Diana, Princess of Wales, was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, and the mother of Prince William and Prince Harry.

In the early hours of 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales died in hospital after being injured in a car crash in a road tunnel in Paris, France. Her partner, Dodi Fayed, and their driver, Henri Paul, were pronounced dead at the scene. Their bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, survived serious injuries.

Media blamed the erratic behaviour of paparazzi following the car. A French investigation in 1999 found that Paul, who lost control of the vehicle at high speed while intoxicated and under the effects of prescription drugs, was solely responsible for the crash. He was the deputy head of security at the Hôtel Ritz and had earlier goaded paparazzi waiting for Diana and Fayed outside the hotel. Anti-depressants and traces of an anti-psychotic in his blood may have worsened Paul's inebriation. No evidence was found that paparazzi were near the car when it crashed. The jury at a British inquest in 2008 returned a verdict of unlawful killing through grossly negligent driving by Paul and the paparazzi. It was also found that none of the occupants of the car was wearing a seat belt.

Diana was 36 years old. Her death caused a substantial outpouring of worldwide grief, and her funeral was watched by an estimated 2.5 billion people. The Royal Family were criticised in the press for their reaction to Diana's death.

On Saturday, 30 August 1997, Diana left Sardinia on a private jet and arrived in Paris with Dodi Fayed, the son of Mohamed Al-Fayed. They had stopped there en route to London, having spent the preceding nine days together on board Mohamed Al-Fayed's yacht Jonikal on the French and Italian Riviera. They had intended to stay there for the night. Mohamed Al-Fayed was and is the owner of the Hôtel Ritz Paris. He also owned an apartment in Rue Arsène Houssaye, a short distance from the hotel, just off the Avenue des Champs Elysées.

Henri Paul, the deputy head of security at the Ritz Hotel, had been instructed to drive the hired black 1994 Mercedes-Benz W140 in order to elude the paparazzi; a decoy vehicle left the Ritz first from the main entrance on Place Vendôme, attracting a throng of photographers. Diana and Fayed then departed from the hotel's rear entrance, Rue Cambon at around 00:20 on 31 August CEST (22:20 on 30 August UTC), heading for the apartment in Rue Arsène Houssaye. They did this to avoid the nearly 30 photographers waiting in the front of the hotel. They were the rear passengers; Trevor Rees-Jones, a member of the Fayed family's personal protection team, was in the (right) front passenger seat. It was believed that Diana and Dodi were not wearing seat belts. After leaving the Rue Cambon and crossing the Place de la Concorde, they drove along Cours la Reine and Cours Albert 1er – the embankment road along the right bank of the River Seine
At 00:23, Paul lost control