Season 6 part one of The Crown has just been released and much of these episodes focus on the relationship between Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed.
But how much of their relationship which was portrayed in The Crown is an accurate portrayal of real life? Of course, the show tries to stick to the facts and recreate events as they happened, but for many parts of this show, surely some conversations and events must have been imagined for the sake of the plot? Here's what we know...
Was Dodi engaged to another woman when he began dating Diana?
Yes. Dodi was engaged to Kelly Fisher (played by Erin Richards in The Crown) from February 1997 until August 1997 - when images of Dodi and Diana kissing on a yacht were released by the press.
In August 1997, Kelly did try to file a lawsuit against Dodi for cancelling their engagement. At a press conference, per The Independent, her lawyer read a statement that read, Dodi had "led her emotionally all the way up to the altar and abandoned her when they were almost there. He threw her love away in a callous way with no regard for her whatsoever."
Her lawyer added that Kelly had found out about her fiance's infidelity through the press. "To compound matters, Miss Fisher learnt about Mr Fayed's betrayal, not from Mr Fayed but instead from the `kiss photo' that was published and circulated around the world to Miss Fisher's utter dismay, shock and shame," her lawyer said.
Did Mou Mou encourage Dodi to chase Diana?
A major plot point in this season was 'Mou Mou' Mohamed Al Fayed's involvement in Dodi and Diana's relationship. It was heavily implied that Dodi only pursued Diana because of his need to gain his father's approval - but how accurate is this?
Various historians have agreed that it was Mohammed who engineered the initial relationship between Dodi and Diana. "Mohamed Al Fayed engineered the romance with Dodi," biographer Sally Bedell Smith told Vanity Fair. "And Dodi basically did whatever his father told him to do. He was engaged, left his fiancée, and went over to his father’s boat. That’s when the romance began."
She added, "He was really the puppet master behind Dodi and Diana’s very brief, barely more than a month, romance."
In Tina Brown's The Diana Chronicles, it was also confirmed that Mohammed was closely monitoring Dodi's behaviour with Diana. The author explained that the bodyguards, Trevor Rees-Jones and Alexander 'Kez' Wingfield, "reported not to Dodi but to his dad. 'If Dodi did something that was contravening what his father wanted, I had to report it to his father,' Rees-Jones said."
Did Dodi send Diana pink roses and a Cartier watch?
Apparently, this wooing tactic is true! Dodi did in fact send Diana several bouquets of pink roses and a Cartier watch before they began dating.
Royal Biographer Judy Wade, author of Diana: the Intimate Portrait, told People, that Dodi sent gifts to Kensington Palace, including, "a huge box of tropical fruit, a roomful of pink roses, a Cartier panther watch."
Did Dodi and Diana get stuck in a jewellery shop?
In The Crown, Dodi and Diana get stuck in a jewellery shop while trying to escape the paparazzi, it was in this shop where Diana pointed at a ring she liked, and Dodi supposedly bought it for her to propose with.
Per The Guardian, Mohammed Al Fayed claimed that while Dodi and Diana were on holiday on the Fayed yacht in the Mediterranean, they visited the jeweller Alberto Repossi at his Monte Carlo shop to choose a ring. He then claimed that it was sized in Italy and sent to Paris. This doesn't exactly line up with the story in The Crown, but nor does Mohammed's insistence that Diana and Dodi were set to be engaged - which has been heavily disputed by those close to Diana.
Did Dodi propose to Princess Diana the night they died?
In the show, Dodi proposes to Diana in private and she politely turns him down and they decide to be just friends. It's unknown whether he did in fact propose, or whether he was planning to, but the ring that was featured in The Crown was found in Dodi's apartment in Paris.
A ring with the inscription 'Dis-moi Oui' ("Tell me Yes") was recovered from the flat after the couple's untimely death in the traffic collision. A receipt dated August 30th, 1997 was also found which listed the ring as an engagement ring. The ring was reportedly worth £11,600.
