After nearly three decades, one of the most persistent theories surrounding Princess Diana’s final days is back in the spotlight.
A new FOX special is revisiting the claim that Diana was secretly pregnant with Dodi Fayed’s child, and that the alleged pregnancy may have given the royal family a motive to silence her.
The theory has been repeatedly investigated and disputed, but some details from the original inquiries remain strangely open to interpretation.
Highlights
- A new FOX special is revisiting the decades-old pregnancy theory surrounding Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed.
- Mohamed Al Fayed’s explosive claims about Diana’s alleged pregnancy became part of a much bigger royal conspiracy theory.
- In 2007, a judge said the pregnancy could not be scientifically proved or disproved, keeping one unsettling question alive decades later.
A new FOX celebrity mystery special has brought Princess Diana’s old pregnancy rumors back into the spotlight
Celebrity Crime Scene: Princess Diana, which premieres Thursday, August 20, takes another look at the events surrounding Diana’s final hours in Paris in 1997.
The special, co-produced by TMZ, uses modern virtual reconstruction technology to recreate the crash and examine several theories that have persisted for decades.
Rather than simply recounting what happened, the program attempts to place investigators back inside the scene using digital recreations and different perspectives of the Mercedes as it traveled through the Pont de l’Alma tunnel.
Among the theories revisited is that Diana was carrying Dodi’s child.
The claim dates back largely to Mohamed Al Fayed, Dodi’s billionaire father, who repeatedly insisted that the princess and his son had told him she was pregnant shortly before the crash.
Allegedly, Al Fayed also maintained that the couple was planning to become engaged and that the British establishment would never have accepted Diana, the mother of the future king, having a Muslim child with Dodi, whom he believed could become Prince William’s stepfather.
That theory eventually became one of the central allegations British investigators examined.
Mohamed Al Fayed’s claim that Diana was carrying his son Dodi Fayed’s child became part of a much bigger royal conspiracy theory
Al Fayed also claimed that British intelligence had orchestrated the crash because of Diana and Dodi’s relationship and alleged plans for the future.
The fact that Diana’s body was embalmed in Paris shortly afterward later fueled another claim: that the procedure had allegedly been rushed to destroy evidence of a pregnancy.
The conspiracy deepened because French doctors did not perform a pregnancy test while treating Diana at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital after the crash.
At the 2007 inquest, Lord Justice Scott Baker acknowledged the scientific limitations surrounding the question.
He told jurors: “It is likely that pregnancy is a matter that cannot be proved one way or the other in scientific terms in this case.”
But the judge also pointed to evidence suggesting Diana was not pregnant, including evidence that she had been taking contraceptive pills.
“No indication of pregnancy by Diana was given to her doctor, family, friends or associates," Lord Justice Baker said at the time.
“You will also hear evidence that Diana was taking a contraceptive pill. Any blood sample taken at postmortem was going to be unreliable because of the transfusion Diana had received.”
Operation Paget was a major British police inquiry launched in 2004 specifically to examine the pregnancy and conspiracy allegations surrounding Diana and Dodi.
The rumors were investigated by a dedicated Operation Paget team, which found no conclusive evidence to support them
Led by former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens, the investigation produced an 832-page report examining a wide range of claims, including allegations involving MI6, the royal family, the driver Henri Paul, and the possibility that Diana had been pregnant.
Investigators examined Diana’s medical history, spoke with people close to her and tested blood recovered from the Mercedes for human chorionic gonadotropin, or HCG, the hormone associated with pregnancy.
Notably, no HCG was detected in the sample and people close to her had no indication that she believed she was pregnant.
Its overall conclusion was that the medical, scientific, and witness evidence showed Diana was not pregnant.
A source familiar with the evidence reviewed during the inquiries recently told OK Magazine, “The medical evidence, forensic testing, and witness testimony were all considered before officials concluded there was nothing to support the claim.”
“There were persistent rumors at the time because of Diana's relationship with Dodi and speculation surrounding their future together, but investigators did not rely on assumptions. They looked at scientific evidence and testimony from people closest to her before dismissing the pregnancy theory.”
“It is likely that pregnancy is a matter that cannot be proved one way or the other…” a judge said during the 2007 inquest
Operation Paget also found no evidence that the crash had been orchestrated as part of an assassination plot.
The inquiry ultimately concluded that the crash was a tragic accident involving an intoxicated driver traveling at high speed while attempting to evade paparazzi.
For conspiracy theorists, the timing of Diana’s embalming has remained one of the most intriguing pieces of the story.
But the Operation Paget investigation also considered the circumstances surrounding the procedure.
The hospital reportedly faced problems keeping Diana’s body cool, while members of the British royal family and Diana’s sisters were expected in Paris to view her remains.
The procedure was therefore explained as an effort to preserve her body rather than as part of a deliberate cover-up.
Yet decades later, the pregnancy theory continues to resurface, with the new FOX special revisiting the claim alongside other questions surrounding the Paris crash and the events inside the tunnel.
“Good grief just let Diana rest in peace already! She wasn’t pregnant, this was already debunked several times,” one netizen fumed
