diana und dodi yacht

Inside the Superyacht Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed Spent Their Final Vacation On

A look at the vessel that saw the beloved royal’s last vacation.

It was hot gossip, this adventure that the princess took abroad after having finalized her divorce from then Prince Charles less than a year before—something that was hinted at at the end of season 5 of The Crown as Queen Elizabeth is pressed to endorse a vacation a-sea with Fayed and her grandchildren, Prince Harry and Prince William. Diana was famously photographed sitting on the passerelle of this boat. Years later, in real life, Harry described the trip in his memoir, Spare , with fond recollection. “Everything about that trip to St. Tropez was heaven,” he wrote.

While the series was filmed on a lookalike super yacht in Mallorca , the real boat was equally lavish. The 208-foot ship was commissioned by Dodi’s father, former Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, who brought on naval architect Vincenzo Ruggiero to design it in the late 1980s. It was built by Italian shipyard Codecasa and launched in 1990. The steel and aluminum super yacht boasted nine staterooms that altogether accommodate up to 18 people, in addition to a crew of 26. Amenities included a Jacuzzi, swim platform, sun deck, formal dining room, a bar, and office space. Mohamed had named the yacht Jonikal (it has subsequently been called Sokar and is currently called Bash ) .

Shortly after Diana’s and Dodi’s deaths, Mohamed gave the interior a redesign by H2 Yacht Design and a refit that included extending the hull. He attempted to sell the yacht on a number of occasions, ultimately parting with it in 2014 to an anonymous buyer. The new owner carried out further work, including machinery upgrades, a repaint, and fresh teak decks. In 2021, the yacht came into the hands of Bassim Haidar , the founder of Intercomm and GMT, who gave it a further $9.7 million refit after a reported bridge deck fire—and its current name Bash . It’s now back to turn-key condition after an 18-month remodel completed in April 2023 by marine engineering and management company Capax and boat interior company Bobic Yacht Interiors . It features a beauty salon, massage area, high-tech gym, and a spacious main salon.

In May, Robb Report reported that Bash is available for charter in the Mediterranean starting at $278,000 per week, plus expenses. In June, Haidar listed Bash for $16.8 million, according to Boat International .

There was a second motor yacht named Cujo, which Diana and Fayed also took earlier that summer. It was built in Italy in 1972 for John von Neumann, who commissioned the Italian Baglietto shipyard to build the world's fastest motor yacht. She was given two 18-cylinder engines that allowed it to go as fast as 42 knots. Fayed had bought the boat from his cousin, Saudi businessman and arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi. In August, the Mediterranean Sea reclaimed Cujo, as the 62-foot artifact of Diana’s life hit an unidentified object off Beaulieu-sur-Mer on July 29 and sprang a leak, Vanity Fair reported. The seven people on board were rescued by teams from Antibes and safely returned to shore.

An imitation of Jonikal will feature in The Crown season 6, a set that was intended to visually illuminate the tension between Diana and the royal family. “Diana’s south of France adventure was bright and lovely pastel colors, and her world even in Kensington Palace is optimistic and warm, compared to the queen’s residence at Balmoral, which is very static, with gloomy light and drab colors,” set decorator Alison Harvey tells ELLE DECOR.

Filming on the yacht off the island of Mallorca (a St. Tropez stand-in) required many moving parts with few do-overs. “We brought in the drapes, the artwork, many furnishings,” Harvey explains. “Everything was set in the early ’90s, so we thought hard about the colors and textures that we brought in.” Harvey’s team had just half a day to dress the yacht, and then it was off to sea. “There was no getting on or off after that,” Harvey says, adding that they were “subsumed by the logistics of what we had to achieve and the time we had to do it.”

However painstaking the process, the yacht scenes will offer an intriguing context—though largely fictitious—for the iconic photographs that exist of those final weeks leading up to Diana’s death.

Rachel Silva, the Assistant Digital Editor at ELLE DECOR, covers design, architecture, trends, and anything to do with haute couture. She has previously written for Time, The Wall Street Journal, and Citywire.

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Diana's last day: Dodi's yacht, a Ritz suite, a diamond ring and relentless photographers

Diana, divorced from Prince Charles after he cheated on her, was the mother of the future king of England and the most photographed woman in the world

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By Michael S. Rosenwald

The last day of Princess Diana’s life began on the top deck of her lover’s yacht, with croissants and fresh jams.

Diana and her beau, Dodi Al Fayed, sipped their coffee marveling at the breathtaking Emerald Coast in Sardinia. Diana took hers with milk. Fayed took his black. There were kiwis, too.

“They were in a good mood,” his butler remembered later. “They were always laughing, holding hands.”

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Their romance was a whirlwind — passionate, thrilling, scandalous. Fayed, the son of Harrod’s department store owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, was a rich playboy. Diana, divorced from Prince Charles after he cheated on her, was the mother of the future king of England and the most photographed woman in the world.

That Saturday — Aug. 30, 1997 — promised to be a moment of change. The princess knew it. She snuck a call to Richard Kay, a friend who covered the Royals for the Daily Mail, and told him, as he later wrote, “she had decided to radically change her life.”

“She was going to complete her obligations to her charities,” Kay continued, “and then, around November, would completely withdraw from her formal public life.” Diana had not told Kay why, but he had a hunch: “They were, to use an old but priceless cliche, blissfully happy. I cannot say for certain that they would have married, but in my view it was likely.”

In the 20 years since she’s been gone, there have been countless revisions to this love story. Her friends and relatives: They weren’t in love! His friends and relatives: They were in love!

Get a dash of perspective along with the trending news of the day in a very readable format.

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Last week, in the Daily Mail, Kay published an article with this headline: “Was Diana about to dump Dodi?” In it, he quoted Diana’s private secretary saying she’d planned to return home after becoming bored with Fayed.

“It’s very much a personal view,” the secretary said, “but I don’t think she would have seen Dodi again once she got back.”

Whatever the case, Fayed wanted to propose that fateful night. It was summer. As they were on holiday, Britain announced plans to invite the Irish Republican Army for peace talks. Conspiracies theories about the suicide of Vincent Foster, President Bill Clinton’s lawyer, were spreading. Israel and Lebanon were sparring with one another.

Fayed’s primary concern was the six-figure diamond ring waiting in Paris. People close to Fayed said the couple picked it out a week earlier even though they had been dating less than a month.

The danger of their relationship wasn’t its brevity. To royal watchers, to Buckingham Palace, and no doubt to the British tabloids whose photographers were hounding them, the threat was something the couple apparently had not yet considered, even as rumours swirled that Diana was already pregnant.

“For the mother of the future king of England to bear the child of a Muslim Arab, a child who would be the half sibling of the heir to the throne, would be embarrassing in the eyes of the royal family and the ruling Establishment,” former Time magazine reporters Tom Sancton and Scott MacLeod wrote in their book, Death of a Princess .

Fayed’s calendar that day had just one entry — at 6:30 p.m., he was to pick up the ring at a store near his father’s hotel in Paris, The Ritz. They left the boat for Fayed’s plane around 11:30 a.m., taking along the butler and a masseuse for Fayed’s painful back.

As soon as they landed in Paris, Fayed saw the paparazzi out his window.

“Dodi did not want this special occasion ruined by a bunch of a shutter-happy cowboys trying to corral them on motorcycles and shoving lenses in their faces,” the ex-Time reporters wrote. “As soon as the door opened, cameras started clicking.”

The aggressiveness of the photographers — and their sheer numbers — would increase as the day progressed.

Diana and Fayed arrived at The Ritz in the late afternoon. She went to the salon for a hair appointment. He went to the jeweler. The couple then rested in the hotel’s Imperial Suite before going to Fayed’s apartment to get dressed for dinner. She checked in with her children, who were in Scotland with Prince Charles and the queen.

“On that Saturday evening, Diana was as happy as I have ever known her,” her friend Kay wrote in the Daily Mail. “For the first time in years, all was well with her world.”

They left for Fayed’s apartment around 7 p.m., trailed by photographers. More were waiting at the building’s front door when they arrived. Fayed fumed. There was an ugly shoving match.

Once inside, Fayed pulled his butler aside, telling him about his plan to propose that night.

“The ring was on the nightstand in his bedroom,” author Christopher Anderson wrote in “The Day Diana Died.” “Dodi had checked to make sure they had several bottles of Dom Pérignon on ice for the big moment.”

But dinner was a bust.

The first restaurant they tried — Chez Benoit, a cozy, casual bistro not far from the city centre – was quickly overrun by photographers. They split and headed for The Ritz, ducking into the dining room hoping to be left alone.

The princess ordered vegetable tempura. Fayed ordered grilled turbot.

“No sooner had they ordered,” the ex-Time reporters wrote, “they began to feel the indiscreet stares of other diners.”

The couple left and had the food delivered to the Imperial Suite. Fayed’s plan was in shambles. They had to get back to the apartment. But how? The hotel was swarming with photographers.

Fayed devised a plan: The couple’s driver and bodyguards would make a big show out front, appearing to get their caravan of Mercedes sedans ready to leave. Meanwhile, the Princess and Fayed would slip out the back door, in a borrowed car driven by a hotel security officer.

What happened next was the subject of lengthy investigations and conspiracy theories that live on today. The couple did get away. But the driver, it turned out, was drunk.

As the couple sped off, the photographers out front got tipped off about the escape, quickly catching up on their motorcycles. Their driver darted in and out of traffic, wrecking spectacularly inside the Pont de l’Alma tunnel near the Eiffel Tower.

Fayed died instantly. Diana died at the hospital.

Her death startled the world.

An up-and-coming anchor named Brian Williams broke into regular coverage on MSNBC to announce the news to Americans in the early morning hours of Aug. 31.

“I’ve just been handed from the Reuters news service what has been marked ‘bulletin,'” Williams said, speaking slowly. “It says, ‘Princess Diana has died.'”

She was 36.

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The Crown: The Sad, Strange Details of Princess Diana’s Last Vacation

Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed are lounging on the sundeck of a reportedly £15 million yacht in The Crown ’s season six episode “Two Photographs” when Dodi’s domineering father telephones an onboard employee with an urgent question.

“Are they sleeping together?” Mohamed Al Fayed demands to know.

It’s an audacious question—but Mohamed really was checking in on the couple hourly during this August 1997 cruise, according to Tom Bower , who wrote an unauthorized biography of the billionaire called Fayed. The late princess was aware that these calls were coming in—so much so that she joked to Dodi, “God is calling,” when she heard a ring, according to Dodi’s spiritual healer, Myriah Daniels, who was onboard. In 2007, during the inquest into the 1997 crash that killed the princess, Dodi, and their driver, Henri Paul, Daniels said that this became one of Diana’s inside jokes with Dodi. “They’d both have a giggle,” she said.

Diana had vacationed with Mohamed, as well as Prince William and Prince Harry, aboard the Jonikal earlier that summer. As depicted in The Crown ’s season six episode “Persona Non Grata,” that first Jonikal vacation featured Jet Skis and a flirtation between Diana and the flotilla of press nearby.

“The young princes didn’t like [the trip] much,” Tina Brown writes in The Palace Papers. “The flash and excess of [Mohamed’s] hospitality—the groaning buffets and the palatial bathrooms—embarrassed William in particular.” Dodi, who was asked by his father to join the trip midway, did not help matters by making the “oddly flamboyant gesture of renting a disco for William and Harry to enjoy privately,” according to royal biographer Sally Bedell Smith in Diana in Search of Herself.

Mohamed was a controversial figure who long craved social acceptance by the British elite, and hoped a relationship between his son and the recently-divorced Diana would seal the deal.

During the summer of 1997, the billionaire ordered Dodi to drop everything—including his model fiancée, Kelly Fisher —and romance the late princess. Speaking about Mohamed, Bedell Smith previously told Vanity Fair, “He was really the puppet master behind Dodi and Diana’s very brief, barely more than a month, romance…. Dodi basically did whatever his father told him to do.”

Diana’s association with Mohamed caused serious backlash in the press. “These days, Diana, you are no longer the Teflon Princess,” warned Andrew Morton , the biographer behind her bridge-burning tell-all, Diana: Her True Story, in The Sun. “You might have the run of a £20 million yacht, but your friends and fans see a woman who is drifting on the sea of life, seriously in danger of becoming shipwrecked.” Referring to Diana’s cat-and-mouse game with the paparazzi during that initial trip, columnist Judith Whelan wrote in The Sydney Morning Herald, “Diana has been erratic before. This time, however, she has done it while hosted by one of the most reviled men in Britain.”

Despite the press outrage over her association with Mohamed, Diana agreed to return to the Jonikal for the intimate trip reimagined in “Two Photographs.” “Alone in August and attracted to [Dodi], [a] sympathetic, unthreatening listener, she accepted the invitation for a second trip alone with Dodi to the Jonikal on 31 July,” wrote Bower in Fayed. “Over the next six days…the two frolicked on the sundecks, inside the sumptuous craft and in the sea.”

Dodi indulged Diana with her favorite meals—“which included carrot juice in the morning, fruit at lunch, and fish in the evening, as well as plenty of Champagne, caviar, and pâté de foie gras,” according to Diana in Search of Herself. The music was Diana’s selection as well: George Michael’s 1996 album, Older, the occasional Frank Sinatra tune, and the soundtrack of The English Patient. “Such a marvelous film,” Diana raved to Dodi’s butler, Rene Delorm, according to Fayed. “And you miss the music when you’re watching.”

Mohamed’s staff was so attentive to Diana that the Jonikal ’s chief stewardess, Deborah Gribble, could remember the tiniest detail, like that some of Diana’s birth control packets were half-used. Speaking at the inquest, she also confirmed that Dodi and Diana “were clearly having a relationship and were a couple.”

Dodi lavished Diana with gifts during their six-week courtship, including a pearl bracelet, a diamond-studded wristwatch, a silver photo frame, and a gold-and-diamond ring. When the Jonikal docked in Sardinia’s Porto Cervo, according to Brown’s The Diana Chronicles, Diana and Dodi went shopping and returned with cashmere sweaters for the princess—one in every color.

Mohamed, meanwhile, was busy behind the scenes calling press. News of the relationship between Diana and Dodi broke the first week of August, less than a month before Diana’s death. The Sun ran the news with the headline “Di’s Secret Hol With Harrods Hunk Dodi,” while Mohamed’s publicist touted the relationship as “the romance of the century.”

But by the end of the trip, according to those who knew Diana, she intended their fling to be just that. The late princess suspected that Dodi might propose to her, according to Brown, but she told a friend that an engagement ring would be “going firmly on the fourth finger of my right hand” should it be presented. As recreated in “Two Pictures,” there was “a chaotic evening ashore in Monte Carlo when Dodi suddenly decided to send for the tender and take the princess for a walk.” Rather than going for a romantic stroll, however, Dodi “got her lost after a long pant up a hill trying to evade the paparazzi,” Brown writes.

It was so embarrassing, she continues, that Trevor Rees-Jones, a bodyguard on Mohamed’s payroll, “began to feel sorry for the princess; he believed she deserved better.”

According to Gribble, Dodi also became impatient with the amount of press attention Diana was receiving.

“The tension was noticeable throughout the trip and increasing as time wore on,” Gribble revealed during the inquest. “By the time we went to Paris, there was real tension. It was incredible. It was all so tense.”

Days before her fatal accident, Diana called her sister from the Jonikal, confiding that any love spell cast on her earlier had been broken. While she did not get into specifics, Sarah McCorquodale later told the court, “I just did not think the relationship had much longer to go.”

During that final trip on the Jonikal, Diana was photographed sitting alone on a diving board in an aqua swimsuit. The image remains so iconic that, 26 years after it was taken, Netflix recreated the visual in its promotional materials for The Crown ’s sixth season.

Contrary to what the photo showed, though, Diana was never really alone. By the end of the cruise, the princess suspected that Mohamed was doing more than periodically checking in with the Jonikal staff. As McCorquodale revealed during the inquest, “She thought the boat was being bugged by Mr. Al Fayed Senior.”

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See Inside the Superyacht Princess Diana Shared With Dodi Fayed

Since her untimely death in August of 1997, Princess Diana’s last summer spent with Dodi Al-Fayed has been described in various ways: a passionate love affair, a fake publicity stunt, a temporary fling, a rouse to infuriate another suiter, or the beginning of a lifelong commitment. Although the stories change, the setting remains: a summer tour through the Mediterranean aboard a multi-million dollar superyacht. Later this year, nearly 25 years to the day, the 208-foot vessel will launch for sale again. 

The yacht is full of glossy and dark wood paneling. 

Originally named Jonikal , then Sokar , and most recently Bash , the luxury vessel was first owned by Mohamed Al-Fayed, former owner of Harrods and father of Dodi Al-Fayed. During the fateful summer, Al-Fayed hosted Princess Di and her two sons aboard the Jonikal . After the couple’s tragic death, Mohamed Al-Fayed attempted to sell the yacht numerous times before it was finally bought in 2014. It was most recently purchased by Bassim Haidar in June of 2021, who is selling it just over a year later as he reportedly has plans to upgrade to a larger vessel. “She is in the yard being refitted, and will be launched for sale in September,” said John Wood, director at Seawood Yachts. 

Coffered ceilings add a dramatic, yet timeless feel. 

Bash , as the yacht is currently named, was designed by navel architect Vincenzo Ruggiero in the 1980s and built by the superyacht building firm Codecasa before launching in 1990. The vessel can hold up to 18 people across nine staterooms in addition to rooms for 26 crew members. Among many notable features, Bash includes a jacuzzi, swim platform, sun deck, a formal dining room, main saloon, a bar, and office space. Full of dark wood paneling and coffered ceilings, the interiors are reminiscent of the Arts and Crafts style of the early 1900s. 

The vessel includes nine staterooms in addition to plenty of space for the crew. 

Powered by Wärtsilä engines, the yacht has a cruising speed of 15 knots and top speeds of 20 knots. Even though an exact price hasn’t been advertised just yet, the last time the boat was sold, it was listed for $10,000,000. 

The true story behind Princess Diana's iconic yacht photo

All you need to know about the iconic photo of the late princess of wales that went around the globe.

Princess Diana was always a fashion icon , we can never forget her legendary 'revenge' dress , but one of her best-known looks was snapped when she holidayed on the Jonikal yacht with the al-Fayed family, scenes which were immortalised in the fifth and sixth seasons of The Crown .

The holiday that Diana enjoyed, alongside sons Prince William and Prince Harry , would be her last before she was tragically killed in a car accident in 1997. One of the most memorable photos saw the late Princess of Wales sat on the yacht's diving board looking out over the sea.

Even though the photo of Diana in the teal swimsuit is now one of the most poignant photos of the late royal, how much do you know of the story behind it? Read on to find out all you need to know…

Why was Diana on the yacht?

Princess Diana had become friends with the businessman Mohamed al-Fayed, with the pair reportedly meeting a polo match before becoming friends. Following her divorce from the then Prince Charles and the ending of her relationship with heart surgeon Dr. Hasnat Khan, Mohamed invited Diana to join him and his family on a trip to St Tropez, in southern France.

Ahead of the trip, Diana had been in Milan to attend the funeral of fashion designer and friend Gianna Versace, who had been murdered by Andrew Cunanan. The late royal later travelled to Sarajevo, in Bosnia, to highlight the issue of landmines in the country. During her time in the city, she met with people who had been injured by the mines.

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The trip would end up being Diana's first time meeting Dodi al-Fayed, and the filmmaker's then-girlfriend, Kelly Fisher, was allegedly on the trip.

Who took the photo?

On 10 August, paparazzi photos were published in the Sunday Mirror showing Princess Diana and Dodi sharing a kiss, which intensified media presence around the couple and their holiday. Paparazzi photographers began renting dinghies to try and get new photos of the royal, with some even going for prices up to £1million.

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It's ultimately unknown which photographer grabbed the photo of Diana on the side of the yacht, which was published on 24 August, a week before Diana died. The snap saw the Princess in her teal swimsuit sat at the end of the yacht's diving board, with a life ring floating in the water beneath her.

See below for more images of Diana on the Jonikal…

Diana and Dodi

Diana and Dodi grew close on the trip, and in this photo the pair shared an intimate moment as they relaxed in the sun together.

Diana with the al-Fayed family

The late Princess of Wales had been invited on the trip by Mohamed al-Fayed, and she enjoyed the businessman's company during her time onboard.

Diana in blue

Diana favoured the teal swimsuit during her time in St Tropez.

Diana's paparazzi moment

The royal was aware of the media presence, and she light-heartedly teased photographers in this photo, mimicking a pair of binoculars with her hands.

Diana stretches

The mum-of-two also brought this stunning green and blue one-piece with her on the trip, and in this photo she enjoyed some morning stretches on the yacht's deck.

Diana's family moment

Diana didn't go on the holiday alone, and she also enjoyed time with her sons Prince William and Prince Harry, and a young Harry can be seen here with his mum while she spoke to someone on the phone.

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Yacht that Princess Diana spent last summer on with Dodi Al-Fayed sinks to bottom of Mediterranean

Cujo, which made front-page news around the world back in the summer of 1997 when Diana was entertained on board a year after her divorce from Prince Charles, went down in 2500m (8200ft) of water.

Thursday 3 August 2023 17:00, UK

A motor yacht used by Princess Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Al-Fayed on their final summer holiday in the South of France before they died in a Paris car crash has sunk.

The 19m (62ft) Cujo went down 21 miles (35km) off Beaulieu-sur-Mer after sending out a mayday call last Saturday.

The seven people on board the luxury vessel, which was taking on water, were rescued by teams from Antibes before it sank to the bottom of the Mediterranean at a depth of 2500m (8200ft).

They were safely returned to shore.

The area was monitored for pollution as the boat sank with 7,000 litres of diesel in its tanks.

Cujo made front page news around the world back in the summer of 1997 when Al-Fayed entertained Diana onboard, a year after her divorce from Prince Charles, which was finalised in August 1996.

That summer, Diana was also photographed on Sokar, the yacht then owned by al Fayed's billionaire father Mohamed.

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It had previously been named Jonikal.

Cujo was built in Italy in 1972 for businessman John von Neumann who told the Italian Baglietto shipyard that he wanted the world's fastest motor yacht.

She was fitted with two 18-cylinder engines giving her a top speed of 42 knots.

Van Neumann then sold the boat to the son of Saudi businessman and arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and he sold her on to his cousin, al Fayed.

Cujo was frequently moored off St Tropez, a famous celebrity hangout on the French Riviera, with guests including Clint Eastwood, Tony Curtis and Bruce Willis.

Following the death of Diana and Al-Fayed in central Paris on 31 August 1997, Cujo fell into disrepair.

She was decommissioned in 1999, and spent years in storage, before being restored by new owners.

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Boat of the Week: Meet ‘Cujo,’ the 80-Foot Yacht Where Late Movie Producer Dodi Al-Fayed Once Wooed Princess Diana

The couple spent some of their final summer cruising around saint-tropez aboard this fast, military-looking yacht., howard walker, howard walker's most recent stories.

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For a few brief weeks back in the summer of 1997, Cujo was the most famous boat in the world.

Not because of her intimidating military lines, or blistering 40-knot performance. It’s because Diana, Princess of Wales, hung out aboard in Saint-Tropez with the boat’s owner, and romantic partner Dodi Al-Fayed.

Countless paparazzi shots show the once future Queen of England on Cujo‘s narrow sidedecks, soaking up the Mediterranean sun. By the end of August that year, both Diana and Dodi would be dead after that fatal car wreck in Paris.

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Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed spent some of their final summer cruising around Saint-Tropez aboard Cujo .  Courtesy Patrick Bar-Nice Matin/AP Images

Yet this rakish 80-footer was a headliner long before Diana stepped on board. Her first owner was Austrian Johnny Von Neumann, an entrepreneur, playboy and passionate sports-car racer who became the largest Porsche-VW distributor in the US.

In 1972, Von Neumann commissioned the Italian shipyard Baglietto to build him a boat with one goal: It had to go fast—faster than any other motoryacht on the water. To deliver, the shipyard installed twin 54-liter V-18 turbo diesels delivering a combined 2,700 horsepower.

Flat out, Cujo —said to be an ancient Indian word meaning “unstoppable force”—could easily top 40 knots, or 46 mph. Von Neumann blasted up and down the Cote d’Azur for a few years before ordering an even faster Baglietto—this time with jet turbine power. He sold Cujo to arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi who, at the time, was reckoned to be the richest man in the world.

The fast, military exterior gives way to an almost old-fashioned cockpit with wood cabinets and leather seats.  Courtesy Simon Kidston

Khashoggi eventually passed the boat on to his nephew Dodi Al-Fayed, who immediately sent her to the CARM shipyard in Lavagna, Italy, for a full refit.

Back in Saint-Tropez, and moored in her reserved spot on the town’s main quay outside the famed Le Sénéquier restaurant, Fayed would invite many of his Hollywood friends for a cruise. During the summers, everyone from Clint Eastwood, Tony Curtis, Bruce Willis and one-time girlfriend, Brooke Shields, were seen aboard.

Following Dodi and Diana’s death, Cujo quickly fell into disrepair. Decommissioned in 1999, she was hauled out at the CARM yard and spent several years in storage.

The main salon is smaller than many contemporary 80-foot motoryachts, but few other boats its size have the same 40-knots-plus top end.  Courtesy Simon Kidston

The boat was eventually rescued by Dodi’s cousin Moody Al-Fayed, who spent over $1 million bringing her back to life. Part of the work included uprating those massive diesels to deliver 1,650 hp each.

Now fast forward to February last year. After two summers of cruising Cujo around Sardinia and Italy’s Amalfi coast, Moody decided to sell. Strangely, he entered the boat in the Retromobile classic car auction in Paris.

That’s where well-known British car collector, buyer, seller and restorer Simon Kidston appeared. Kidston had spied Cujo in the Retromobile auction catalog, read that it was being sold by his old school-friend Fayed, and decided to bid.

The 1972 Baglietto has innovative features like the amidships helm and social area, and two sunbeds on the foredeck.  Courtesy Simon Kidston

“On the day of the auction, I was tied up with clients so asked a colleague to go down and take a look. I told him that if it was going cheaply, put in a bid for a bit of fun,” Kidston tells Robb Report .

“The bidding opened at just 150,000 Euros—that’s around $165,000. My colleague bid 160,000 Euros,” says Kidston. “Trouble was, no one else bid. The hammer went down and I had bought a boat. The feeling was a mix of excitement, tinged with terror.”

Unfortunately, just as Simon took delivery of Cujo at Lavagna, where she was moored, Europe was starting to lock down with the coronavirus pandemic.

The internal helm station is outfitted with modern electronics, but in a nod to its historic past, the wheel is definitely old school.  Courtesy Simon Kidston

But he did get to take her out during a video shoot in and around Portofino  for his YouTube channel Kidston Productions, where the boat meets up with Simon’s own ’70s Lamborghini Miura supercar. Entitled A Portofino Affair, the footage of Cujo at speed is breathtaking.

“She has immense presence,” said Kidston. “No boat of its size commands that kind of attention when she comes into a harbor.” Especially an Italian harbor when nervous local boat owners think she’s with the financial police.

“As you’d expect, those engines have tons and tons of performance,” Kidston adds. “We’ve seen 41 knots. But they have a very different sound than I was expecting; instead of a roar from the exhausts, there’s this amazing whistle from the turbos.”

The diesel engines were upgraded from the original 2,700 to 3,300 horsepower.  Courtesy Simon Kidston

While Kidston and his family had planned to cruise the Med this summer, the car enthusiast received an offer he couldn’t refuse.

“A young member of a prominent Italian business family—he’s 30 years old—had seen Cujo in Lavagna, fallen in love with her and asked if she was for sale,” he says. “He took delivery last week, just in time for his birthday.”

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Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed's iconic love boat is now at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea

• The yacht on which Princess Diana holidayed with Dodi Fayed is now at the bottom of the sea, per The Times .
• The boat, named Cujo, sank after it collided with an unidentified object off the French Riviera.
• Cujo has changed hands multiple times in recent years and was most recently owned by a wealthy Italian family.

The yacht where Princess Diana spent part of her last summer with Dodi Fayed has sunk to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.

The boat, named Cujo, sank on July 29 after colliding with an unidentified object off Beaulieu-sur-Mer on the French Riviera, The Times reported.

The Gendarmerie des Alpes-Maritimes uploaded a statement onto their Facebook page confirming that they responded to a distress call from a boat that was in trouble about 35 kilometers, or 22 miles, off the coast.

By the time the coast guards arrived at the scene, the yacht was already partially submerged.

"The distressed yacht is already starting to sink from the front and the 7 shipwrecked are just next to it in a life raft," the statement said. "The cabins of the yacht are already flooded, only a few suitcases located in the kitchen and on the deck can be retrieved."

The Gendarmerie des Alpes-Maritimes added that they would remain in the area to monitor pollution because the yacht sank with almost 7,000 liters of diesel in its tanks.

Related stories

When Insider reached out to the Gendarmerie des Alpes-Maritimes for direct confirmation of the boat's identity, the organization told Insider "to search via Google."

Cujo made international headlines in 1997 when Princess Diana was photographed onboard with its then-owner Fayed, per Robb Report .

That summer, Princess Diana was also photographed onboard another yacht owned by Fayed's father, the Jonikal — which was subsequently renamed Sokar, per The Times.

Mere weeks later, the two of them died in a car crash in Paris while trying to escape the paparazzi.

Following their deaths, Cujo fell into disrepair and was decommissioned in 1999, per Robb Report. After a few years in storage, Fayed's cousin, Moody Al-Fayed, spent over $1 million restoring the boat before he sold it to a British car collector Simon Kidston for €160,000, or $175,400.

Kidston subsequently sold the boat to its current owner in 2021, he told Robb Report.

"A young member of a prominent Italian business family—he's 30 years old—had seen Cujoin Lavagna, fallen in love with her and asked if she was for sale," Kidston told Robb Report.

Watch: The rise and fall of the cruise industry

• Main content

Inside The Yacht Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed Toured the Mediterranean On

The princess and her paramour vacationed on the yacht shortly before their tragic deaths in 1997.

Just a month before their passing, Diana and Dodi—joined for part of the trip by her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry—traveled the South of France aboard a superyacht. Then named the Jonikal (it has subsequently been called the Sokar , and the Bash ), the yacht was owned by Dodi's father, former Harrods owner Mohamed Al Fayed , when Diana traveled on it. Following the 1997 car crash that led to the couple's deaths, Mohamed attempted to sell the yacht on a number of occasions before ultimately parting with it in 2014.

In 2022, it was announced that the 208-foot yacht, which saw the beloved royal's last vacation, would be going up for sale. According to Boat International , the vessel sold in June of 2023 following a €9 million refit.

The ship, which was first launched in 1990, reportedly has nine staterooms to hold up to 12 guests with amenities including a jacuzzi, swim platform, sun deck, formal dining room, a bar, and office space. Though the ultimate sale price for the vessel has not been revealed, the asking price was reportedly €15,500,000.

Lauren Hubbard is a freelance writer and Town & Country contributor who covers beauty, shopping, entertainment, travel, home decor, wine, and cocktails.

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Diana’s final hours: Dodi’s yacht, a Ritz suite, a diamond ring and relentless photographers

The last day of Princess Diana’s life began on the top deck of her lover’s yacht, with croissants and fresh jams.

Diana and her beau, Dodi Al Fayed, sipped their coffee marveling at the breathtaking Emerald Coast in Sardinia. Diana took hers with milk. Fayed took his black. There were kiwis, too.

“They were in a good mood,” his butler remembered later. “They were always laughing, holding hands.”

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Their romance was a whirlwind — passionate, thrilling, scandalous. Fayed, the son of Harrod’s department store owner Mohamed Al-Fayed, was a rich playboy. Diana, divorced from Prince Charles after he cheated on her, was the mother of the future King of England and the most photographed woman in the world.

[ How Britain and the world mourned Diana, the ‘People’s Princess’ ]

That Saturday — Aug. 30, 1997 — promised to be a moment of change. The Princess knew it. She snuck a call to Richard Kay, a friend who covered the Royals for the Daily Mail, and told him, as he later wrote , “she had decided to radically change her life.”

“She was going to complete her obligations to her charities,” Kay continued, “and then, around November, would completely withdraw from her formal public life.” Diana had not told Kay why, but he had a hunch: “They were, to use an old but priceless cliche, blissfully happy. I cannot say for certain that they would have married, but in my view it was likely.”

In the 20 years since she’s been gone, there have been countless revisions to this love story. Her friends and relatives: They weren’t in love! His friends and relatives: They were in love!

Last week, in the Daily Mail, Kay published an article with this headline: “Was Diana about to dump Dodi?” In it, he quoted Diana’s private secretary saying she’d planned to return home after becoming bored with Fayed.

“It’s very much a personal view,” the secretary said, “but I don’t think she would have seen Dodi again once she got back.”

Whatever the case, Fayed wanted to propose that fateful night. It was summer. As they were on holiday, Britain announced plans to invite the Irish Republican Army for peace talks. Conspiracies theories about the suicide of Vincent Foster, President Bill Clinton’s lawyer, were spreading. Israel and Lebanon were sparring with one another.

Fayed’s primary concern was the six-figure diamond ring waiting in Paris. People close to Fayed said the couple picked it out a week earlier even though they had been dating less than a month.

The danger of their relationship wasn’t its brevity. To royal watchers, to Buckingham Palace, and no doubt to the British tabloids whose photographers were hounding them, the threat was something the couple apparently had not yet considered, even as rumors swirled that Diana was already pregnant.

“For the mother of the future king of England to bear the child of a Muslim Arab, a child who would be the half sibling of the heir to the throne, would be embarrassing in the eyes of the royal family and the ruling Establishment,” former Time magazine reporters Tom Sancton and Scott MacLeod wrote in their book,  “Death of a Princess.”

Fayed’s calendar that day had just one entry — at 6:30 p.m., he was to pick up the ring at a store near his father’s hotel in Paris, The Ritz. They left the boat for Fayed’s plane around 11:30 a.m., taking along the butler and a masseuse for Fayed’s painful back.

As soon as they landed in Paris, Fayed saw the paparazzi out his window.

“Dodi did not want this special occasion ruined by a bunch of a shutter-happy cowboys trying to corral them on motorcycles and shoving lenses in their faces,” the ex-Time reporters wrote. “As soon as the door opened, cameras started clicking.”

Diana and the media: She used them, and they used her. Until the day she died.

The aggressiveness of the photographers — and their sheer numbers — would increase as the day progressed.

Diana and Fayed arrived at The Ritz in the late afternoon. She went to the salon for a hair appointment. He went to the jeweler. The couple then rested in the hotel’s Imperial Suite before going to Fayed’s apartment to get dressed for dinner. She checked in with her children, who were in Scotland with Prince Charles and the Queen.

“On that Saturday evening, Diana was as happy as I have ever known her,” her friend Kay wrote in the Daily Mail. “For the first time in years, all was well with her world.”

They left for Fayed’s apartment around 7 p.m., trailed by photographers. More were waiting at the building’s front door when they arrived. Fayed fumed. There was an ugly shoving match.

Once inside, Fayed pulled his butler aside, telling him about his plan to propose that night.

“The ring was on the nightstand in his bedroom,” author Christopher Anderson wrote in “The Day Diana Died.” “Dodi had checked to make sure they had several bottles of Dom Pérignon on ice for the big moment.”

But dinner was a bust.

The first restaurant they tried — Chez Benoit, a cozy, casual bistro not far from the city center — was quickly overrun by photographers. They split and headed for The Ritz, ducking into the dining room hoping to be left alone.

The Princess ordered vegetable tempura. Fayed ordered grilled turbot.

“No sooner had they ordered,” the ex-Time reporters wrote, “they began to feel the indiscreet stares of other diners.”

JFK’s last birthday: Gifts, champagne and wandering hands on the presidential yacht

The couple left and had the food delivered to the Imperial Suite. Fayed’s plan was in shambles. They had to get back to the apartment. But how? The hotel was swarming with photographers.

Fayed devised a plan: The couple’s driver and bodyguards would make a big show out front, appearing to get their caravan of Mercedes sedans ready to leave. Meanwhile, the Princess and Fayed would slip out the back door, in a borrowed car driven by a hotel security officer.

What happened next was the subject of lengthy investigations and conspiracy theories that live on today. The couple did get away. But the driver, it turned out, was drunk.

As the couple sped off, the photographers out front got tipped off about the escape, quickly catching up on their motorcycles. Their driver darted in and out of traffic, wrecking spectacularly inside the Pont de l’Alma tunnel near the Eiffel Tower.

Fayed died instantly. Diana died at the hospital.

Her death startled the world.

An up-and-coming anchor named Brian Williams broke into regular coverage on MSNBC to announce the news to Americans in the early morning hours of Aug. 31.

“I’ve just been handed from the Reuters news service what has been marked ‘bulletin,’” Williams said, speaking slowly. “It says, ‘Princess Diana has died.’”

She was 36.

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Yacht used by Princess Diana and lover Dodi Fayed on final summer holiday sinks

Seven people on board were rescued following the accident off the coast of france, article bookmarked.

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The world-famous celebrity yacht used by Princess Diana on her final summer holiday in France has sunk to the bottom of the sea.

Cujo, once also a favourite of Hollywood superstars, disappeared below the Mediterranean waves after hitting an unidentified object off Beaulieu-sur-Mer, on the French Riviera, on Saturday.

Seven people on board were rescued following the accident, but the boat ended up at a depth of almost 2500m around 18 nautical miles off the coast.

“The skipper of the Cujo issued a Mayday,” said one officer. “His ship was sinking due to a leak.

“Rescue boats were sent from Antibes, and, after making sure everyone was safe, gendarmes detected a significant water leak at the level of the starboard front hull.

“Her owner had activated the pumps and kept the engines running, but this didn’t stop the boat sinking.”

All of those on board, including the Cujo‘s Italian owner, were placed in a rescue boat, and taken back to shore uninjured.

Reports about Cujo - an Indian word that means ‘Unstoppable Force’ - dominated the media in August 1997, when it was owned by Diana’s boyfriend, Dodi Al-Fayed.

The multi-millionaire film producer had spent some £1m refitting the boat, and wooed Diana on board, as the world’s media looked on.

This was shortly before the couple died in a car crash in central Paris caused by their drunk driver.

That summer, Diana was also photographed on Sokar, the yacht then owned by Al-Fayed’s father, retail billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed.

Cujo was built in Italy in 1972 for businessman John von Neumann after he told Italy’s Baglietto shipyard that he wanted the world’s fastest motor yacht.

She was fitted with two 18-cylinder engines that ensured she had a top speed of 42 knots.

Van Neumann then sold the boat to the son of Adnan Khashoggi, the world’s richest arms dealer, and he sold her on to his cousin, Dodi Al-Fayed.

Cujo was frequently moored off St Tropez, the most famous celebrity hotspot on the Riviera, with celebrity guests including Clint Eastwood, Tony Curtis and Bruce Willis on board.

Following the death of Princess Diana and Mr Al-Fayed, Cujo fell into disrepair.

She was decommissioned in 1999, and spent years in storage, before being restored by new owners.

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Princess Diana’s Yacht Adventures: The Famous Boats She and Dodi Fayed Vacationed On

In the summer of 1997, Dodi Fayed and Princess Diana’s yacht adventures were the infatuation of the tabloids, paparazzi, and public like no other. The pair were captured sailing around the Mediterranean in July, first with both of their families, then again, just them, at the end of the month, spurring nonstop controversy and speculation. Weeks later the couple was killed in a tragic car accident, prompting even greater interest in the brief but impactful relationship. Nearly 30 years later, understanding just what happened on the high seas remains a notable point of interest for many invested in the Royal Family.

The momentous vacation was recreated in season six of Netflix’s The Crown and recounted in Prince Harry’s 2023 memoir, Spare . While conversations about the trip often recount what the couple did – and what Diana wore – it’s worth revisiting the stunning vessels where all the escapades took place. Below, AD surveys the two superyachts Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed used during their prominent summer together.

Jonikal, now known as Isabell Princess of the Sea

The sensationalised couple most famously spent time on Jonikal , a 208-foot superyacht. At the time, Mohamed Al-Fayed, Dodi’s father, owned the boat. Reportedly, he originally invited Diana to the yacht in an attempt to play matchmaker between his son and Prince William 's mother, the People’s Princess.

Princess Diana sunbathes on an orange couch aboard Jonikal .

Those who watch The Crown will be unsurprised to learn that the interiors of Jonikal , which has since been renamed Isabell Princess Of The Sea by a new owner, are just as lavish as those depicted in the look-alike on the show. Inside, the ship boasts nine staterooms, a formal dining room, bar, office space, swim platform, sun deck, and Jacuzzi. Designed by navel architect Vincenzo Ruggiero in the 1980s, coffered ceilings and dark wood paneling draw inspiration from the Arts and Crafts movement of the early 1900s.

In his memoir, Prince Harry remembers his experience on the yacht as idyllic. “There was much laughter, horseplay, the norm whenever Mummy and Willy and I were together, though even more so on that holiday,” he writes. “Everything about that trip to St. Tropez was heaven. The weather was sublime, the food was tasty, Mummy was smiling.”

The First Hydrogen-Powered Superyacht Signals A Greener Future for Luxury Travel

After the original trip with her children, Princess Diana’s yacht adventures on the Jonikal continued as she returned to the boat a second time with just the younger Fayed. According to Vanity Fair , Fayed catered to all of Di’s preferences, even letting her pick the music that played. Reportedly, she opted for tunes by George Michael, Frank Sinatra, and the English Patient soundtrack.

A now famous image of Princess Diana on Jonikal ’s passarelle

Nearby, a brigade of press boats captured a number of photos of Princess Diana on the yacht, formally immortalising the vessel. Most famously, Princess Diana was captured sitting alone on the vessel’s passerelle in a now iconic image. According to Boat International , the yacht most recently sold in 2023.

As Robb Report describes it, Cujo, a 65-foot military-style superyacht was once the most famous in the world thanks to her high-profile passengers. In 1997, Fayed reportedly used this smaller vessel to woo the princess.

Princess Diana and Prince William on Dodi Fayed’s yacht

The impressive yacht was originally launched in 1972, commissioned by its first owner John von Neumann. According to Robb Report, Von Neumann hired Italian shipyard Baglietto to build him a boat that was “faster than any other motoryacht on the water.” During its maiden voyage, Cujo had largely achieved this goal thanks to its twin 54-liter V-18 turbo diesel engines, which provided 2,700 horsepower and allowed it to easily hit 46 miles per hour. Von Neumann eventually sold the boat to arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, who later passed the boat to Dodi Fayed, his nephew.

Cujo was already halfway underwater when rescuers arrived.

The boat sank quickly after the distress call was made.

However, the boat’s story came to a dramatic end last summer, when it sunk off the coast of France, as reported by The Independent . According to a Facebook post from the Gendarmerie des Alpes-Maritimes, a division of the French military, passengers issued a distress call at around 12:30 local time on July 29, 2023. A little under an hour later, a rescue boat arrived, finding the vessel’s bow already partially submerged. “The cabins of the yacht were already flooded, and only a few suitcases located in the kitchen and on the deck could be retrieved by the gendarmes,” reads the statement. The seven passengers who were on board had already evacuated and were safely on a nearby lifeboat. Rescuers and passengers then quickly left the area, as the boat sank 2,500 feet to the ocean’s floor. The cause of the accident was not shared; however, according to Boat International , sources claimed that the ship hit an unknown object floating near the center of the hull.

At one point, the vessel was among the fastest in the world.

Though Princess Diana was among the most notable guests onboard, other high-profile passengers hosted by Fayed included Clint Eastwood, Tony Curtis, Bruce Willis, and Brooke Shields. Following the passing of Di and Fayed, Cujo fell into disrepair and decommissioned in 1999. After many years in storage, Fayed’s cousin Moody Al-Fayed purchased the vessel and brought it back to life. He later sold the boat to Simon Kidston, a British car collector and restorer and the last-reported owner of the vessel.

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Who is Dodi Fayed? All about his depiction on ‘The Crown’ and ties to Princess Diana

Emad "Dodi" Fayed has made global headlines for his romantic ties to Princess Diana, specifically around the time of h is and her death in 1997 .

The newest season of "The Crown" remembers Fayed for more than his final moments in Paris. In Season Six, viewers are taken to Diana and Fayed's summer vacation in Saint-Tropez, France, as he deals with his alleged engagement to American model Kelly Fisher.

In real-life, Fayed denied he was still involved with Fisher when he started to pursue Diana, though the series depicts the murkiness of the timelines of his relationships.

Fayed, played by Khalid Abdalla, was first introduced in the show's fifth season, as the son of billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed (born Mohamed Fayed ) who is trying to make a name for himself on this own, not under the shadow of his father's fortune.

Abdalla told TODAY.com about how he wanted to portray Fayed in the sixth season of "The Crown."

"I have certainly through, this time, felt a kind of closeness to him," he said Nov. 14. "And in a sense, the question I've asked myself the whole time is, would he have felt like I have done my best to honor him? Of course, I don't have an answer to that question."

Here's what to know about Fayed — including the movies he produced (including "Chariots of Fire"), his fiancée before meeting Diana and what ultimately happened to him .

Fayed was born to a prominent family in Egypt

Fayed was born in Alexandria, Egypt, the child of Mohamed Fayed and Samira Khashoggi, per royal expert Sally Bedell Smith's reporting for Vanity Fair .

At the time, Mohamed Al Fayed — the son of a school teacher — was working for Samira Khashoggi's brother, Adnan Khashoggi, who would go on to become a billionaire arms dealer . This also made Fayed the first cousin of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi .

Fayed’s parents divorced in 1959. He lived with his father, who remarried Finnish socialite and model Heini Wathén, and had four children with her.

He went to a military academy in the U.K.

Fayed grew up between Egypt and France. At 19, he enrolled at the British army's Sandhurst Military Academy and served as an attaché at the London embassy of the United Arab Emirates.

Major Tim Coles, who lived next to Fayed at the Sandhurst Military Academy, told Smith for Vanity Fair he was "quiet, intelligent, pleasant, had a good sense of humor, was friendly, and appreciated help when anyone gave it."

Then, he worked as a movie producer, including for 'Chariots of Fire'

As "The Crown" shows, Fayed and his father executive produced the Oscar-winning movie "Chariots of Fire." He also produced "Breaking Glass," "F/X," "F/X 2," "Hook" and "The Scarlet Letter."

In his 1982 Oscars Best Picture acceptance speech, producer David Puttnam thanked the Fayeds, saying they "came through for us and put their money where my mouth is."

Fayed was previously married and later engaged to Kelly Fisher

Fayed was married to model Suzanne Gregard for eight months in 1987, per the Associated Press .

In August 1997, when Fayed began dating Diana, model Kelly Fisher sued him for breaking up their engagement. Fisher, represented by Gloria Allred, claimed that Fayed promised to marry her and buy her a house in Malibu, per the Associated Press .

Fisher dropped the lawsuit after Fayed's death later that month, per the Associated Press . At the time, a Fayed family spokesman has denied that Fayed promised to marry Fisher, per the Associated Press .

Diana and Fayed likely first met at a polo match in the '80s

Diana and Fayed first at a polo match in the late '80s, as "The Crown" shows, according to Sally Bedell Smith's biography about her . At the time, she was still married to Prince Charles. They didn't reconnect until over a decade later.

Diana and Fayed's relationship began after she was invited to their Saint-Tropez villa

In the summer of 1997, Mohamed Al Fayed had invited Diana and her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, to stay at his villa in the south of France.

According to "The Diana Chronicles , " by Tina Brown, Diana was getting over a relationship with cardiologist Hasnat Khan. The trip would be a "good place to nurse her disappointments," in Brown's words.

The two eventually traveled together on Fayed's father's yacht. Speaking to the Washington Post , jeweler Alberto Repossi said the couple stopped into the Monaco branch of his store to purchase a diamond ring, but said they did not mention the engagement.

The moment is depicted in Season Six of "The Crown," when the pair rush into a jewelry store while in Monte Carlo, Monaco, while avoiding a group of fans in the third episode.

As Diana appears to be struggling to breathe from the panic, Fayed assures her: "There are worst places to be trapped than a jewelry shop."

Fayed then asks her if there's anything in the store she likes, and Diana points out a ring. They flee the store without purchasing anything, but Fayed is seen later in the episode inside a Repossi store, and then presenting the ring to Diana.

As Fayed gets down on one knee, Diana stops him and explains she isn't ready to get married, despite the pressure from the world for her to wed.

Fayed and Diana died together in a car crash in 1997

The two yachted together around the Mediterranean, then ended up in Paris. The pair arrived in France's capital on Aug. 30, 1997 and spent the evening at Al Fayed's Ritz hotel, according to NBC News .

The couple left the hotel early in the morning on Aug. 31 with bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones and driver Henri Paul, who the BBC reported was deputy head of security at the Ritz.

Traveling in a sedan, the four entered the Pont de L’Alma tunnel before Paul lost control of the vehicle and collided into the tunnel's 13th pillar.

According to NBC News , both Paul and Fayed were reported dead at the scene. Rees-Jones survived the accident. After regaining consciousness, Diana, 36, was taken to the hospital where she later died of her injuries.

Elizabeth Debicki, who portrays Diana in the fifth and sixth seasons of the show, told TODAY.com about filming the car crash scene alongside Abdalla.

“We had a very shared goal, very shared intention of what we wanted to portray, how we wanted them to be perceived, and what we wanted to kind of give the characters,” she said on Nov. 16. “I wouldn’t have been able to stay, kind of, above the horror of that without him by my side.”

She added it was difficult not to get overwhelmed while filming the paparazzi chases.

“When you’re in those scenes, like the particular ones you were describing of being chased and being handled and trapped in a small space, all of that is such a physical, visceral experience,” she said. “It sort of is happening to you and you just have to let yourself react to it.”

Fayed is buried in the U.K.

Fayed, 41, was buried following a ceremony at a mosque. His grave is located at Brookwood cemetery.

Debicki said that as the series got closer to the scenes involving Diana and Dodi’s deaths, “there was an immense sadness there.”

“We had to manage that. And there were days where that felt really difficult, and then there were days where we felt like we were kind of getting through it,” she told TODAY.com . “It’s a really unique thing to film.”

Becca Wood is a news and trending reporter for TODAY Digital based in New York City. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter.

Liz Calvario is a Los Angeles-based reporter and editor for TODAY.com who covers entertainment, pop culture and trending news.

Anna Kaplan is a news and trending reporter for TODAY.com.

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Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed's South of France superyacht is up for sale

Diana, Princess Of Wales is seen in St Tropez in the summer of 1997

Since her death in August 1997, the late Diana, Princess of Wales's last months have been described as some of her happiest. During the weeks before the tragic car accident that would kill them both, the princess took a blissful tour through the Mediterranean aboard a superyacht with her boyfriend, Dodi Fayed. At the time, a photograph of the pair kissing atop the vessel's sun deck made headlines around the world. Now, 25 years on, the multi-million-pound boat, which is loaded with memories of the princess's final summer, is up for sale. 

The luxury vessel was bought by Mohamed Al-Fayed, former owner of Harrods and father of Fayed. Following the death of his son, Al-Fayed attempted to sell the yacht several times before it was finally purchased in 2014. Most recently the boat was owned by billionaire entrepreneur Bassim Haidar, who apparently has a ‘great affection for the ocean’. With reported plans to upgrade to a larger vessel, Haidar is parting with the 64m boat just a year after its purchase. The superyacht does not presently have an advertised price, although it was last sold for $10,000,000 (approximately £8,186,300). 

Currently named Bash , the vessel has previously been called Jonikal , then Sokar. According to House and Garden , the yacht was designed by naval architect Vincenzo Ruggiero in the 1980s and built by the superyacht building firm Codecasa before launching in 1990. Lined with wood panelling and coffered ceilings, the interiors are suggestive of the Arts and Crafts style of the fin de siècle. With features such as a jacuzzi, swim platform, a formal dining room, main saloon, a bar, and office space, the boat is far from lacking in luxury spaces.

Fayed and Diana first met at a polo match in Windsor in 1986, while the royal was still married to Prince Charles. A year following Diana's divorce, the couple enjoyed a fleeting and jet-set romance, spending time in the South of France and Sardinia before they flew to Paris in August 1997. It was during their visit to the French capital that the pair were both devastatingly killed in a traffic collision, following their brief stay at the Hôtel Ritz. 

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Yacht Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed Vacationed on Right Before Their Deaths Sinks in Mediterranean Sea

Seven people were on board at the time of the incident.

A yacht that Princess Diana spent some of her final days on in 1997 recently sank in the Mediterranean Sea. The boat, named Cujo, sunk off the coast of France, The Independent reports. 

The site reports that the boat hit an unidentified object and experienced a leak while sailing near the French Riviera. The seven people on board at the time, including the unidentified current owner of the boat, were rescued, but the boat sunk to the depths of the sea. 

The Gendarmerie des Alpes Maritimes posted photos of the sinking ship on its Facebook page, showing some of the boat's furniture and the guests' belongings that were recovered. It notes that the incident took place on July 29. 

Cujo was previously owned by Princess Diana's boyfriend, Dodi Al-Fayed. The Egyptian film producer was killed in the 1997 car crash that also took Diana's life. The couple were seen vacationing together on the yacht days before their untimely deaths. 

The Independent reports that Cujo has hosted celebrity guests in the past, including Clint Eastwood, Bruce Willis, and Tony Curtis. 

Diana and Dodi's romance following her split from Prince Charles was documented on the most recent season of The Crown . The Netflix royal drama followed the late Princess of Wales' life ahead of her sudden death. It even showed scenes of Diana vacationing with her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, on a boat with the Al-Fayeds, though it did not specify whether that boat was Cujo. 

Back in January, Prince Harry admitted during an appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert that he has watched the royal drama. At the time, the fifth in line to the British royal throne was promoting his tell-all memoir,  Spare.

"The older stuff and the more recent stuff," Harry confirmed. "Yes I do [fact check it], actually, which, by the way, another reason why it's so important that history has it right."

Harry has spoken about  The Crown  before, telling James Corden in 2021, "They don't pretend to be news, it's fictional. But it's loosely based on the truth. Of course it's not strictly accurate, but loosely. It gives you a rough idea about what the lifestyle, what the pressures of putting duty and service above family and everything else, what can come from that."

"I'm way more comfortable with  The Crown  than I am seeing the stories written about my family, or my wife, or myself," he told Corden. "Because it's the difference between, [ The Crown ] is obviously fiction, take it how you will, but [the tabloid stories] are being reported on as fact, because you're supposedly news. I have a real issue with that."

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Princess Diana's Fatal Mistake: Why She Left London for Paris with Dodi

Divorced and "spreading her wings," the People's Princess was eager to escape London before her untimely death in 1997

Her divorce was finally behind her, and for the first time in ages, Princess Diana seemed to be hitting her stride.

It was the summer of 1997: At age 36, she was a world-renowned style icon and she had found deep personal fulfillment in a variety of causes close to her heart . And after years of personal anguish in her doomed marriage to Prince Charles , she seemed to have made some sort of peace with the fact that her ex-husband and the woman who helped break up their marriage, Camilla Parker-Bowles , had settled into domestic bliss . (Unabashedly so: The bliss included a lavish $45,000 birthday party present from Charles to Camilla that July.)

"Diana was starting a new life. She had said, I'm spreading my wings.' She was being quite positive about her divorce," royal biographer Judy Wade ( Diana: the Intimate Portrait ) previously told PEOPLE.

A royal photographer, who asked to speak anonymously, agreed: "Everything as far as her relationship with Charles, her great relations with the kids, that side of her life was in order."

A Rebound Romance

What was decidedly not "in order" was Diana's love life. Her relationship with distinguished Pakistani surgeon and cardiologist Hasnat Khan, a man many believe Diana had been in love with, had hit a rough patch in July 1997. "She had wanted to marry him," said Wade. "She had this vision that together they could bridge east and west, crossing creeds and continents. They could save lives and make it a better world."

But Khan had rebuffed Diana. "They had a bust-up in July, and the romance was rocky," said Wade. "He didn't want to be a walker to a famous woman. When that broke up she felt her life was amiss, she was depressed."

Enter Mohamed Al Fayed, the controversial Egyptian business tycoon and then-owner of department store Harrods, who extended Diana an invitation to visit his villa in St. Tropez along with her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry , who were 15 and 12 years old at the time.

She accepted, and the subsequent quiet arrival of Al Fayed's son Dodi , a 42-year-old playboy and minor film producer, set up a chain of events that no one could foresee.

“Dodi Became Diana’s Distraction”

Diana and Dodi began a discreet romance, with presents arriving at Kensington Palace such as "a huge box of tropical fruit, a roomful of pink roses, a Cartier panther watch," says Wade. "Dodi became Diana's distraction."

But in August, when Harry and William went up to Balmoral, the Queen's Scottish estate , to spend time with their father, Diana found herself alone. "I'm sure she was missing the boys. She was at a loss in London," said Wade. "August is the time when anyone who is anyone leaves London." Besides, "Diana had alienated most of the friends she used to go on holiday with at that time of the year," added Wade. "She used to drop friends for no apparent reason."

So it's perhaps no surprise that, in late August 1997, when Diana got back from a trip to Bosnia for her landmine charity she let herself be wooed again by a man Wade describes as "kind-hearted and considerate, with a reputation for beautiful women."

“I Love His Exotic Accent!”

Perhaps like Jackie Kennedy in the mid-'60s, Diana thought she had found her own Aristotle Onassis. Or perhaps she was just being pragmatic. "Dodi had private jets and yachts at his disposal. St. Tropez in the summer is the haunt of the British paparazzi," said Wade. "Perhaps Diana wanted to be photographed frolicking with Dodi to make Hasnat pay for their recent rows."

Whatever the reason, there was little doubt in the minds of anyone who knew Diana well that the princess was having nothing more than a summer fling. "She would tell her hairstylist, 'I love his exotic accent! I love the way he says, ' Di-yana , you're so naughty!'" recalled Wade. "But she told a confidante, 'I need marriage like a hole in the head.' A close friend doubted that Dodi had replaced Hasnat [in Diana's affections] and was sure Diana and Hasnat would get back together in September."

Diana apparently heard the reports of Dodi having financial debts and having a weakness for cocaine, as well as the accusation from his ex-girlfriend that he'd two-timed her and Diana. "The stories were not very complimentary," said Wade. "I think Dodi was a step too far for Diana," agreed the veteran royals photographer. "I think Diana enjoyed the excitement, but I don't think she could have coped with that [long term]."

Furthermore, whether the financial impropriety and drug rumors were true or not, everyone agreed that Diana wouldn't have done anything that would have jeopardized her life with her two young boys in any way. "After knowing Dodi only six weeks, that wasn't enough time for her to decide. The boys were her priority, and she would have consulted them," said Wade. "She would have asked herself, 'Is Dodi a suitable stepfather for my children?' And she would have thought he wasn't."

A Violent Disagreement

On what was to be the couple's last day together, after they had cut short their visit to Sardinia to fly up to Paris — possibly to escape the omnipresent paparazzi — they visited the old home of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, which was then owned by Mohamed Al Fayed. On the way there they were chased by paparazzi and, according to Wade — who spoke to one of Al Fayed's bodyguards for her book — Dodi ordered the driver to speed up to get away from them.

"Diana and Dodi had a violent disagreement," says Wade. "Diana begged Dodi to slow down. By the time she arrived at the villa, it was obvious she was upset. She was crying and had been genuinely frightened for her own safety and that of the paparazzi. It was a chilling portent of what would happen later on that night."

Perhaps for that reason, Diana didn't spend a lot of time looking at the house that Al Fayed Sr. had said the couple could live in if they married. According to bodyguard Philippe Dourneau, "Diana didn't [even] venture upstairs," said Wade. "She seemed to want to get away. They didn't hold hands. They seemed like acquaintances."

From there the couple returned to Paris on the afternoon of August 30, and by then, a chain had long since been set in motion. Its tragic culmination in the early-morning hours of August 31, 1997 —involving aggressive paparazzi, a drunk driver far over the speed limit, a tunnel in Paris, a playboy and a princess — would shock the entire world and impact the British monarchy irreparably.

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