Did Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed Really Hide in a Jewelry Store?
In a tense moment from season six, episode three of The Crown finds Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed running away from fans in Monaco. Their security quickly directs them into a jewelry store. "There are worse places to be trapped than a jewelry store," Dodi tells Diana, as she's panicking. "Is there anything here you like? Anything at all?"
She replies, "No, there's nothing I need," to which he says, "There must be something you like." She points to a ring, saying, "that's quite nice," and Dodi takes it in—a ring from their Dis-moi Oui! collection.
What happened, in reality, wasn't as dramatic. Diana and Dodi did visit the jewelry store, which goes unnamed in the royal drama but was actually Repossi, where she did pick out a ring.
In an interview with the Washington Post after their deaths, jeweler Alberto Repossi said the couple came in to the store around August 20. The Post reported, "They spent only about four or five minutes in the store, Repossi said, because they already knew which ring they wanted."
During the inquest into their deaths in 2007, Repossi told the jury that the two had visited his Monte Carlo store, and picked out the ring. A few days later, Dodi called Repossi, asking him to resize the ring for the end of August. "He told me he needed the ring by the end of August because at the beginning of September their engagement would be announced," Repossi said. "I told him that we would do everything necessary. It was quite a short conversation."
However Diana and Dodi picked out the ring in Monaco, it was not immediately available, according to the jeweler. The ring had to be resized to Diana's finger, Repossi said, and then was set to be picked up in Paris. On August 30, Dodi visited the boutique in Paris and reportedly left with the ring. Another witness, Claude Roulet, a Ritz Paris hotel official, testified that he helped Dodi pick out the ring on August 30, and Diana had no involvement.
The ring was reportedly found amongst the car crash by French police in the early hours of August 31, 1997.
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