By Katherine Tinsley
4:14pm PDT, Sep 3, 2025
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Princess Diana died in a 1997 car crash in Paris, but according to a forensic pathologist, she might've lived if she'd done one thing differently before taking that fateful trip…
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Forensic pathologist Dr. Richard Shepherd claimed in his book, Unnatural Causes, that Princess Diana died after suffering "a very small injury" that happened to be "in the wrong place" — "a tiny, fatal tear in a pulmonary vein," he noted.
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"[Princess Diana's] specific injury is so rare that in my entire career I don't believe I've seen another," Dr. Richard Shepherd said.
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Richard Shepherd called Princess Diana's death a "classic example" of an "if only" case due to the fact that the royal was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the collision. "Had she been restrained, she would probably have appeared in public two days later with a black eye, perhaps a bit breathless from the fractured ribs and with a broken arm in a sling," he said.
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There have been various theories about Princess Diana's death over the years, but Richard Shepherd noted that while he didn't work on the royal's case, his research indicated that the examination of her cause of death was correct. "The pathology of her death is, I believe, indisputable. But around that tiny, fatal tear in a pulmonary vein are woven many other facts, some of which are sufficiently opaque to allow a multitude of theories to blossom," he said.
