Diana-Dodi affair was over before crash: Family friend

London: Princess Diana’s family friend said on Monday that she had described her relationship with Dodi al Fayed as "all over" just two weeks before the couple died in a car crash in Paris.

Under questioning at the British inquest into the deaths, Rodney Turner conceded that Diana might have told other friends something very different.

Turner, a car dealer and long-standing friend of Diana's family, said he had told the Princess that he opposed her relationship with Fayed. That opposition was based on his opinion of Fayed's father, Mohamed Al Fayed, Turner said.

In a conversation in mid-August 1997, Turner said Diana told him, "It's all over." Turner said that statement "was really a shock to me."

He said Diana added, "Don't fuss, don't fuss. It's all over. I've had a wonderful time."

Later that month, however, she joined Fayed in southern France on a holiday. They died on August 31, 1997, after their car crashed into a concrete pillar in a highway tunnel in Paris.

Turner supplied BMW cars for Diana's use starting in 1995.

He said she had never expressed any fear that someone might tamper with her car, although others have reported such fears to the inquest.

Steven Davies, who was a chauffeur for Diana starting in 1994, said he could not recall any occasion when he was asked to check a car for signs of tampering.

In October 1995, Diana told her lawyer, Lord Mishcon, that "reliable sources" whom she did not identify had told her that an attempt to kill or seriously injure her would be made through a car accident, possibly caused by tampering with the brakes, according to a 2006 police report. Diana said she believed that Camilla Parker Bowles, who was to marry Prince Charles in 2005, was also a target of this conspiracy.

Mishcon, who died in 2006, recorded that he found the claim incredible but was surprised to hear that Diana's private secretary, Patrick Jephson, "half believed" it.

Paul Burrell, Diana's butler, said he received a letter from her in October 1996 that said in part: "This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous, my husband is planning an accident in my car, brake failure and serious head injury in order to make the path clear for Charles to marry”.

Other witnesses have questioned whether that letter is genuine, noting that in October 1996 Diana and Charles had been divorced for two months. Burrell has yet to testify at the inquest.