Queen Elizabeth II: ‘Someone must have greased the brakes’

A NEW biography has revealed Queen Elizabeth II’s startling reaction when she heard that Princess Diana had been involved in a serious crash.

08/04/2008 WIRE: 08/04/2008 WIRE: Attitude Top Ten 19: (FILES) Picture dated 12 July 1996 shows Diana, Princess of Wales, leaving Kensington Palace in London. Diana, Princess of Wales, and her companion, the Egyptian millionaire film-producer Dodi al-Fayed, died in Paris early 31 August after a midnight car crash which sent shock waves round the world and led to accusations against press photographers. Mohamed Al Fayed, the father of Diana, princess of Wales' boyfriend Dodi Fayed, maintained that the couple were murdered, after an inquest jury on April 7, 2008 returned a verdict of unlawful killing. AFP PHOTO UK OUT

WHEN Queen Elizabeth II heard that Princess Diana had been involved in a serious car crash in Paris almost 18 years ago, she blurted out, “Someone must have greased the brakes,” a new biography says.

Princess Diana was killed August 31, 1997, along with her boyfriend Dodi Fayed and their drunken driver when they crashed while being chased by paparazzi.

The New York Post reports that the Queen made the startling statement before she realised Diana had been killed, along with boyfriend Dodi Fayed, Ingrid Seward wrote in The Queen’s Speech.

Complex relationships ... Queen Elizabeth II’s reported reaction suggesting foul play followed years of strife between Prince Charles and his estranged wife. Picture: Arthur Edwards/WPA Pool/Getty Images

“That astonishing remark reveals something of the extraordinary and complex relationship between her and Diana,” the royal biographer wrote in the Daily Mail.

The Queen’s reaction suggesting foul play followed years of strife between Prince Charles and his estranged wife.

At one point, Charles lashed out about Diana when his plans to take their sons to Sandringham were spoiled when he found out she had taken them to Windsor.

“Don’t you realise? She’s mad, mad and mad!” he shouted on the phone to his mother, Seward wrote.

New biography ... Ingrid Seward uses the Queen’s speeches as a starting point to provide a revealing insight into the character of Queen Elizabeth II. Picture: Supplied

Originally published as Queen Elizabeth II: ‘Someone must have greased the brakes’