News | Aug 14, 2022 08:20 AM EDT

Princess Diana Death Could've Been Prevented, Former Bodyguard Says

By Liz Rowe

Princess Diana's death may have been avoided, according to a former bodyguard.

Lee Sansum believes the late Princess of Wales would be alive today if he had been with her on the night Diana died in a Paris car crash with boyfriend Dodi Fayed on August 31, 1997.

Sansum described to The Sun how security officers pulled straws to choose who would accompany bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones in the car, and he lost.

He also disclosed how he cherished a letter from Princess Diana thanking him for making her final sunshine trip in St. Tropez "magical," as well as her concerns of being murdered.

The former security guard, 60, said he may have been in the car with the princess.

"We pulled straws to choose who would go with Trevor that weekend. I got a match, and it was a long one."

When he discovered they weren't wearing seatbelts at the time of the collision, he knew they wouldn't survive and that it "shouldn't have happened."

"The family was accustomed to wearing seatbelts. It was an instruction from the boss, Dodi's father, Mohamed Fayed. Dodi, in particular, despised wearing seatbelts, but I insisted on it."

Sansum also safeguarded celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, and Sylvester Stallone through his employment with Mohamed Al-Fayed, the owner of the Hotel Ritz Paris.

In July 1997, Sansum was also sent to stay at his boss's 30-bedroom home in St. Tropez alongside Dodi and Princess Diana.

He stated that the mother of two would get up at 7 a.m. and chat with her bodyguard, and that she had been having a good time over the holiday.

Sansum claimed to have seen Princess Diana cry after learning of the death of her friend, designer Gianni Versace.

The bodyguard said that she told him about her concerns of being killed one day.

Princess Diana allegedly questioned him if Versace's murder outside his home was a professional killing, to which Sansum replied that it was.

"Then she said something to me that I'll never forget: 'Do you believe they'll do it to me?' She was trembling, and her tone indicated that she feared they may, whomever they were."

"But she feared there was a chance that one day she would be killed," Sansum said, assuring the princess that no one would kill her and that she would be secure and protected while in their care.