đ¨ The sole survivor of Princess Diana’s tragic accident: Trevor Rees-Jones speaks out to reveal 5 WORDS about the accident of the century and what investigators are hiding
He was the only one to live through the night that changed royal history forever. As Diana, Dodi, and driver Henri Paul lost their lives in Paris, bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones somehow survived â but with devastating scars and haunting memories.
For decades, his silence has fueled speculation about what he truly saw in those final moments. Now, rare insights into his survival reveal a story of fate, tragedy, and unanswered questions that still linger nearly three decades laterâŚ
Who Is Trevor Rees-Jones? All About the Sole Survivor of Princess Dianaâs Fatal Car Crash
It’s a miracle that Trevor Rees-Jones made it out alive, but that didn’t save him from rumors and finger-pointing
At half-past midnight on Aug. 31, 1997, a black Mercedes crashed into a concrete pillar outside the Pont de lâAlma tunnel in Paris. The world was shaken by the tragic death of Princess Diana, whose funeral just days later, on Sept. 6, became a global moment of mourning. But Diana wasnât the only one who died that nightâher partner, Dodi Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul, were also killed in the crash. Only one person survived: bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones. But who is Trevor Rees-Jones?
Thatâs not the only question people still want answered more than 25 years later. How did he manage to survive when no one else did? Why has his name become entangled in a web of conspiracy theories? And how did he end up in that car with Princess Diana in the first place?
To answer these questions, Readerâs Digest spoke with royal biographer Ingrid Seward, author of Diana: An Intimate Portrait and editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, and royal commentator Kinsey Schofield, host of the To Di For Daily podcast and author of R Is for Revenge Dress. Read on to find out if things might have ended differently for Diana if sheâd had a different bodyguard that night, along with everything we know about Trevor Rees-Jonesâthe man who lived.
Who is Trevor Rees-Jones?
Trevor Rees-Jones is a bodyguard employed by the Fayed family in the late â90s, and he was the bodyguard on duty the night of Princess Dianaâs fatal crash. Twenty-night years old at the time of the crash, he was born on March 3, 1968, in Germany. As an adult, he enlisted in the 1st Battalion of the Parachute Regiment and served in Northern Ireland. He began working as private security for the Fayed family in 1995.
His role as a bodyguard to Princess Diana that fateful night was unusual, according to Seward. In the past, Diana had been protected by her assigned personal Royal Protection Officer (RPO), an expert bodyguard highly trained specifically in keeping the royal family safe in all situations. However, Diana had just abruptly dismissed her RPO. This left Rees-Jones to fill in the security gaps.
Was Trevor Rees-Jones close with Princess Diana?
Noâand that was part of the problem, Schofield says. Typically, members of the royal family are assigned their own Royal Protection Officer (also called a Personal Protection Officer, or PPO)âa specially trained police officer who protects the royal from physical threats, including attacks, stalking and harassment. These are highly vetted professionals, often from the military, with years of experience.
In Princess Dianaâs time, the same person was usually assigned to the same royal, and they often became very closeâperhaps too close. This led to some publicly messy entanglements, and itâs rumored that Diana had an affair with at least one, but possibly more, of her bodyguards. Since then, âPPOs are no longer the same person assigned to the same royal, as they became too close to their principals, so it was decided to keep them rotating amongst many others,â Seward explains. âIt is a shame, but they became too recognizable, and some became celebrities in their own right through no fault of their own.â
So while Diana had, in the past, established close relationships with her security, it does not appear to be the case with Rees-Jones. This meant he could not have understood the unique threats a princess would face. âTrevor Rees-Jones was not an RPO. Rather, he had been employed as a bodyguard by Mohammed Al Fayed, Dodiâs father,â Schofield says. âHe was not specifically Princess Dianaâs security guard, and there is little to no evidence of communication between the two beyond the short amount of time Di was around Dodi.â
Why didnât Diana have her own Royal Protection Officer that night?
Princess Diana had voluntarilyâand against the advice of her friends, family and staffâterminated her Royal Protection team because Martin Bashir, a BBC journalist, had lied to the princess and given her Photoshopped documents suggesting her personal bodyguards had been selling stories to the media. The reason? To manipulate Diana into trusting him. âSadly, this left the princess in an incredibly vulnerable and unsafe position,â says Schofield.
Would things have ended differently if Princess Diana had kept her RPO? Schofield thinks so. âThere is a significant amount of people who blame Princess Dianaâs death on the accusations that she was being spied on by her staff, the lie suggested by Bashir. Had he not lied to Diana, she would have had a proper Royal Protection Officer helping her navigate her way around Paris safely,â she says. âTrevor was clearly in over his head, and you see it in the look on his face in the photos moments before Dianaâs death.â
What happened to Trevor Rees-Jones in the crash?
Rees-Jones was in the car with Princess Diana, Fayed and Paul when it crashed, but since he was sitting in the front passenger seat, he had the protection of an airbag. That said, like the other passengers, he wasnât wearing a seat belt, and he certainly didnât come out unscathed. He was conscious after the crash, but his face was shattered, with numerous broken bones. His injuries were so extensive that his French facial surgeon had to use old photos of himâand about 150 pieces of titaniumâto recreate his face. It took 10 hours of surgery just to fix his jaw.
He spent a month in the hospital before returning to England. It took him about a year to recover physically, although he reportedly still has the amnesia brought on by the crash.
What are the conspiracy theories about Trevor Rees-Jones and Princess Diana?
In the wake of the crash, rumors and conspiracy theories began to emerge about why the accident happened and whether it could have been preventedâand Rees-Jones wasnât immune from the finger-pointing. Critics argued that he shouldnât have let a supposedly visibly drunk Paul drive, he should have insisted Diana and Fayed wear seat belts, and he should have told Paul to slow down.
Rees-Jones himself had little recollection of the fateful nightâs events, since the head trauma from the crash caused amnesia. Meanwhile, Fayedâs father insisted Rees-Jones was lying about the memory loss to avoid blame.
What happened to Trevor Rees-Jones after the accident?
MICHEL GANGNE/CONTRIBUTOR/GETTY IMAGES
Given the strain with Fayedâs father after the crash, Rees-Jones quit his job with the family the year after the accident. He moved back to Shropshire county with his mother and stepfather, and got a job at a friendâs sportswear store.
At first, Rees-Jones kept the few memories he had of the tragedy to himself. âUnfortunately, he remembered very little of the details,â Schofield says, adding that she doesnât think it was intentional. âI say âunfortunatelyâ because that seemed to haunt him.â
To this day, heâs given just a handful of interviews, though he did publish a book in 2000, The Bodyguardâs Story: Diana, the Crash, and the Sole Survivor, putting his side on the record once and for all. One of his few recollections of that night was a womanâs voice (presumably Dianaâs) moaning âDodi,â though he couldnât say for sure if it was a real or false memory. Most of the reported ÂŁ1 million ($1.5 million) he made from the book deal went toward legal fees for lawsuits led by Fayedâs father. However, in the 2008 inquest of Princess Dianaâs death, it was concluded that Paulâs drunk driving and speedingânot actions by Rees-Jones, who police said was telling the truthâwere to blame for the accident.
Where is Trevor Rees-Jones now?
âTrevor is not what I would consider a public figure today,â Schofield says. âHe lives in Shropshire, [after] a stint as a security director for Halliburton oil company. We also believe he has worked as the head of security for AstraZeneca.â
Rees-Jones (who dropped the Jones from his last name and now goes by Rees) and his wife now live in Shropshire, where he works as a security consultant and plays rugby with a local team.