Nearly twenty years after Princess Diana's death, her longtime driver, Colin Tebbutt, is speaking out about losing his friend. Tebbutt was one of the two British drivers who retrieved Princess Diana's body from the hospital where she passed away in Paris, France. In a recent interview, Tebbutt talked about what he witnessed on that fateful night at the hospital. From the sounds of it, the chauffeur was in such a state of shock when he saw Princess Diana's lifeless body that his mind played tricks on him and made him think she was alive. He said,
I plugged the fans into the room to get some air circulating. I look 'round, and the eyelids and the front of the hair of the Princess were moving. I thought, 'God, she's alive,' Within a second, I realized what was happening. Turned around, a couple seconds to myself, I managed to get it together again. But that was the one bit when I felt I lost myself.
Colin Tebbutt offers the description of the hospital scene during The Story of Diana, an upcoming television event by People and ABC. The story is one Tebbutt has touched on before. He previously talked about having to put up blankets over the windows because paparazzi standing on adjacent buildings were trying to use zoom-lens cameras to capture a picture of Princess Diana through the hospital windows. Naturally, the temperature of the room went from hot to sweltering, which is why Tebbutt turned on all of the fans. He has said that he wanted not to be emotional at the hospital but that seeing her hair flutter tore him up inside.
A similar story previously came from Paul Burrell, the other driver who joined Colin Tebbutt in retrieving Princess Diana's body. In an interview, Burrell said he honestly thought Princess Diana was not dead when he entered the hospital room. He said the thought crossed his mind that the whole situation was nothing more than an elaborate joke. Sadly, that was not the case.
Princess Diana died in a devastating car accident on August 31, 1997. With the twentieth anniversary approaching, stories about Princess Diana have again begun to dominate headlines as people who were close to her are opening up about that tragic time. In addition to The Story of Diana, people can catch the documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy.
In that documentary, Prince William and Prince Harry talk about the fact they had not seen their mother in a month when she died because she was making a humanitarian trip to speak out against the use of landmines. In recent times, Prince William also reflected on milestones his mother has missed and how much the royal family misses her. Colin Tebbutt and Paul Burrell unquestionably miss her every day, too.
