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Princess Diana’s bodyguard says 3 mistakes killed her

Three fatal security failures led to Princess Diana’s tragic death — at least, that’s what her former bodyguard, Ken Wharfe, claims.

It’s hard to believe that nearly 30 years have passed since Princess Diana’s tragic death. The world lost an icon, a humanitarian, and two young boys lost their mother. It’s impossible not to wonder what she would be like today — how she would look, what role she would have taken on, and how she might have continued to shape the world.

First meeting with Diana

Ken Wharfe, her former bodyguard who spent six years working closely with her, remembers her fondly. Reflecting on Diana’s impact, he praised her ”wicked sense of humor” and said he felt ”incredibly privileged” to have been part of her life.

Wharfe recalled that from the very first time he met Princess Diana, she showed just how down-to-earth she truly was.

”As I walked into the room, I was introduced, and Diana said, ‘I don’t envy you, Ken, looking after my kids. They can be a bloody nuisance,’” Wharfe told The Sun.

Right on cue, young William, who had been attempting to play the piano, spun around and objected, “No, we’re not a bloody nuisance!” Just as he spoke, Harry tumbled off a table.

Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images

”Diana immediately got up and said, ‘Come here, both of you!’ before chasing them out of the room. I hadn’t even said a word yet,” Wharfe recalled.

She returned moments later, shaking her head.

”You see what I mean, Ken?”, she said.

That moment, he explained, changed everything.

”Suddenly, instead of talking to a royal, you were speaking to a parent, a young mother, someone you could truly relate to.”

And that, he said, was Diana in a nutshell—full of fun, laughter, and, at times, deep sadness.

A dangerous driver behind the wheel

Having served as her personal protection officer from 1987 to 1993, Wharfe insists that the People’s Princess might still be alive today if key decisions had been made differently.

One of the most critical mistakes, according to Wharfe, was who was driving the car that fateful August night in 1997.

Diana was traveling with her boyfriend, Egyptian film producer Dodi Fayed, as well as Ritz security chief Henri Paul, who was behind the wheel, and Dodi’s bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones — the crash’s sole survivor.

Sadly, Paul had been drinking before getting behind the wheel and was driving at dangerously high speeds when the car slammed into the 13th pillar of the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris. Wharfe is convinced that Diana could have survived if someone else had been driving.

”The one thing that would have saved Diana’s life that night would have been if they’d kicked out the chauffeur and for Rees-Jones to have driven,” he stated.

“But he couldn’t do that because he couldn’t speak to Dodi Fayed — he told him what to do. And that’s a shame, because had Rees-Jones taken that command, had he taken that decision to boot out Henri Paul, you and I would not be having this discussion.”

A fatal attempt to outsmart the paparazzi

Diana and Dodi’s original plan was to travel a short distance from the Ritz Hotel to an apartment near the Champs-Elysées. Another critical mistake that night was the lack of planning and coordination — or rather, the complete lack of coordination— with the local police regarding the car journey.

Wharfe believes the tragedy could have been prevented entirely if Dodi and Diana’s security team had worked with local police instead of shutting them out and viewing the press as “the enemy.”

In an effort to evade the press, they devised a plan using decoy cars. A Range Rover was positioned at the front entrance of the Ritz with Dodi’s usual driver behind the wheel, while Diana and Dodi secretly exited through the back in a black armored Mercedes.

Henri Paul — who was four times over the legal drinking limit in France — had been called in from home to drive them. The high-speed chase that followed ended in disaster, with the Mercedes crashing at over 60 mph.

The lack of a security team

Perhaps the most avoidable mistake, according to Wharfe, was Diana’s decision to dismiss her Scotland Yard security team. After separating from Prince Charles in 1992, she eventually let go of her royal protection.

Wharfe recalls urging Diana to reconsider just weeks before she cut ties with them. ”She said, ‘You’ve always been great with advice. If there’s one piece of advice you’d give me, what would it be?’”

His response was clear: “I urge you, I urge you, not to lose the Scotland Yard security because we have given you that freedom, we’ve broken rules to allow you to have the normality that you crave for, and there’s no reason why that shouldn’t continue.”

Despite his warning, Diana dismissed her entire security team just four weeks later. Wharfe firmly believes that had Queen Elizabeth insisted she keep them, Diana would have agreed.

”You cannot force security on somebody, they have to say ‘yes, I’ll take it’. But the fact that it wasn’t offered, this was her way of saying I want a new life.”

Diana’s death sent shockwaves across the globe, dominating headlines for weeks. While her funeral became a historic moment of mourning, the haunting images of her wrecked car remain etched in the minds of many.

More than two decades later, the debate over what could have saved Diana continues. But for Ken Wharfe, the answers are clear — three crucial decisions sealed her fate that night. Do you agree with him?

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A mother sells her late son’s crib, and a week later, the buyer comes back and tells her, “Check the trunk.”

Valarie Watts was devastated when her baby, Noah, was stillborn in July. While grieving, she decided to sell most of the baby items she had bought.

However, she couldn’t bring herself to sell the white crib, so she left it out of her garage sale. But when 75-year-old Gerald Kumpula, a retired craftsman, saw it, he asked to buy it.

At first, 28-year-old Valarie hesitated, but she eventually agreed after learning that Gerald made benches from old headboards and footboards.

Watts felt a little better knowing the crib would be turned into something nice, so she sold it for $2.

While talking to Gerald’s wife, Lorene, Watts shared her heartbreaking story after Lorene noticed baby clothes at the sale and asked how old her son was.

On the way home, Lorene told Gerald about Watts’ loss. The Kumpulas, who have 15 children and many grandchildren, felt the crib should stay with Watts. A week later, they surprised her with a bench made from the crib.

Watts told TODAY.com, “It’s beautiful. It reminded me that kind people still exist.” She placed the bench in her living room to remember Noah.

“I’m so happy it’s being used and not just sitting somewhere,” Watts said. “Now I can sit on it, hold his bear, and think about him when I need to.”

In the final days of her full-term pregnancy, Watts noticed less movement from Noah. On July 22, she had a C-section, just hours after she and her fiancé, Jimi Hamblin, were told there was no heartbeat. Doctors explained that the umbilical cord had been compressed, cutting off Noah’s oxygen.

The Kumpulas deeply understood Watts’ grief, as their first granddaughter was also stillborn.

“An unused crib is a painful reminder,” Gerald said. “But a bench feels more like a memorial. It still holds the memory, but it’s not as heartbreaking as seeing an empty crib.”

Watts wanted to pay him, but Gerald refused.

“It just feels good to do something kind for someone,” he said. “Helping others is what matters.”

Watts has a 7-year-old daughter, Nevaeh, and is set to marry Hamblin this fall. She says the bench, placed near a bookcase holding Noah’s photos, handprints, footprints, and ashes, is helping her heal.

“When I sit on it, I feel comforted, like he’s still with me in a way,” said Watts, who works as a babysitter. “It gives me a sense of peace. When I’m feeling down, I sit on the bench, and it reminds me that everything will be okay.”

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Serena Williams addresses crip walk cameo at Super Bowl

Serena Williams at the Super Bowl. Credit / Getty Images

Serena Williams knows how to make an entrance – and this time, she did it with just a few slick steps. During Kendrick Lamar’s highly anticipated 2025 Super Bowl halftime show, the 43-year-old tennis icon had a brief cameo where she effortlessly hit the crip walk, sending the internet into a frenzy. And now, Williams is speaking out on her wild dance moves.

For a split second, the sports world and hip-hop culture collided in the most unexpected way. As Kendrick Lamar brought the house down with his fiery performance of “Not Like Us” at the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show, the camera briefly panned to the corner of the stage.

There stood Serena Williams – tennis legend, 23-time Grand Slam champion, and cultural icon – crip walking with the kind of effortless cool that only she could pull off.

The dance was created in the 1970s by Robert “Sugar Bear” Jackson, a first-generation crip member – an alliance of street gangs mostly based in the coastal regions of Southern California.

But this wasn’t the first time Williams showcased her dance skills.

Wimbledon crip walk

Fans might remember Williams crip walking at the 2012 London Olympics after winning gold, a move that was met with both celebration and controversy.

When it happened, Bill Plaschke, LA Times sports journalist, tweeted, “Serena C-walking at Wimbledon only shows how long she’s been away from home, separated from violence and death associated with that dance.”

Fans were divided on Williams doing the crip walk dance to celebrate her win, some saying it wasn’t “disrespectful,” while others suggested it was “stupid and classless.”

Responding to Plaschke’s criticism, one fan writes, “The Suburb kids here in Pittsburgh crip walk at proms. Not everything is Controversy.”

A second shares, “Moment of raw emotion. Questionable dance choice. Not disrespectful. We should embrace realness from athletes.” And another offered, “Shame she had to put a tarnish on an impressive win. just plain stupid and classless.”

Crip walk recreation

From Compton to NOLA. @SerenaWilliams @KendrickLamar #AppleMusicHalftime pic.twitter.com/mnzuP7fJ1N

— NFL (@NFL) February 10, 2025

By the time Lamar took the halftime stage at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, anticipation was at an all-time high. The song’s beat dropped, the stadium erupted, and then – just as the track hit one of its most infectious moments – the camera found Williams, effortlessly vibing to the Grammy-winning song, “Not Like Us” – Lamar’s diss track aimed at Drake.

Williams reportedly dated the Canadian rapper before she married Alexis Ohanian, and by bringing her on stage, Lamar took his ongoing feud with Drake to a whole new level.

If there was any doubt about where Serena stood in the Drake vs. Kendrick feud, it was erased in that single dance move.

And though it was a brief, blink-and-you-miss-it moment, the tennis legend and Lamar – both who grew up in Compton, California – sent social media into a frenzy.

“This game sucks. Serena won the Super Bowl,” tweets one fan of the February 9 game, that saw the Kansas City Chiefs crushed by the Philadelphia Eagles.

“Serena making an appearance too? That’s a power move. Kendrick repping Compton, Serena bringing the legend status – definitely a moment,” offers a second netizen.

Another writes, “Fierce!! My only complaint…the camera needed to be on Serena longer!!!”

Legendary crip walk

After the Eagles clinched the 2025 title, Williams shared a social media clip that she captioned, “Super Bowl halftime show babyyyyyyyyy.”

Super Bowl halftime show babyyyyyyyyy pic.twitter.com/zufoSNdNhe

— Serena Williams (@serenawilliams) February 10, 2025

In the clip that’s been viewed 2.7 million times, she jokes, “Man I did not crip walk like that at Wimbledon, I would’ve been fined.”

Fans jumped into the comments section, praising her surprising cameo at the Super Bowl.

“Serena Williams! The converse, the outfit, the dance moves, the feature in Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Not like us’ Super Bowl halftime show, winning on and off the tennis court,” shares one netizen.

A second writes, “Kendrick bringing one of Drake’s exes out to literally dance on his grave was so good.”

“The Legend herself. You represented,” shares a third.

Serena Williams didn’t need a touchdown or a microphone to steal the show. All it took was five seconds, a legendary dance move, and the right song at the right time.

And just like that, Serena Williams won the Super Bowl.

What do you think of Williams’ crip walk at the Super Bowl? Please share your thoughts with us and then share this story so we can hear from others!

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Elon Musk’s brutal four-word response to Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift had a rough Super Bowl in New Orleans.

Not only did her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, leave the game empty-handed — but the pop icon herself was also met with boos when she appeared on the big screens.

Taylor Swift’s reaction

With a fan base in the tens of millions and a reputation free from scandal, Taylor Swift has been one of the world’s most famous women in recent years. Yet, even she isn’t immune to being met with a chorus of boos.

During last night’s Super Bowl LIX, featuring the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, the superstar songstress seemed to be minding her own business when she became a target for the crowd. Swift – at Caesars Superdome, New Orleans to support boyfriend Travis Kelce of the Chiefs – looked to mouth “What is going on?” to friend and fellow artist Ice Spice.

Taylor Swift was born in West Reading, Pennsylvania, and a few years ago, she was spotted wearing a Philadelphia Eagles sweatshirt while strolling through New York City. However, she naturally shifted allegiance to the Kansas City Chiefs when she started dating superstar Travis Kelce.

The pro-Eagles crowd in New Orleans didn’t seem to have forgotten Swift’s past support for the Eagles before switching to the Chiefs. When the superstar singer appeared on the big screen, fans greeted her with loud boos.

Trump couldn’t resist

One person who couldn’t resist commenting on Taylor Swift’s chilly reception was Donald Trump, who was also at the game as the first sitting president in history to attend. Taking to his Truth Social platform, he couldn’t resist commenting on the situation, suggesting that his loyal MAGA supporters were less than kind.

“The only one who had a tougher night than the Kansas City Chiefs was Taylor Swift. She got BOOED out of the stadium. MAGA is very unforgiving!” Trump wrote.

In contrast, Trump was met with an overwhelming reception, as fans appeared thrilled to see the U.S. President attend a Super Bowl for the first time.

The popular yet controversial account End Wokeness highlighted the stark contrast between the reactions to Taylor Swift and Donald Trump at the Super Bowl.

In a tweet, they wrote: ”Taylor Swift got mercilessly booed. Trump got a hero’s welcome. Total culture shift.”

Elon’s brutal four-word response

The comment sparked a response from one of Donald Trump’s closest allies, billionaire Elon Musk, who also joined in on mocking Taylor Swift. Elon Musk couldn’t resist chiming in, replying with a simple yet impactful: ”Vibe shift is real.”

This wasn’t the first time Tesla founder Elon Musk has taken aim at the pop icon. When Taylor Swift finally made a political endorsement, supporting Kamala Harris, Musk shared his thoughts on X (formerly Twitter), writing, “Fine Taylor…you win… I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life,” in what appeared to be a jab at Swift, who had signed off her endorsement with “childless cat lady.