The brother of Princess Diana on Wednesday dismissed conspiracy theories about her death and called a letter showing she had predicted her own demise in a car crash a “bizarre coincidence.” Earl Charles Spencer, the younger brother of the princess who died in a car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997, said his family had not seen any evidence that Diana’s death was planned.
"With the conspiracy part of it, my family and I are absolutely certain that we have never seen any evidence of that whatsoever,” he told NBC’s “Today” show.
Spencer added: “I do think it is just a bizarre coincidence than tied in with reality.”
He said he had not seen the letter but gathered from handwriting experts it corresponded with the handwriting of his sister, former wife to heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles.
Diana’s butler Paul Burrell released the letter he said the princess wrote in October 1996 and gave him for safekeeping.
“This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous,” the letter says. “(DELETED WORDS) is planning ’an accident’ in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for Charles to marry.”
Burrell said in an interview aired on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that Diana thought she was at risk because “she was deemed ... a loose cannon. People thought she was messing with things that were far from the royal family.”
Asked about the deleted words, Burrell said they could refer to a group of people or one person, adding he would release names to the authorities if there was an inquiry.
ACCIDENT WAS ‘PROBABLY AVOIDABLE’
Diana died alongside her lover Dodi and their chauffeur Henri Paul when their Mercedes car crashed in a Paris tunnel.
Diana’s brother said the accident was “probably avoidable.”
“If they hadn’t been going at high speed being chased by paparazzi with a driver who from all the reports was not fit to drive, then I suppose it was an accident.”
An inquiry by French authorities in 1999 ruled the crash was a accident caused by Paul being drunk and driving too fast. But Dodi’s father, Mohamed Al Fayed, has repeatedly called for an inquiry, insisting Diana and his son were murdered.
Spencer said his sister often expressed security concerns to him, such as having her private quarters bugged and being eavesdropped on, but had never mentioned fears about being involved in a car crash.
“Diana felt quite beleaguered by what we call the establishment in Britain and looked at ways they might get at her. But, as I say again, we have never ever seen any evidence of conspiracy.”
(The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.)