On February 5th 1997, almost seven months before the day of Princess Diana’s fatal crash, both coming from the Hotel Ritz in Paris, Pamela Harriman died suffering a heart attack while doing her favorite sport – swimming. Ironically, Henri Paul tried to save Pamela, after she was pulled from the waters and as a result of this heroic deed would become the final driver to Princess Diana.

Photo above by Annie Leibovitz

“What she really wanted–and what those men were unable to give her–was a life on her own terms. A woman born in the early twentieth century to parents who wanted a boy, who was raised only for marriage, who never had the chance of a formal education or proper career, that meant changing her name and her nationality, wrecking her health with work and worry, and waiting five decades for her second break.” Sonia Purnell, Kingmaker.