It's always interesting to read articles from the time Diana was alive. Here is the Vanity Fair piece from 2007:
"Excerpted from The Diana Chronicles, by Tina Brown, to be published this month [July 2007] by Doubleday; © 2007 by the author."
EXCERPT - JULY 2007
Diana's Final Heartbreak
LINK:
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2007/07/diana200707
As much as I know, there are a lot of false facts in this article. The most critical one the following paragraph.
Resolved to do that, Hasnat met Diana in an agreed-upon spot in Hyde Park at 10 o'clock one hot night in the second week of July. Knowing she was to be rejected, Diana reproached him with scalding words and tears. She could not really accept that it was over. But Khan was not a man who played games. In August the Khan family, returning to Lahore, gave Hasnat gifts for the beautiful princess who had visited them. He told them to mail them to her instead. He wouldn't be seeing Diana anymore. -- Diana the Chronicle by Tina Brown
That is completely wrong. It was Diana who took the initiative to break up with Hasnat Khan, not the vise versa. Here is the statement of Hasnat Khan to the inquest:
When Diana went to St Tropez with Mr Al Fayed,everything was fine between us. I said goodbye to her the day she went as I had stayed with her the previous night at Kensington Palace. ...
When we did meet up in Battersea Park, she was not her normal self and she kept looking at her mobile phone. I told her that I thought she had met somebody else and it must be someone from Mohamed Al Fayed's contingent. I had no idea who it could be. As far as I knew, it could have been a bodyguard or anyone, but I just knew that she had changed since she had been away with Mr Al Fayed, so I guessed it must have been someone in his party. I knew that Mr Al Fayed had children, but at that stage I did not know of his eldest son, Dodi. I was surprised when she denied to me that there was anyone else. At the end of our meeting in Battersea Park we arranged to see each other again, the following day, at Kensington Palace. I can't remember the exact date, but we met in Battersea Park within a couple of days of her returning from Paris. It was at this second meeting that Diana told me that it was all over between us. She denied there was anyone else involved. I told her that I strongly suspected there was someone else and I remember saying to her at the time 'You are dead', meaning her reputation was dead. I said this because I was sure that it was someone from Mohamed Al Fayed's group and that was how I felt about anyone involved with him. I did not know him personally, but I had read in the press about his business involvements and Diana had given me a general impression of him in the past. It was only when I heard the news on the radio that I learned about Dodi. I think she wanted to be with someone who was happy to be seen with her in public and she could do that with Dodi.
Here is a timeline of other events happened around the time.
July 26 Diana and Dodi had dinner in Paris. Dodi brings Diana to tour Villa Windsor for around 40 minutes. Diana thinks it is more like a museum, and how can anyone possible live there.[1]
July 27 afternoon, Jerry White and Ken Rutherford, co-founder of LSN, were invited to KP to update Diana their recent activities and future plan. Diana asked them to plan her Bosnia trip in secret. Because she wants to meet the victims and their families herself [2,3].
July 27/28 night, Diana met Hasnat Khan in Battersea Park. Here is Paul Burrell’s account of the event:
“The Princess came home that night very distressed and said that she had had it, she had tried everything she could to bring this man out into the public spotlight and he was having none of it. He did not want to become a public name, he didn’t want to become known, and they had reached a stalemate situation” [1].
July 30, Diana told Photographer Jason Fraser her impending cruise on the Jonikal.[4]
Aug 4, the “kiss” photo was taken by Mario Brenna (Fraser’s work partner) [4].
References:
[1] “Hearing of Inquest into the Deaths of Diana and Dodi – Paul Burrell”, 14 Jan 2008 morning.
[2] Jerry White, “Travels with Diana: A Landmine Survivor’s Tale,” Christian Science Monitor. 3 Sep 1997.
[3] Jerry White, “Jerry White’s Survivor Corps Mission”, Ability Magazine, Vol 2009 Aug/Sept.
[4] “ ‘I was always nearby ready to photograph her and that suited us both’: Photographer Jason Fraser opens up on his special relationship with Princess Diana”, Daily Mail, 20 Dec 2013.
The problem with Tina Brown's book is, it barely has any direct quote from anybody, a.k.a., no reference at all. Take this story for example, without any quotes from Diana and Hasnat Khan nor anybody else, the writer just imagined a story and wrote it down as a matter of fact. And then based on this imaginary story, the author came up with more new imaginary stories and reached to an conclusion that Diana was heartbroken and became emotionally unstable again. And use this to explain everything happened in that summer.
Is there a picture we can see? Why controversial?
