By now most of us know that The Crown has stretched the truth (or simply invented its own version) when it comes to many royal storylines, but one particular episode got it right when it came to a mystery that plagued Princess Diana's former chauffeur for decades.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Stephen Davies—who drove Princess Diana from 1989 to 1995—admitted that he never knew why he was fired from his beloved job until he watched an episode of the Netflix drama that detailed Diana's bombshell BBC Panorama interview with Martin Bashir.
“It happened overnight,” Davies, 61, told the outlet. “From driving her everywhere I was banned from the wheel of her car. After the Christmas break [in 1995] I was told she didn’t want me near it, I wasn’t even allowed to wash or hoover it."
The driver, however, was still on the palace payroll, adding, "all I could do was sit in the garage for ten hours a day, my official shift, doing nothing, and then go home. I was heartbroken, humiliated. She shunned me."
The former royal chauffeur—who was so close to the princess that he once rode a rollercoaster with Prince William and joined Diana for a concert at Elton John's house—was eventually let go in March 1996. He described the princess's behavior as "glacial" on the day he was fired.
“Someone ushered me into her drawing room at Kensington Palace. She said, ‘Bye Steve, thanks for everything,’ shook my hand and walked out. She left me standing alone, without having said a word in return," Davies shared.
King Charles, however, "was much nicer," per the chauffeur, who said the then-Prince of Wales "said he’d done everything he could to fit me into his own rota of drivers but it just wasn’t possible,."
While watching The Crown in 2022, the former royal staffer realized the real reason why he'd been iced out decades ago. In the episode, former BBC reporter Martin Bashir uses misleading tactics to convince the princess to trust him and agree to an interview—and that included spreading false information about Davies. Bashir claimed that the driver was tipping off the media about the royal's private life.
"People I have been talking to at MI6, contacts I have had for years as an investigative journalist, confirmed to me that your driver Steve Davies is also in on it," Bashir—played by Prasanna Puwanarajah—says in the episode.
"It was excruciating to watch but solved the mystery for me," Davies shared. The revelation led him to sue the BBC for slander, with the outlet reporting that Davies reached a monetary settlement with the broadcaster in May.
"The BBC accepts that the allegation was likely to have caused HRH the Princess of Wales to doubt the claimant’s loyalty and professionalism and may well have contributed to the claimant’s redundancy six months later," the lawsuit concluded.
The former royal driver isn't the first person to suffer the consequences of the BBC interview. James Hewitt, who carried on a secret affair with the princess for five years, recently told the Sun that Bashir's actions were "unforgivable."
The royal's former lover claimed that he's stayed single due to the backlash from the interview, adding, "I think it’s pretty obvious given my history, and the difficulties thereafter, and having been the most hated person in the world.”
As for Davies, he told the Daily Mail, "The consequence for me was that I was forced out of a job I wanted to be my life’s work. Royal service is about being trusted and loyal, showing discretion, having a sense of duty. Your reputation, your good name is everything."
"I would have taken a bullet for her, died for her. My job was my life, I was always there for her," he added. "You couldn’t explain Diana then, just as you can’t explain her now."
Sadly, the former royal staffer said he believed the princess would have still been alive if he'd been driving her in Paris on the night she was killed, adding, "she died believing I had betrayed her and that’s something I can’t ever forget or forgive."
