The Bodyguard's Story

Diana, the Crash, and the Sole Survivor

For Trevor Rees-Jones the answer is simple: he was in the same hospital as her, fighting for his own life a few rooms away. As bodyguard to her companion Dodi Fayed, he was with the couple when their Mercedes crashed in the Alma tunnel in Paris, killing Dodi and the driver, Henri Paul, instantly. Diana was rushed to a nearby hospital, where doctors gave up the struggle to save her in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Miraculously, Trevor survived. But his head had taken the brunt of the impact and suffered catastrophic damage. In a stunning medical drama, however, a facial surgeon performed a miracle reconstruction, and the bodyguard was able to leave hospital after just a month. His goal then was straightforward: to go back to work for his employer, the controversial millionaire businessman and owner of Harrods, Mohamed Al Fayed, and to return to the simple pleasures of rugby and his mates at home.

But the crash that nearly killed him had killed Diana, Princess of Wales, one of the most famous women of the late twentieth century. A normal life was no longer an option. And as Mohamed Al Fayed's grief at the loss of his son quickly turned into a desperate hunt for reasons, for culprits and conspiracy, Trevor found his unswerving loyalty to the Boss at first questioned and then, ultimately, destroyed, as Fayed pointed the finger of blame at him.

'The Bodyguard's Story' grippingly describes, for the first time, Trevor Rees-Jones's part in these astonishing events. Compelling, alarming, and yet deeply moving, it is a remarkable story of courage under fire and how ordinary people can react to extraordinary circumstances and survive, scarred, but with their souls and values intact.