EXCLUSIVE: Princess Diana's Final Royal Bodyguard Reveals the Plea He Made to Her He's Still Convinced Would Have Saved Her Life
Princess Diana's former bodyguard has told how she ignored his vital advice that could have saved her life.
April 15 2025, Published 9:28 a.m. ET
Princess Diana's former bodyguard has revealed how she paid the ultimate price for abandoning her Royal Protection Squad officers.
Ken Wharfe, her final official police minder, says the royal would still be alive today if she'd heeded his advice to stay under the wings of Scotland Yard's highly-trained staff, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Princess Diana attends the performance of the ballet 'La Bayadere' at The London Coliseum in 1988.
Wharfe was bodyguard to Princes William and Harry from 1986 and became Princess Diana’s personal protection officer in 1988.
He stopped working for Diana in 1993 but continued with the Royal Protection Squad until his retirement in 2002.
But the SAS-trained bodyguard found himself in the princess’s company one last time before her fateful trip to Paris in 1997.
Wharfe said: "I left in October 1993 for reasons that were personal but ultimately I could see that Diana’s life was going in a totally different direction than I imagined.
"Two or three weeks after my departure her private secretary telephoned and told me she wanted to see me at Kensington Palace.
"We had a very informal tea and biscuits and we reminisced on the good times."
Princess Diana with her bodyguard Wharfe in 1989.
Diana then asked her bodyguard if he had any advice for her and Wharfe believes that had she taken it her life could have been very different.
"I said 'I don’t know what you’re about to do but I would urge you not to abandon Scotland Yard security,'" he recalled.
He added: "I acknowledged that on occasions they had been invasive but we kept her alive and kept her sense of humor where it should be and she listened.
"But weeks later, at the end of December 1993 she abandoned her security in its entirety."
Less than four years later the Princess of Wales was killed in the fatal crash in Paris.
Diana and Dodi Al Fayed heading to the Ritz hotel hours before they died in a car crash under Alma tunnel in Paris in 1987.
Diana, Egyptian film producer Dodi Fayed and Ritz security chief Henri Paul, who was driving, were killed in the car crash.
The sole survivor of the crash was Dodi’s bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones.
Paul had been drinking before getting behind the wheel and was driving at a high speed when the car smashed into the 13th pillar of the Pont de l’Alma underpass.
Wharfe believes the inadequate security is what led to Diana’s untimely death on 31st August 1997.
He said: "This was a road traffic accident that could and should have been avoided.
"It was an accident because the security lacked the professionalism and experience of Scotland Yard.
"It was a tragedy, they were inexperienced and they weren’t in complete control.
"They allowed a man who was nearly four times over the drink drive limit to drive that car in which case an accident was inevitable.
"The only person who survived that accident was the bodyguard Rees-Jones who was able to affix his seat belt. If only he had told Diana and Dodi to affix theirs, then perhaps they may well have survived as well."
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Di's bodyguard urged her not to ditch her experienced Scotland Yard security detail.
In 1997, Wharfe oversaw security at Diana’s funeral and in the 1998 the top cop was made a member of the prestigious Victoria Order for his services to the Queen.
But in 2002, he would pen a tell-all account of working for Diana detailing affairs and mood swings.
The publication of Diana: Closely Guarded Secret, was slammed by senior Met figures and royal sources as a betrayal that breached of the code of silence between the royals and protection staff.
Following the book’s publication, there were calls for Wharfe to be stripped of the Victoria Order.
