Diana crash used in vile euthanasia ad campaign: Princess’s friends condemn ‘cruel exploitation’ as Paris tragedy photo promotes assisted dying

Friends of Princess Diana have reacted with anger and disgust after a ‘funny’ advert used her fatal car crash to promote euthanasia.

The sickening campaign features an image of a wrecked car in a tunnel with the caption: ‘Diana. She did not choose her death… in 2024 we should have the choice.’

It provoked an immediate storm of furious condemnation, with friends and politicians branding it ‘gross’, ‘disgusting’, ‘disgusting’ and ‘horrible’.

“This is cruel, callous and opportunistic,” said her friend Rosa Monckton. ‘Diana was exploited in her life and her death is now being exploited for very basic reasons.’

Baroness Monckton, who went on holiday with Diana a few weeks before she died in the car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris in 1997, said she was ‘shocked and horrified’ by the image.

Kensington Palace insiders were left ‘speechless’ with one saying the ad ‘plumbed the lowest depths of bad taste’.

Their sentiments were echoed by the late Queen’s former press secretary Dickie Arbiter, who said: ‘Referring to what happened in 1997 is bad enough, but mocking an image really leaves a sour taste in the mouth. (It) is just completely off the scale of obscenity.’

The disgusting image was hastily withdrawn yesterday after a flurry of protests. It had been set up by the French pro-euthanasia group ADMD, which blandly admitted it ‘may have offended some observers’ after the strong backlash.

Commentators noted that for all its shock value, the photo – spread on social media – made no sense given the organization’s goals.

Leading French newspaper Le Figaro asked: ‘Are we to understand that euthanasia legislation would have spared Lady Di a tragic end?’

Another of Diana’s friends, journalist Petronella Wyatt, said: ‘This campaign ad is disgusting. It’s also completely irrelevant to their argument, because none of the people involved, especially Diana, wanted to die at all.

“It is absolutely unbelievable the way poor Diana is being used. It deepens something that is terribly painful and traumatic for her children.

‘They should issue a formal apology because if I was a relative of Diana I would be absolutely outraged. How can you possibly compare a tragic car accident where someone died in the prime of their life to euthanasia?’

Diana was 36 when she and Dodi Fayed, 42, died after their Mercedes hit a pillar in the Paris road tunnel in the early hours of August 31, 1997. Diana was critically injured in the wreckage and died several hours later in hospital.

Insiders at non-profit ADMD admit the image – created by its youth arm for under-36 campaigners – was ‘designed to shock’, but apparently underestimated the strength of disgust it provoked.

It was circulated on social media after French President Emmanuel Macron announced new laws allowing adults with terminal illnesses to take lethal drugs in certain cases.

However, the ADMD believes the legislation does not go far enough, with a source saying: ‘It needs to be changed to allow assisted dying according to one’s wishes.’

The Diana ad seemed to be a direct response. When ADMD’s youth arm posted it on X, it read: ‘In 2024 we should have the choice of a free end of life outside of restrictive criteria!’

The announcement came at the end of a tumultuous week for the royal family, with controversy surrounding the Princess of Wales’ Photoshopped Mother’s Day photo and hurtful speculation about her health.

The ad is said to have caused particular embarrassment in France because ADMD is a well-regarded campaign group backed by corporate names. Laurent Fabius, the country’s former prime minister and a friend of Diana, is on its honorary committee.

Fabius, 77, hosted the princess and Prince Charles at a Seine riverboat dinner in 1988. Then president of the National Assembly, the French equivalent of the House of Commons, he is said to have bonded with the princess.

The committee includes Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, and her predecessor, Bertrand Delanoe.

A Paris City Hall source said: ‘Paris has always shown Princess Diana the greatest respect. She was admired and revered – no one would want her memory disrespected. The authorities will of course condemn the image that was used (by ADMD). Its removal is most welcome.’

Politicians in Britain were more forthright in their condemnation.

Conservative MP Bob Seely, who sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee, called the ads ‘absolutely disgusting’ and added: ‘Those responsible should be utterly ashamed. This is cretinous stupidity. How low can you go?’

And DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr said: ‘This is absolutely disgusting. To prey on someone’s tragic death is just hideous and beyond words.

“Using an accident in the lives of the royal family to produce some kind of advertisement is twisted, sick and disgusting. It should be banned and the authors fined.’

ADMD said in a statement: ‘Following the distribution on social networks of a campaign whose images may have offended some observers, it was decided to withdraw it immediately… Young ADMD apologizes to those who were shocked by the choice of Pictures.’

The Paris crash also killed Mercedes driver Henri Paul and seriously injured Trevor Rees-Jones, Diana’s bodyguard.

In his memoir, Spare, Prince Harry wrote about the shadow the Paris crash scene has cast over his life.

He described driving through the tunnel when he visited the French capital for the 2007 Rugby World Cup, aged 23, and told of how he ‘saw the concrete pillars flicker past’ and ‘counted them, counted my heartbeats… I had always imagined the tunnel as a treacherous passage that was inherently dangerous, but it was just a short, simple tunnel with no frills. No reason anyone should ever die inside it.’

Kensington Palace declined to comment last night.