious backlash in the press. “These days, Diana, you are no longer the Teflon Princess,” warned Andrew Morton , the biographer behind her bridge-burning tell-all, Diana: Her True Story, in The Sun. “You might have the run of a £20 million yacht, but your friends and fans see a woman who is drifting on the sea of life, seriously in danger of becoming shipwrecked.” Referring to Diana’s cat-and-mouse game with the paparazzi during that initial trip, columnist Judith Whelan wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald, “Diana has been erratic before. This time, however, she has done it while hosted by one of the most reviled men in Britain.”

Despite the press outrage over her association with Mohamed, Diana agreed to return to the Jonikal for the intimate trip reimagined in “Two Photographs.” “Alone in August and attracted to [Dodi], [a] sympathetic, unthreatening listener, she accepted the invitation for a second trip alone with Dodi to the Jonikal on 31 July,” wrote Bower in Fayed. “Over the next six days…the two frolicked on the sundecks, inside the sumptuous craft and in the sea.”

Dodi indulged Diana with her favorite meals—“which included carrot juice in the morning, fruit at lunch, and fish in the evening, as well as plenty of Champagne, caviar, and pâté de foie gras,” according to Diana in Search of Herself. The music was Diana’s selection as well: George Michael’s 1996 album, Older, the occasional Frank Sinatra tune, and the soundtrack of The English Patient. “Such a marvelous film,” Diana raved to Dodi’s butler, Rene Delorm, according to Fayed. “And you miss the music when you’re watching.”

By Karen Valby

By Anthony Breznican

By David Canfield

Mohamed’s staff was so attentive to Diana that the Jonikal ’s chief stewardess, Deborah Gribble, could remember the tiniest detail, like that some of Diana’s birth control packets were half-used. Speaking at the inquest, she also confirmed that Dodi and Diana “were clearly having a relationship and were a couple.”

Dodi lavished Diana with gifts during their six-week courtship, including a pearl bracelet, a diamond-studded wristwatch, a silver photo frame, and a gold-and-diamond ring. When the Jonikal docked in Sardinia’s Porto Cervo, according to Brown’s The Diana Chronicles, Diana and Dodi went shopping and returned with cashmere sweaters for the princess—one in every color. 

Mohamed, meanwhile, was busy behind the scenes calling press. News of the relationship between Diana and Dodi broke the first week of August, less than a month before Diana’s death. The Sun ran the news with the headline “Di’s Secret Hol With Harrods Hunk Dodi,” while Mohamed’s publicist touted the relationship as “the romance of the century.”

But by the end of the trip, according to those who knew Diana, she intended their fling to be just that. The late princess suspected that Dodi might propose to her, according to Brown, but she told a friend that an engagement ring would be “going firmly on the fourth finger of my right hand” should it be presented. As recreated in “Two Pictures,” there was “a chaotic evening ashore in Monte Carlo when Dodi suddenly decided to send for the tender and take the princess for a walk.” Rather than going for a romantic stroll, however, Dodi “got her lost after a long pant up a hill trying to evade the paparazzi,” Brown writes. 

It was so embarrassing, she continues, that Trevor Rees-Jones, a bodyguard on Mohamed’s payroll, “began to feel sorry for the princess; he believed she deserved better.”

According to Gribble, Dodi also became impatient with the amount of press attention Diana was receiving.

“The tension was noticeable throughout the trip and increasing as time wore on,” Gribble revealed during the inquest. “By the time we went to Paris, there was real tension. It was incredible. It was all so tense.” 

Days before her fatal accident, Diana called her sister from the Jonikal, confiding that any love spell cast on her earlier had been broken. While she did not get into specifics, Sarah McCorquodale later told the court, “I just did not think the relationship had much longer to go.”

During that final trip on the Jonikal, Diana was photographed sitting alone on a diving board in an aqua swimsuit. The image remains so iconic that, 26 years after it was taken, Netflix recreated the visual in its promotional materials for The Crown ’s sixth season.

Contrary to what the photo showed, though, Diana was never really alone. By the end of the cruise, the princess suspected that Mohamed was doing more than periodically checking in with the Jonikal staff. As McCorquodale revealed during the inquest, “She thought the boat was being bugged by Mr. Al Fayed Senior.”

More Great Stories About The Crown

How The Crown ’s William and Harry Mirror Their Real-Life Relationship

See The Crown ’s Season 6 Cast and Their Real-Life Counterparts

The Crown ’s Kate Middleton on Recreating the Princess’s College Years

Did Carole Middleton Mastermind Will and Kate’s Relationship?

Inside Queen Elizabeth’s Existential Moment

Discover the British Royal Family Tree , From Queen Elizabeth II to Lilibet Diana

Listen to Still Watching for More Coverage of The Crown ’s Final Season

Julie Miller

Hollywood correspondent.

The Crown Season 6

The Crown Is Dead, Long Live The Crown

Episode 5: Welcome to Willsmania

How The Crown ’s William and Harry Mirrored the Real-Life Royals’ Relationship

Episode 6: What’s the Monarchy Good for, Anyway?

Episode 7: When William Met Kate

Kate and William’s Real-Life College Romances

Did Carole Middleton Really Mastermind Kate and Prince William’s Relationship?

Episode 8: Lesley Manville Says Ta-Ta to Princess Margaret

Episode 9: All About the Fashion Show Where Kate Snared William

The Crown Finale Revisits Prince Harry’s Nazi-Costume Scandal

Inside The Crown ’s Three-Queen Farewell

By Kase Wickman

By Erin Vanderhoof

By Chris Murphy

By Eve Batey

By Hadley Hall Meares

By Savannah Walsh

What Really Happened During Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed’s Vacation?

The Crown depicts her jaunts on Mohamed Al-Fayed’s yacht, the Jonikal, where her romance with Dodi kicked off.

Every item on this page was chosen by an ELLE editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

Diana was invited by Mohamed, a friend and businessman, to vacation in Saint-Tropez with her sons in July 1997. The Harrods owner would also goad his own son to join, too. The invitation came at a good time, after a few rough blows for Diana: Prince Charles was throwing a lavish birthday party for Camilla Parker Bowles at Highgrove, the house he and Diana once shared. And she had just broken up with surgeon Hasnat Khan, due to the media frenzy around their relationship. It was the month before William and Harry would be at Balmoral with their father and the rest of the royals, who no longer accepted her. So off she went, straight to the $20 million yacht that Fayed bought just before the trip to impress her—Tina Brown writes in The Diana Chronicles .

Prince Harry has looked back fondly at that trip, mostly because of the quality time they spent with their mom. “Actually, we’d been with Mummy weeks earlier when she first met him [Dodi], in St. Tropez,” he writes in her memoir Spare , per Today . “We were having a grand time, just the three of us, staying at some old gent’s villa.

“There was much laughter, horseplay, the norm whenever Mummy and Willy and I were together, though even more so on that holiday. Everything about that trip to St. Tropez was heaven. The weather was sublime, the food was tasty, Mummy was smiling.”

But the cameras followed her, like they always did. The Crown depicts photographers sailing out toward the Jonikal to snap images of the princess sunbathing and swimming in her one-piece. It also shows her approaching the boats filled with paparazzi to forge a deal: She’ll pose for them for a few shots if they’ll leave her and her kids alone.

Part of this is true. The New York Times reported in 1997 that Diana was quite cooperative with the press, at least during the first trip in July: “Three times, on separate occasions, she went out to the sea front and jumped off a small pier into the water, with photographers around her. Then, after leaving for 10 days with Mr. Fayed on the boat trip during which the photographs of the embracing couple were taken, she returned.”

“It was clear enough to all of us that she wanted to show the British establishment she was free,” Frederic Garcia, who photographed Diana on the trip, told the paper at the time. But her and the Al-Fayeds’ exasperation with the media grew after helicopters flew over the boat, according to the NYT .

Perhaps her openness to being photographed was her response to Camilla’s birthday party. “She just wanted to make the people at Balmoral as angry as possible,” her friend, art collector Lord Palumbo, told Brown. Now it wasn’t just a revenge dress; it was a revenge photo shoot with revenge swimsuits on a revenge vacation.

Brown even writes that the biggest photos from the trip, of the princess kissing a shirtless Dodi on the boat, “were the direct result of tips from Diana herself.” After they were published, she called photographer Jason Fraser, who “was in cahoots” with Mario Brenna, who shot the images, to ask why the pictures were so grainy. But she wasn’t the only one working with the press. Mohamed also had a publicist tip gossip columns on her and Dodi’s whereabouts and frame their getaway as a sensational romance, according to Brown.

Meanwhile, Dodi was juggling this burgeoning love story with another one. He was already engaged when he first joined Diana on the boat at his father’s behest in July. His fiancée was Kelly Fisher , an American actress and model, and their wedding was scheduled for the following month, on August 9, 1997. He had even left Fisher in Paris to board the Jonikal in St. Tropez. She joined later but, just as it’s shown in The Crown , she was relegated to a different Al-Fayed boat, where Dodi would visit her at night, Brown writes. Fisher soon caught on. In August, she sued Dodi for breach of contract, and was represented by high-profile lawyer Gloria Allred. But she withdrew the suit after his death.

In Spare , Harry remembered thinking Dodi was “cheeky” but overall was content with the relationship: “As long as Mummy’s happy, I told Willy, who said, he felt the same.” But Brown reported in her 2007 book that Prince William grew concerned. He told friends it was weird that they were on vacation with what seemed like a “substitute family.” When photos of Diana and Dodi on the boat were published, William complained to her that the boys at school would mock him for it.

After doing significant charity work in Bosnia with land mine victims, Diana reconvened with Dodi on the Jonikal in August. “The fact that she came back for a second visit so soon really shows her loneliness more than it does a passion for Dodi,” Dominick Dunne reported for Vanity Fair in 2008. But the privacy—or whatever amount of it that they had—might have appealed to her. “A splendid yacht. A helicopter. A private plane. Guards to keep the paparazzi at bay. She probably knew that she was being used by a social climber for his and his son’s advancement in London society, but in high society it was a fair deal. Each benefited.”

Dodi and Diana’s romance would be short-lived, but he showered her with gifts during their six-week relationship, including a pearl bracelet and diamond wristwatch, according to Vanity Fair . With him, the princess felt “so taken care of,” her confidant Lady Elsa Bowker told Brown. And on top of that, he was a “sympathetic, unthreatening listener,” wrote Tom Bower, author of Mohamed Al-Fayed’s unauthorized biography.

But their relationship probably wasn’t going to be a lasting one. According to Brown, Diana suspected Dodi might propose to her, but told a friend that the ring would go “firmly on the fourth finger of my right hand,” meaning she would not have accepted. Her sister Sarah McCorquodale later testified, “I just did not think the relationship had much longer to go.”

It’s been believed that the romance was even orchestrated by Mohamed himself. According to Bower, the older Al-Fayed would check in on Dodi and Diana during the trip (which is also portrayed in The Crown this season). McCorquodale also told the court that Diana “thought the boat was being bugged by Mr Al-Fayed Senior.”

On that second trip in August, Diana and Dodi were photographed together in the South of France and Sardinia, before heading to Paris for their tragic final days. There, they would be chased by cameras again for the last time.

The Very New Life of Meg Bellamy

How Did William and Kate Actually Meet?

When Do New Episodes of 'The Crown' Come Out?

Did Prince William Run Away After Diana’s Death?

Royal Outfits That Were Recreated on 'The Crown'

Elizabeth Debicki on Filming Princess Diana Scenes

Did Dodi Propose to Diana? 'The Crown' Thinks So.

A Timeline of Dodi and Diana's Romance

Who Was Dodi Fayed's Ex-Girlfriend, Kelly Fisher?

Who Is the Real Mohamed Al-Fayed?

'The Crown' Season 6 Trailer Is All Diana

• Motorcycles
• Car of the Month
• Destinations
• Men’s Fashion
• Watch Collector
• Art & Collectibles
• Vacation Homes
• Celebrity Homes
• New Construction
• Home Design
• Electronics
• Fine Dining
• Aston Martin
• L’Atelier
• Les Marquables de Martell
• Panther National
• Reynolds Lake Oconee
• 672 Wine Club
• Sports & Leisure
• Health & Wellness
• Best of the Best
• The Ultimate Gift Guide

Boat of the Week: Meet ‘Cujo,’ the 80-Foot Yacht Where Late Movie Producer Dodi Al-Fayed Once Wooed Princess Diana

The couple spent some of their final summer cruising around saint-tropez aboard this fast, military-looking yacht., howard walker, howard walker's most recent stories.

• This 112-Foot Superyacht Has an Interior That’ll Make Your Manhattan Condo Jealous
• This 1967 Shelby GT500 Has Been Reimagined to Perfection. Now It’s up for Grabs.
• One of Ferrari’s Earliest Formula 1 Cars Is Now Up for Grabs
• Share This Article

For a few brief weeks back in the summer of 1997, Cujo was the most famous boat in the world.

Not because of her intimidating military lines, or blistering 40-knot performance. It’s because Diana, Princess of Wales, hung out aboard in Saint-Tropez with the boat’s owner, and romantic partner Dodi Al-Fayed.

Countless paparazzi shots show the once future Queen of England on Cujo‘s narrow sidedecks, soaking up the Mediterranean sun. By the end of August that year, both Diana and Dodi would be dead after that fatal car wreck in Paris.

Related Stories

• Forget the Batmobile. Pininfarina Just Unveiled 4 Bruce Wayne-Inspired Electric Hypercars.
• Aston Martin Has a New Hand-Built V-12 Engine for Its Next Supercar
• This Rare 1984 Lamborghini Is the Countach’s Forgotten Sibling. It’s Now Heading to Auction.

Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed spent some of their final summer cruising around Saint-Tropez aboard Cujo .  Courtesy Patrick Bar-Nice Matin/AP Images

Yet this rakish 80-footer was a headliner long before Diana stepped on board. Her first owner was Austrian Johnny Von Neumann, an entrepreneur, playboy and passionate sports-car racer who became the largest Porsche-VW distributor in the US.

In 1972, Von Neumann commissioned the Italian shipyard Baglietto to build him a boat with one goal: It had to go fast—faster than any other motoryacht on the water. To deliver, the shipyard installed twin 54-liter V-18 turbo diesels delivering a combined 2,700 horsepower.

Flat out, Cujo —said to be an ancient Indian word meaning “unstoppable force”—could easily top 40 knots, or 46 mph. Von Neumann blasted up and down the Cote d’Azur for a few years before ordering an even faster Baglietto—this time with jet turbine power. He sold Cujo to arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi who, at the time, was reckoned to be the richest man in the world.

The fast, military exterior gives way to an almost old-fashioned cockpit with wood cabinets and leather seats.  Courtesy Simon Kidston

Khashoggi eventually passed the boat on to his nephew Dodi Al-Fayed, who immediately sent her to the CARM shipyard in Lavagna, Italy, for a full refit.

Back in Saint-Tropez, and moored in her reserved spot on the town’s main quay outside the famed Le Sénéquier restaurant, Fayed would invite many of his Hollywood friends for a cruise. During the summers, everyone from Clint Eastwood, Tony Curtis, Bruce Willis and one-time girlfriend, Brooke Shields, were seen aboard.

Following Dodi and Diana’s death, Cujo quickly fell into disrepair. Decommissioned in 1999, she was hauled out at the CARM yard and spent several years in storage.

The main salon is smaller than many contemporary 80-foot motoryachts, but few other boats its size have the same 40-knots-plus top end.  Courtesy Simon Kidston

The boat was eventually rescued by Dodi’s cousin Moody Al-Fayed, who spent over $1 million bringing her back to life. Part of the work included uprating those massive diesels to deliver 1,650 hp each.

Now fast forward to February last year. After two summers of cruising Cujo around Sardinia and Italy’s Amalfi coast, Moody decided to sell. Strangely, he entered the boat in the Retromobile classic car auction in Paris.

That’s where well-known British car collector, buyer, seller and restorer Simon Kidston appeared. Kidston had spied Cujo in the Retromobile auction catalog, read that it was being sold by his old school-friend Fayed, and decided to bid.

The 1972 Baglietto has innovative features like the amidships helm and social area, and two sunbeds on the foredeck.  Courtesy Simon Kidston

“On the day of the auction, I was tied up with clients so asked a colleague to go down and take a look. I told him that if it was going cheaply, put in a bid for a bit of fun,” Kidston tells Robb Report .

“The bidding opened at just 150,000 Euros—that’s around $165,000. My colleague bid 160,000 Euros,” says Kidston. “Trouble was, no one else bid. The hammer went down and I had bought a boat. The feeling was a mix of excitement, tinged with terror.”

Unfortunately, just as Simon took delivery of Cujo at Lavagna, where she was moored, Europe was starting to lock down with the coronavirus pandemic.

The internal helm station is outfitted with modern electronics, but in a nod to its historic past, the wheel is definitely old school.  Courtesy Simon Kidston

But he did get to take her out during a video shoot in and around Portofino  for his YouTube channel Kidston Productions, where the boat meets up with Simon’s own ’70s Lamborghini Miura supercar. Entitled A Portofino Affair, the footage of Cujo at speed is breathtaking.

“She has immense presence,” said Kidston. “No boat of its size commands that kind of attention when she comes into a harbor.” Especially an Italian harbor when nervous local boat owners think she’s with the financial police.

“As you’d expect, those engines have tons and tons of performance,” Kidston adds. “We’ve seen 41 knots. But they have a very different sound than I was expecting; instead of a roar from the exhausts, there’s this amazing whistle from the turbos.”

The diesel engines were upgraded from the original 2,700 to 3,300 horsepower.  Courtesy Simon Kidston

While Kidston and his family had planned to cruise the Med this summer, the car enthusiast received an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“A young member of a prominent Italian business family—he’s 30 years old—had seen Cujo in Lavagna, fallen in love with her and asked if she was for sale,” he says. “He took delivery last week, just in time for his birthday.”

Read More On:

• Motor Vessel

More Marine

Forget a Crow’s Nest. This 207-Foot Explorer Yacht Concept Has Its Own Pop-Up Observatory.

American Magic Just Unveiled Its Sleek New America’s Cup Race Boat

The CEO of Jefferies Just Sold $65 Million in Shares to Buy a Yacht

Forget Pools. This New 131-Foot ‘Mini-Megayacht’ Is Fronted by an Infinity Jacuzzi.

Culinary Masters 2024

MAY 17 - 19 Join us for extraordinary meals from the nation’s brightest culinary minds.

Give the Gift of Luxury

Latest Galleries in Marine

The 12 Best Water Safaris Around the World, From Antarctic Cruises to Botswana River Journeys

EXO-X Explorer Yacht in Photos

More from our brands, airbnb brings animated home interiors to life in ‘icons’ experiences inspired by ‘up,’ ‘x-men 97’ and more with immersive stays around the world, lsu’s livvy dunne joins passes in company’s first nil deal, richard tandy, elo’s longtime keyboardist and the voice of ‘mr. blue sky,’ dies at 76, art students and faculty join pro-palestine college protests, lawsuit ends over ‘fearless girl’ sculpture, saudi artist arrested, and more: morning links for may 1, 2024, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors.

Yacht that Princess Diana spent last summer on with Dodi Al-Fayed sinks to bottom of Mediterranean

Cujo, which made front-page news around the world back in the summer of 1997 when Diana was entertained on board a year after her divorce from Prince Charles, went down in 2500m (8200ft) of water.

Thursday 3 August 2023 17:00, UK

A motor yacht used by Princess Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed on their final summer holiday in the South of France before they died in a Paris car crash has sunk.

The 19m (62ft) Cujo went down 21 miles (35km) off Beaulieu-sur-Mer after sending out a mayday call last Saturday.

The seven people on board the luxury vessel, which was taking on water, were rescued by teams from Antibes before it sank to the bottom of the Mediterranean at a depth of 2500m (8200ft).

They were safely returned to shore.

The area was monitored for pollution as the boat sank with 7,000 litres of diesel in its tanks.

Cujo made front page news around the world back in the summer of 1997 when Al-Fayed entertained Diana onboard, a year after her divorce from Prince Charles, which was finalised in August 1996.

That summer, Diana was also photographed on Sokar, the yacht then owned by al Fayed's billionaire father Mohamed.

More on France

Gerard Depardieu: French actor to face trial over sexual assault allegations

Moulin Rouge: Windmill blades fall off overnight

Bill Gladden: D-Day veteran who flew glider into France and survived being shot by a tank, dies, aged 100

Related Topics:

• Princess Diana

It had previously been named Jonikal.

Cujo was built in Italy in 1972 for businessman John von Neumann who told the Italian Baglietto shipyard that he wanted the world's fastest motor yacht.

She was fitted with two 18-cylinder engines giving her a top speed of 42 knots.

Van Neumann then sold the boat to the son of Saudi businessman and arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and he sold her on to his cousin, al Fayed.

Cujo was frequently moored off St Tropez, a famous celebrity hangout on the French Riviera, with guests including Clint Eastwood, Tony Curtis and Bruce Willis.

Following the death of Diana and Al-Fayed in central Paris on 31 August 1997, Cujo fell into disrepair.

She was decommissioned in 1999, and spent years in storage, before being restored by new owners.

Be the first to get Breaking News

Install the Sky News app for free

Related Topics

• Today's news
• Reviews and deals
• Climate change
• 2024 election
• Fall allergies
• Health news
• Mental health
• Sexual health
• Family health
• So mini ways
• Unapologetically
• Buying guides

Entertainment

• How to Watch
• My watchlist
• Stock market
• Biden economy
• Personal finance
• Stocks: most active
• Stocks: gainers
• Stocks: losers
• Trending tickers
• World indices
• US Treasury bonds
• Top mutual funds
• Highest open interest
• Highest implied volatility
• Currency converter
• Basic materials
• Communication services
• Consumer cyclical
• Consumer defensive
• Financial services
• Industrials
• Real estate
• Mutual funds
• Credit cards
• Balance transfer cards
• Cash back cards
• Rewards cards
• Travel cards
• Online checking
• High-yield savings
• Money market
• Home equity loan
• Personal loans
• Student loans
• Options pit
• Fantasy football
• Pro Pick 'Em
• College Pick 'Em
• Fantasy baseball
• Fantasy hockey
• Fantasy basketball
• Download the app
• Daily fantasy
• Scores and schedules
• GameChannel
• World Baseball Classic
• Premier League
• CONCACAF League
• Champions League
• Motorsports
• Horse racing
• Newsletters

New on Yahoo

• Privacy Dashboard

Inside the Superyacht Princess Diana Vacationed on With Dodi Fayed

T he Crown’s sixth season debuts this week on Netflix, chronicling the final weeks before Princess Diana’s untimely death in a car crash in Paris in August 1997. Amid the heart-wrenching moments that are sure to unfold, there’s one backdrop that will be a refreshing departure from the stately, windowless halls of the queen’s palatial residences : the multimillion-dollar super yacht that Princess Diana spent aboard touring St. Tropez just days before her death.

It was hot gossip, this adventure that the princess took abroad after having finalized her divorce from then Prince Charles less than a year before—something that was hinted at at the end of season 5 of The Crown as Queen Elizabeth is pressed to endorse a vacation at sea with Fayed and her grandchildren, Prince Harry and Prince William. Diana was famously photographed sitting on the passerelle of this boat. Years later, in real life, Harry described the trip in his memoir, Spare , with fond recollection. “Everything about that trip to St. Tropez was heaven,” he wrote.

While the series was filmed on a lookalike super yacht in Mallorca , the real boat was equally lavish. The 208-foot ship was commissioned by Dodi’s father, former Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, who brought on naval architect Vincenzo Ruggiero to design it in the late 1980s. It was built by Italian shipyard Codecasa and launched in 1990. The steel and aluminum super yacht boasted nine staterooms that altogether accommodate up to 18 people, in addition to a crew of 26. Amenities included a Jacuzzi, swim platform, sun deck, formal dining room, a bar, and office space. Mohamed had named the yacht Jonikal (it has subsequently been called Sokar and is currently called Bash ) .

Shortly after Diana’s and Dodi’s deaths, Mohamed gave the interior a redesign by H2 Yacht Design and a refit that included extending the hull. He attempted to sell the yacht on a number of occasions, ultimately parting with it in 2014 to an anonymous buyer. The new owner carried out further work, including machinery upgrades, a repaint, and fresh teak decks. In 2021, the yacht came into the hands of Bassim Haidar , the founder of Intercomm and GMT, who gave it a further $9.7 million refit after a reported bridge deck fire—and its current name Bash . It’s now back to turn-key condition after an 18-month remodel completed in April 2023 by marine engineering and management company Capax and boat interior company Bobic Yacht Interiors . It features a beauty salon, massage area, high-tech gym, and a spacious main salon.

In May, Robb Report reported that Bash is available for charter in the Mediterranean starting at $278,000 per week, plus expenses. In June, Haidar listed Bash for $16.8 million, according to Boat International .

There was a second motor yacht named Cujo, which Diana and Fayed also took earlier that summer. It was built in Italy in 1972 for John von Neumann, who commissioned the Italian Baglietto shipyard to build the world's fastest motor yacht. She was given two 18-cylinder engines that allowed it to go as fast as 42 knots. Fayed had bought the boat from his cousin, Saudi businessman and arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. In August, the Mediterranean Sea reclaimed Cujo, as the 62-foot artifact of Diana’s life hit an unidentified object off Beaulieu-sur-Mer on July 29 and sprang a leak, Vanity Fair reported. The seven people on board were rescued by teams from Antibes and safely returned to shore.

An imitation of Jonikal will feature in The Crown season 6, a set that was intended to visually illuminate the tension between Diana and the royal family. “Diana’s south of France adventure was bright and lovely pastel colors, and her world even in Kensington Palace is optimistic and warm, compared to the queen’s residence at Balmoral, which is very static, with gloomy light and drab colors,” set decorator Alison Harvey told ELLE DECOR.

Filming on the yacht off the island of Mallorca (a St. Tropez stand-in) required many moving parts with few do-overs. “We brought in the drapes, the artwork, many furnishings,” Harvey explains. “Everything was set in the early ’90s, so we thought hard about the colors and textures that we brought in.” Harvey’s team had just half a day to dress the yacht, and then it was off to sea. “There was no getting on or off after that,” Harvey says, adding that they were “subsumed by the logistics of what we had to achieve and the time we had to do it.”

However painstaking the process, the yacht scenes will offer an intriguing context—though largely fictitious—for the iconic photographs that exist of those final weeks leading up to Diana’s death.

You Might Also Like

Spectacular Gifts for the Most Stylish Women in Your Life

16 Gorgeous Indoor Plants for Homes of All Sizes

Recommended Stories

2024 nfl draft grades: denver broncos earn one of our lowest grades mostly due to one pick.

Yahoo Sports' Charles McDonald breaks down the Broncos' 2024 draft.

NFL Power Rankings, draft edition: Did Patriots fix their offensive issues?

Which teams did the best in the NFL Draft?

Formula 1: Miami Grand Prix sends cease and desist letter to prevent Donald Trump fundraiser during race

Race organizers say they'll revoke a Trump fundraiser's suite license if he holds an event for the former president on Sunday at the race.

NFL Draft: Packers fan upset with team's 1st pick, and Lions fans hilariously rubbed it in

Not everyone was thrilled with their team's draft on Thursday night.

Does castor oil really help with hair growth? We asked the experts, and their answer may surprise you

It's inexpensive, but is it effective? Dermatologists' verdict is in — and it's unanimous.

New details emerge in alleged gambling ring behind Shohei Ohtani-Ippei Mizuhara scandal

It turns out the money was going from Ohtani's bank account to an illegal bookie to ... casinos.

CVS stock plunges after earnings numbers one analyst 'did not even believe'

CVS warns it could cede Medicare Advantage market share as reimbursement rates pressure the company.

The best RBs for 2024 fantasy football according to our experts

The Yahoo Fantasy football analysts reveal their first running back rankings for the 2024 season.

NFL Draft grades for all 32 teams | Zero Blitz

Jason Fitz and Frank Schwab join forces to recap the draft in the best way they know how: letter grades! Fitz and Frank discuss all 32 teams division by division as they give a snapshot of how fans should be feeling heading into the 2024 season. The duo have key debates on the Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, New Orleans Saints, Los Angeles Rams, New England Patriots, Las Vegas Raiders and more.

Canelo Álvarez and Oscar De La Hoya erupt in heated exchange ahead of title bout with Jaime Munguía

Canelo Álvarez is set to defend his title against undefeated Jaime Munguía on Saturday in Las Vegas.

UK Edition Change

• UK Politics
• News Videos
• Paris 2024 Olympics
• Rugby Union
• Sport Videos
• John Rentoul
• Mary Dejevsky
• Andrew Grice
• Sean O’Grady
• Photography
• Theatre & Dance
• Culture Videos
• Fitness & Wellbeing
• Food & Drink
• Health & Families
• Royal Family
• Electric Vehicles
• Car Insurance Deals
• Lifestyle Videos
• UK Hotel Reviews
• News & Advice
• Simon Calder
• Australia & New Zealand
• South America
• C. America & Caribbean
• Middle East
• Politics Explained
• News Analysis
• Today’s Edition
• Home & Garden
• Broadband deals
• Fashion & Beauty
• Travel & Outdoors
• Sports & Fitness
• Sustainable Living
• Climate Videos
• Solar Panels
• Behind The Headlines
• On The Ground
• Decomplicated
• You Ask The Questions
• Binge Watch
• Travel Smart
• Watch on your TV
• Crosswords & Puzzles
• Most Commented
• Newsletters
• Ask Me Anything
• Virtual Events
• Betting Sites
• Online Casinos
• Wine Offers

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in

Yacht used by Princess Diana and lover Dodi Fayed on final summer holiday sinks

Seven people on board were rescued following the accident off the coast of france, article bookmarked.

Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world

Sign up to our free morning headlines email, thanks for signing up to the morning headlines email.

The world-famous celebrity yacht used by Princess Diana on her final summer holiday in France has sunk to the bottom of the sea.

Cujo, once also a favourite of Hollywood superstars, disappeared below the Mediterranean waves after hitting an unidentified object off Beaulieu-sur-Mer, on the French Riviera, on Saturday.

Seven people on board were rescued following the accident, but the boat ended up at a depth of almost 2500m around 18 nautical miles off the coast.

“The skipper of the Cujo issued a Mayday,” said one officer. “His ship was sinking due to a leak.

“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.”

• The Princess Diana Beanie Baby led to the strangest toy craze of the Nineties: ‘It was like the crown jewels!’
• Princess Diana’s iconic red gown from 1991 movie premiere is going up for auction
• Kate Middleton’s fans defend her after Vogue editor calls her taste in jewellery a ‘disappointment’
• Kate Middleton’s most significant jewellery pieces
• Famous Princess Diana jumper goes on display ahead of Sotheby’s auction

All of those on board, including the Cujo‘s Italian owner, were placed in a rescue boat, and taken back to shore uninjured.

Reports about Cujo - an Indian word that means ‘Unstoppable Force’ - dominated the media in August 1997, when it was owned by Diana’s boyfriend, Dodi Al-Fayed.

The multi-millionaire film producer had spent some £1m refitting the boat, and wooed Diana on board, as the world’s media looked on.

This was shortly before the couple died in a car crash in central Paris caused by their drunk driver.

That summer, Diana was also photographed on Sokar, the yacht then owned by Al-Fayed’s father, retail billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed.

Cujo was built in Italy in 1972 for businessman John von Neumann after he told Italy’s Baglietto shipyard that he wanted the world’s fastest motor yacht.

She was fitted with two 18-cylinder engines that ensured she had a top speed of 42 knots.

Van Neumann then sold the boat to the son of Adnan Khashoggi, the world’s richest arms dealer, and he sold her on to his cousin, Dodi Al-Fayed.

Cujo was frequently moored off St Tropez, the most famous celebrity hotspot on the Riviera, with celebrity guests including Clint Eastwood, Tony Curtis and Bruce Willis on board.

Following the death of Princess Diana and Mr Al-Fayed, Cujo fell into disrepair.

She was decommissioned in 1999, and spent years in storage, before being restored by new owners.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.

New to The Independent?

Or if you would prefer:

Want an ad-free experience?

Hi {{indy.fullName}}

• My Independent Premium
• Account details
• Help centre

Accessibility Links

Princess Diana, Dodi Fayed and the story behind my brother’s boat

The sinking of the yacht on which the princess and the film producer holidayed is just the latest twist in its colourful past. i should know, says petra khashoggi.

Challenge yourself with today’s puzzles.

O n July 29 a famous yacht hit an unidentified object 21 miles off the French Riviera from Beaulieu-sur-Mer. The seven people on board were evacuated unharmed as the 80ft luxury speedboat sank to the bottom of the Mediterranean. The name of the vessel was Cujo , once owned by Dodi Fayed and splashed across the world’s front pages during the summer of 1997 while he was on the Riviera with his girlfriend, Diana, Princess of Wales.

It was less than a year after Diana’s divorce from Prince Charles and Diana’s first summer of freedom from the royal family, and, some might say, the beginning of a true love story. Days later Dodi and the princess were killed in a Paris car crash by a drunk

Related articles

Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed's iconic love boat is now at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea

• The yacht on which Princess Diana holidayed with Dodi Fayed is now at the bottom of the sea, per The Times .
• The boat, named Cujo, sank after it collided with an unidentified object off the French Riviera.
• Cujo has changed hands multiple times in recent years and was most recently owned by a wealthy Italian family.

The yacht where Princess Diana spent part of her last summer with Dodi Fayed has sunk to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.

The boat, named Cujo, sank on July 29 after colliding with an unidentified object off Beaulieu-sur-Mer on the French Riviera, The Times reported.

The Gendarmerie des Alpes-Maritimes uploaded a statement onto their Facebook page confirming that they responded to a distress call from a boat that was in trouble about 35 kilometers, or 22 miles, off the coast.

By the time the coast guards arrived at the scene, the yacht was already partially submerged.

"The distressed yacht is already starting to sink from the front and the 7 shipwrecked are just next to it in a life raft," the statement said. "The cabins of the yacht are already flooded, only a few suitcases located in the kitchen and on the deck can be retrieved."

Related stories

The Gendarmerie des Alpes-Maritimes added that they would remain in the area to monitor pollution because the yacht sank with almost 7,000 liters of diesel in its tanks.

When Insider reached out to the Gendarmerie des Alpes-Maritimes for direct confirmation of the boat's identity, the organization told Insider "to search via Google."

Cujo made international headlines in 1997 when Princess Diana was photographed onboard with its then-owner Fayed, per Robb Report .

That summer, Princess Diana was also photographed onboard another yacht owned by Fayed's father, the Jonikal — which was subsequently renamed Sokar, per The Times.

Mere weeks later, the two of them died in a car crash in Paris while trying to escape the paparazzi.

Following their deaths, Cujo fell into disrepair and was decommissioned in 1999, per Robb Report. After a few years in storage, Fayed's cousin, Moody Al-Fayed, spent over $1 million restoring the boat before he sold it to a British car collector Simon Kidston for €160,000, or $175,400.

Kidston subsequently sold the boat to its current owner in 2021, he told Robb Report.

"A young member of a prominent Italian business family—he's 30 years old—had seen Cujoin Lavagna, fallen in love with her and asked if she was for sale," Kidston told Robb Report.

Watch: The rise and fall of the cruise industry

• Main content

Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed's South of France superyacht is up for sale

By Dora Davies-Evitt

Diana, Princess Of Wales is seen in St Tropez in the summer of 1997

Since her death in August 1997, the late Diana, Princess of Wales's last months have been described as some of her happiest. During the weeks before the tragic car accident that would kill them both, the princess took a blissful tour through the Mediterranean aboard a superyacht with her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed. At the time, a photograph of the pair kissing atop the vessel's sun deck made headlines around the world. Now, 25 years on, the multi-million-pound boat, which is loaded with memories of the princess's final summer, is up for sale. 

The luxury vessel was bought by Mohamed Al-Fayed, former owner of Harrods and father of Fayed. Following the death of his son, Al-Fayed attempted to sell the yacht several times before it was finally purchased in 2014. Most recently the boat was owned by billionaire entrepreneur Bassim Haidar, who apparently has a ‘great affection for the ocean’. With reported plans to upgrade to a larger vessel, Haidar is parting with the 64m boat just a year after its purchase. The superyacht does not presently have an advertised price, although it was last sold for $10,000,000 (approximately £8,186,300). 

By Isaac Bickerstaff

By Ben Jureidini

Currently named Bash , the vessel has previously been called Jonikal , then Sokar. According to House and Garden , the yacht was designed by naval architect Vincenzo Ruggiero in the 1980s and built by the superyacht building firm Codecasa before launching in 1990. Lined with wood panelling and coffered ceilings, the interiors are suggestive of the Arts and Crafts style of the fin de siècle. With features such as a jacuzzi, swim platform, a formal dining room, main saloon, a bar, and office space, the boat is far from lacking in luxury spaces.

Fayed and Diana first met at a polo match in Windsor in 1986, while the royal was still married to Prince Charles. A year following Diana's divorce, the couple enjoyed a fleeting and jet-set romance, spending time in the South of France and Sardinia before they flew to Paris in August 1997. It was during their visit to the French capital that the pair were both devastatingly killed in a traffic collision, following their brief stay at the Hôtel Ritz. 

Subscribe now to get 3 issues for just £1, plus free home delivery and free instant access to the digital editions.

By Rebecca Cope

By Harriet Johnston

By Chandler Tregaskes

Princess Diana's relationship with Dodi Al-Fayed has always been met with a great deal of interest and curiosity from royal watchers around the globe. After  Diana's divorce from then-Prince Charles , she and Al-Fayed began dating in 1997, the year they both tragically died. 

Diana and Al-Fayed would spend the summer months together, vacationing in the South of France just days before a car crash in Paris would claim their lives. According to the Daily Mail , the couple spent time on Dodi's luxury yacht named "Cujo." The boat ended up being a playground for the lovers, who were often photographed by paparazzi as they continued getting to know one another. 

Flash forward to 2023, and Cujo is no more. The yacht sunk to the bottom of the ocean on the French Riviera after hitting an object,  The Times of London reports. The incident was considered an emergency and a rescue for the seven people onboard ensued.

All 7 people on 'Cujo' were rescued

On July 29, a call was made by the boat's skipper about Cujo taking on water, local police said (via the Daily Mail). Thankfully, all seven people on board were rescued safely and were not harmed, despite the scary situation. Now, reports indicate that the boat is almost 8,000 feet below the surface of the ocean, resting in the Mediterranean Sea just about 18 miles off the coast of Nice, France. 

The yacht was built in Italy in 1972. Over the years, many celebrity guests, such as Clint Eastwood and Bruce Willis, have spent time on Cujo on the French Riviera.

And if you're wondering how Dodi Al-Fayed may have been able to afford such a pricey toy, his father Mohamed Al-Fayed is a billionaire who once owned Harrods Department Store. Dodi also worked as an executive producer on a number of movies during his time. He and Princess Diana both loved being on the ocean and spent much time onboard Cujo and Al-Fayed's father's yacht, "Jonikal." Now, however, one of the only remaining pieces of their love story has been lost to the depths. 

A Complete Timeline of Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed's Relationship

During the summer of 1997, Diana and Dodi had a brief love affair before their untimely deaths.

Every item on this page was chosen by a Town & Country editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.

"The funny thing is that everyone focuses on the crash," Abdalla told Town & Country . "And strangely, as a result, what they miss is this fabulous summer that Dodi and Diana had with each other. From an acting perspective, that's the real challenge—and that's also been the real joy to explore. They're falling in love, but you know what happened afterwards. You look at the images of Diana at that time, and she was really happy. It's been a real pleasure as Dodi, as a character who makes Diana happy, having those scenes with a happy Diana."

As the final season of The Crown is now fully streaming ( part two dropped today ), here's the full, complete timeline of Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed's brief relationship:

Sometime in the late '80s: Princess Diana meets Mohammed Al Fayed

After Mohammed, an Egyptian businessman, purchased the iconic Harrods department store in 1985, he entered the orbit of the British royal family—including Princess Diana. They met numerous times over the years, and even attended a charity dinner together at Harrods in 1996.

Reportedly, during this time, Diana meets Dodi for the first time, at a 1986 polo match in Windsor.

August 1996: Prince Charles and Diana formally divorce

Then- Prince Charles and Princess Diana separated in 1992 , but would not formally divorce until August 1996. Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip supported a divorce in late 1995, and it was finalized less than a year later.

"After considering the present situation, the Queen wrote to both the Prince and Princess earlier this week and gave them her view, supported by the Duke of Edinburgh, that an early divorce is desirable. The Prince of Wales also takes this view and has made this known to the Princess of Wales since the letter," Buckingham Palace said in a statement on December 1995. "The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will continue to do all they can to help and support the Prince and Princess of Wales, and most particularly their children, in this difficult period."

Charles and Diana split custody of their children.

July 1997: Diana and Dodi's romance begins

In summer 1997, Mohammed invites Princess Diana and her sons, Princes William and Harry, to vacation with his family in the south of France . She accepts the invitation, and the end of season five of The Crown shows Diana packing for this trip .

By this point, Diana was no longer dating Hasnat Khan , a British Pakistani surgeon. (Here, a guide to all of Diana's rumored boyfriends .) Khan said of Dodi, "She wanted to be with someone who was happy to be seen with her in public and she could do that with Dodi." He added, "I think that Diana finally realized that Al Fayed could give her all the things I could not. He had money and could provide the necessary security for her ."

Diana and her sons join the Fayed family on their yacht and at their villa, Castle St. Therese, for a trip from July 11 through 20. Prince Harry would later write in his memoir, Spare , "Everything about that trip to St. Tropez was heaven." He explains, "We'd been with Mummy weeks earlier when she first met him, in St. Tropez"—the him refers to Dodi—"We were having a grand time, just the three of us, staying at some old gent's villa." At the time, Dodi was dating (and possibly engaged to) American model Kelly Fisher , but soon, a romance blossoms between Dodi and Diana.

August 1997: Diana continues seeing Dodi

After Princes William and Harry go to Balmoral in Scotland for summer vacation with Prince Charles, Diana continues to undertake engagements. She flies back to the South of France, where she and Dodi spend time together aboard the Jonikal in early August, where they are snapped by paparazzi photographer Mario Brenna—who sells the pictures to the Sunday Mirror for record-breaking prices . The pictures first ran on August 10, 1997 with the headline "THE KISS" while Diana was traveling to Bosnia to highlight her work around landmines .

Despite the press surrounding them, after going to Greece with Rosa Monckton, Diana returns to Saint Tropez to vacation again with Dodi on August 21, 1997. On August 24, 1997, Diana is photographed famously sitting at the end of the yacht's diving board.

During this trip, too, Diana and Dodi visit Monaco, where they visit the Repossi boutique. The Washington Post later reported, " Alberto Repossi said in a telephone interview today that the couple came into the Monaco branch of his store unexpectedly about 10 days before the Aug. 30 auto accident that killed them. The couple was vacationing on the Riviera at the time. They spent only about four or five minutes in the store, Repossi said, because they already knew which ring they wanted. They had seen it in a Repossi advertisement in the September edition of a fashion magazine, L'Officiel de la Couture et de la Mode de Paris."

August 30 and 31, 1997

On August 30, 1997, Diana and Dodi fly to Paris , where they go to the Ritz Paris, which is owned by Mohammed Al Fayed . That same day, Dodi also goes to the Repossi store in Paris to pick up the ring they reportedly chose in Monaco.

As the Associated Press reports , " the day has been tense. The couple has been having problems with paparazzi ever since their mid-afternoon arrival in Paris. First, they trailed Diana and Dodi from Le Bourget Airport outside Paris, on their way to see Villa Windsor — a mansion that once housed the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and that Dodi’s father has bought and renovated. Their driver managed to shake the photographers." They try to have dinner at Chez Benoit, but paparazzi trail them so they eat at the Ritz Paris, in the Imperial Suite.

After dinner, they decide to go to an apartment Dodi owned off the Champs-Elysees, and 20 minutes after midnight, they leave the hotel. With paparazzi in pursuit, their car crashes in the Pont d'Alma tunnel, in Paris. Dodi died instantly, and early that morning, August 31 at Hospital La Pitié Salpêtrière, Diana was declared dead .

Dodi was buried that evening , in accordance with Muslim tradition, after a funeral at Central London mosque. Princess Diana's funeral took place on September 6, 1997

Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma , a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram .

@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-1jdielu:before{margin:0.625rem 0.625rem 0;width:3.5rem;-webkit-filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);height:1.5rem;content:'';display:inline-block;-webkit-transform:scale(-1, 1);-moz-transform:scale(-1, 1);-ms-transform:scale(-1, 1);transform:scale(-1, 1);background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-1jdielu:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/townandcountrymag/static/images/diamond-header-design-element.80fb60e.svg);}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-1jdielu:before{margin:0 0.625rem 0.25rem;}} The Crown @media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-128xfoy:before{margin:0.625rem 0.625rem 0;width:3.5rem;-webkit-filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);filter:invert(17%) sepia(72%) saturate(710%) hue-rotate(181deg) brightness(97%) contrast(97%);height:1.5rem;content:'';display:inline-block;background-repeat:no-repeat;}.loaded .css-128xfoy:before{background-image:url(/_assets/design-tokens/townandcountrymag/static/images/diamond-header-design-element.80fb60e.svg);}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-128xfoy:before{margin:0 0.625rem 0.25rem;}}

How Did Prince William and Kate Middleton Meet?

King Charles III's Life in Photos

Queen Camilla's Life in Photos

'The Crown' Leads BAFTA TV Nominations

Elizabeth Debicki Wins SAG Award

Dominic West Stayed in Bed After 'The Crown'

The Crown's Costumes, Props, and More at Auction

Elizabeth Debicki Stuns in Dior

Elizabeth Debicki's Best Red Carpet Looks

Elizabeth Debicki Wins Golden Globe

Jonathan Pryce Apologized to Princess Anne

• Entertainment
• Celebrities
• Ticket Sales
• Promoted: What to Watch on Prime Video

trending now in Entertainment

Prince Harry forced to stay at hotel during UK trip next week as...

Prince William shares health update on Kate Middleton after her...

Influential rock 'n' roll icon dead at 86

Cole Hauser addresses returning to ‘Yellowstone’ with Taylor...

Jeff Goldblum refuses to leave money to his kids Charlie, 8, and...

'Friends in Low Places': Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood's new...

Jay Leno and wife give update on her dementia battle as couple...

King Charles admits cancer diagnosis came as a 'shock,' gives...

Breaking news, princess diana and dodi’s ‘love boat’ is now at the bottom of the ocean.

• View Author Archive
• Email the Author
• Get author RSS feed

Contact The Author

Thanks for contacting us. We've received your submission.

Thanks for contacting us. We've received your submission.

Over 20 years after Princess Diana’s tragic death, the scene of one of her final photos has now met its own demise.

A yacht that Princess Diana used as her so-called “love boat” with Dodi Al-Fayed has sunk. 

Called Cujo, the yacht reportedly developed a hole after it struck an unidentified object off Beaulieu-sur-Mer on the French Riviera, according to the Times of London . 

Cujo’s owner is an Italian with a home on the Riviera.

Seven people were on board at the time of the accident, but they were rescued and unharmed.

The yacht sank and is at the bottom of the Mediterranean. 

“The skipper of the Cujo issued a mayday,” local police said , according to the Daily Mail. “His ship was sinking due to a leak. 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.”

Cujo became famous in 1997 when Diana was photographed on board with her millionaire film producer boyfriend, Fayed – just a few weeks before their fatal car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997. 

The couple’s photos on the luxury boat were their first pictures together. Those photos sparked the tabloid furor around Diana and Fayed.

A photo of Diana on the boat was one of the final images taken before her death at 36.

According to the Times of London, the yacht was built in Italy in 1972 for John von Neumann, a businessman who made his fortune selling Porsche and Volkswagen cars. After von Neumann, Cujo was then owned by the son of arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, before it ended up in the hands of his cousin, Fayed. 

Fayed moored the yacht off St-Tropez, where he hosted the rich and famous – such as Brooke Shields , Clint Eastwood, and Diana. 

After Fayed’s death, the yacht fell into disrepair and sold at auction to its current owner for $250,000 in 2020. 

French reports imply that Cujo was not in good condition at the time it sank, and regularly had maintenance problems. 

Diana’s death will controversially be depicted in the sixth and final season of Netflix’s hit royal drama, “The Crown.” Khalid Abdalla will play Fayed . The season premiere is slated for sometime this fall.

Prince William and Kate Middleton’s first meeting and early days will also be depicted.

Share this article:

Advertisement

Find anything you save across the site in your account

Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed’s Former Yacht Sinks Off the Coast of France

By Katherine McLaughlin

Before their untimely deaths in the late summer of 1997, Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed spent a few brief paparazzi-festered weeks aboard Cujo, a 65-foot, military-style superyacht. As Robb Report described it, the boat was once the most famous in the world thanks to her high-profile passengers. Now, a little over a quarter of a century later, the infamous boat has sunk off the coast of France, reports The Independent .  

The boat sank quickly after the distress call was made. 

According to a Facebook post from the Gendarmerie des Alpes-Maritimes, a division of the French military, passengers issued a distress call around 12:30 local time on July 29. A little under an hour later, a rescue boat arrived, finding the vessel’s bow already partially submerged. “The cabins of the yacht were already flooded, and only a few suitcases located in the kitchen and on the deck could be retrieved by the gendarmes,” reads the statement. The seven passengers who were on board had already evacuated and were safely on a nearby lifeboat. Rescuers and passengers then quickly left the area, as the boat sank 2,500 feet to the ocean’s floor. The cause of the accident was not shared; however, according to Boat International , sources claimed that the ship hit an unknown object floating near the center of the hull. 

Cujo was already halfway underwater when rescuers arrived. 

The impressive yacht was originally launched in 1972, commissioned by its first owner John von Neumann. According to Robb Report, Von Neumann hired Italian shipyard Baglietto to build him a boat that was “faster than any other motoryacht on the water.” During its maiden voyage, Cujo had largely achieved this goal thanks to its twin 54-liter V-18 turbo diesel engines, which provided 2,700 horsepower and allowed it to easily hit 46 miles per hour. Von Neumann eventually sold the boat to arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, who later passed the boat to Dodi Fayed, his nephew. 

At one point, the vessel was among the fastest in the world. 

Though Princess Diana was among the most notable guests onboard—largely fueled by vicious tabloid coverage—other high-profile passengers hosted by Fayed included Clint Eastwood, Tony Curtis, Bruce Willis, and Brooke Shields. In addition to jaunts on Cujo, the sensationalized couple also spent time on superyacht Jonikal , which most recently sold in June of 2023. Following the passing of Di and Fayed, Cujo fell into disrepair and decommissioned in 1999. After many years in storage, Fayed’s cousin Moody Al-Fayed purchased the vessel and brought it back to life. He later sold the boat to Simon Kidston, a British car collector and restorer and the last-reported owner of the vessel. 

More Great Stories From AD

The Story Behind the Many Ghost Towns of Abandoned Mansions Across China

Inside Sofía Vergara’s Personal LA Paradise

Inside Emily Blunt and John Krasinski’s Homes Through the Years

Take an Exclusive First Look at Shea McGee’s Remodel of Her Own Home

Notorious Mobsters at Home: 13 Photos of Domestic Mob Life

Shop Amy Astley’s Picks of the Season

Modular Homes: Everything You Need to Know About Going Prefab

Shop Best of Living—Must-Have Picks for the Living Room

Beautiful Pantry Inspiration We’re Bookmarking From AD PRO Directory Designers

Not a subscriber? Join AD for print and digital access now.

Browse the  AD PRO Directory to find an  AD -approved design expert for your next project.

By Katie Schultz

By Claudia Williams

By Joyce Chen

Fact-checking ‘The Crown’: Was Dodi al-Fayed engaged when he romanced Diana?

In the first episode of the sixth and final season of “The Crown,” Diana, Princess of Wales, newly divorced and stripped of her “HRH” title, takes refuge on the yacht of billionaire Mohamed al-Fayed, which is docked in Saint-Tropez near a Fayed-owned villa.

Although the towering blonde and the short, graying Egyptian might seem odd friends at first, the two have much common: Both are rich, friendly, insecure, a little flashy — and utter outcasts, rejected by the British royal family despite desperate, years-long bids for acceptance.

Soon, we find out that Fayed has more than just a relaxing vacation planned for Diana. He calls his son Dodi and insists his son drop whatever he’s doing and come to woo the princess. There’s one problem, Dodi tries to explain to his dad: He’s getting married to another woman in three weeks.

Later in the new episodes — Netflix released the first four episodes of the season Thursday; the final six will follow on Dec. 14 — Dodi spends his days romancing Diana on the huge yacht and his nights visiting his American fiancée on a smaller yacht nearby.

Fact-checking ‘The Crown’: Did Princess Diana’s battle with bulimia ruin her marriage?

So, did that really happen? Was Dodi really engaged to an American the summer before his and Diana’s tragic deaths in a car crash in Paris? And did he really keep the two beautiful women on adjacent yachts?

Yes, according to the journalist Martyn Gregory in his 2004 book “ Diana: The Last Days .”

Dodi met Kelly Fisher in July 1996; by February 1997, he had proposed. The Kentucky-born model had been to the Fayed family home in London, and Dodi’s father bought a mansion in Malibu for them to live in after they were married, according to Gregory.

Fisher had set a date of Aug. 9 for the wedding, although it’s questionable how serious that was; invitations never went out. Still, in July, they visited the Fayed-owned Villa Windsor property in Paris — once the home of the Duke of Windsor and his American wife, Wallis Simpson — and picked up some antique furniture for their new house.

They even got a pet together, a dog named Bear.

Fisher also got a clear view of the hold Mohamed al-Fayed had over his son and how Dodi felt pressured to do whatever his father asked. When Fayed ordered Dodi to leave Fisher and join the yacht trip, Fisher was annoyed but not suspicious. She couldn’t go because of a modeling commitment but expected to join them the next week.

When she arrived, however, instead of being taken by Fayed’s staff to the villa or the main yacht, she was instead taken to a smaller yacht docked nearby, where, except for the crew and brief visits from Dodi, she was alone.

In “The Crown,” Fisher immediately suspects she’s being cheated on, but in real life, she claimed she had no idea. She was “livid” about being confined to the little yacht, and as the days went on, it became clearer that she and Dodi weren’t going to get married on Aug. 9, but, she told Gregory, “I just thought maybe they didn’t want a commoner around the princess.”

Eventually, Fisher left the boat and went back to work, but she was still talking on the phone frequently with Dodi, Gregory wrote. Then, on Aug. 10 — the day after she had once thought she would be getting married — a friend in London called with some surprising news: A British tabloid had published a photo of Dodi and Diana on the big yacht, kissing.

Fisher did what a lot of spurned women in the 1990s did: She hired the feminist lawyer Gloria Allred. In an Aug. 14 news conference with a stunned Fisher at her side, Allred called Dodi a “frog in prince’s clothing” and announced that Fisher was suing him for breach of contract.

The day after the tragic Paris car crash, Allred announced that Fisher would drop the lawsuit “out of respect for the tragedy and tremendous loss the Fayed family has suffered.”

Mohamed al-Fayed, who died this year , long denied Fisher’s claims of having a serious relationship with Dodi, and in a 2008 inquest into Diana and Dodi’s deaths, he called her “a hooker and a gold digger.”

Fisher testified at the same inquest. Her story had not changed, and a phone call she taped between herself and Dodi was read into evidence. In the call, she shouted at him, “You even flew me down to Saint-Tropez to sit on a boat while you seduced Diana all day and [expletive] me all night.”

As of 2014, Fisher, now Kelly Movshina, had traded the jet-set life for the wealthy enclave of Aiken, S.C., where she settled with her husband — a Russian pilot she met in the Central African Republic — and their daughter. In a spread for Aiken Woman magazine, which doesn’t mention Dodi or Diana, she said, “We have truly fallen in love with small town life.”

• Revealing the Smithsonian’s ‘racial brain collection’ August 23, 2023 Revealing the Smithsonian’s ‘racial brain collection’ August 23, 2023
• More than 1,800 congressmen once enslaved Black people. This is who they were, and how they shaped the nation. March 5, 2024 More than 1,800 congressmen once enslaved Black people. This is who they were, and how they shaped the nation. March 5, 2024
• A gay first lady? Yes, we’ve already had one, and here are her love letters. June 20, 2019 A gay first lady? Yes, we’ve already had one, and here are her love letters. June 20, 2019

The jury had been told that a verdict of unlawful killing would mean that they believed the reckless behavior of their driver and paparazzi amounted to manslaughter. It was the most serious verdict available to them Monday.

The couple died when their speeding car slammed into a concrete pillar while it was being chased by photographers in cars and on motorbikes.

The jury added that the fact that Diana and Dodi were not wearing seatbelts was a contributing factor.

The coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, had instructed the jury that there was no evidence to support claims by Fayed's father, Mohamed Al Fayed, that the couple were victims of a murder plot directed by Prince Philip and carried out by British secret agents. The jury was not at liberty to disagree.

The six women and five men on the jury began deliberating April 2 after hearing six months of testimony from more than 240 witness. They also went to Paris to see the scene of the August 31, 1997 crash.

The cost of the inquest itself, including lawyers and staff assisting the coroner, has passed 3 million pounds (US$6 million).

This doesn't count the cost of lawyers representing the Metropolitan Police and the Secret Intelligence Service, nor the millions believed to have been spent by the Metropolitan Police on their two-year investigation which produced a report of 813 pages published in December 2006, which concluded that there was nothing to substantiate Al Fayed's claims.

Nor does it include Al Fayed's expenditure for lawyers, investigators and other costs.

Baker had expressed hope that the inquest would lay to rest, once and for all, any false theories about the princess' death.

Dodi Fayed died instantly when the couple's Mercedes, moving in excess of 60 mph (95 kph) slammed into a concrete pillar in the Alma underpass in Paris at 12:22 a.m.; medics initially thought Diana would survive her severe injuries, but she died at the Pitie-Salpetriere Hospital around 4 a.m.

Beliefs about the accident, expressed in the hours and days that followed, have persisted. The paparazzi who pursued the couple were vilified. As grieving Britons piled up flowers outside Diana's Kensington Palace home, some British newspapers declared they would never use another paparazzi shot - a vow that proved time-limited.

French police announced, a day after the crash, that tests on Henri Paul's blood showed he was three times over the national drink-driving standard.

• Russia's biggest party to ask Putin to lead it
• Democrats urge Bush to shift anti-terror focus
• New report offers grim outlook for Iraq
• US cyberwarfare prep includes offense
• British troops sent back into Basra
• China, New Zealand sign free trade deal
• US proposal on Tibet 'ill-motivated'
• Torch relay arrives at final stage
• Putin could lead Russia's biggest party
• Olympic torch relay continues in Paris