BRITAIN:Princess Diana was taking a contraceptive pill during the period before her death, though it is unlikely ever to be conclusively proved whether she was pregnant or not, the inquest jury in London was told yesterday by the coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, during the second day of hearings at the high court in London.
The jury was warned that it would be given intimate details of the princess's personal life and was also shown security camera footage of her arrival at the Ritz hotel in Paris with Dodi Fayed on the afternoon of August 30th, 1997, hours before the fatal crash in the Pont d'Alma tunnel.
Lord Justice Scott Baker, who is acting deputy coroner for west London for the duration of the inquests into the two deaths, said: "No indication of pregnancy by Diana was given to her doctor, family, friends or associates." The doctors who tried to save her life and conducted a postmortem had not observed any indication of pregnancy.
"You will also hear evidence that Diana was taking a contraceptive pill. Any blood sample taken at postmortem was going to be unreliable because of the transfusion Diana had received."
He added: "It is likely that pregnancy is not a matter that can be proved one way or another in scientific terms in this case."
It is a key part of the claims of Dodi's father, Mohamed Al Fayed, that the couple were murdered in a conspiracy because Diana had been made pregnant by his son and that a cover-up was organised by the royal family through the British ambassador to Paris, Sir Michael Jay.
It is claimed that this is partially indicated by the rapid decision to embalm the princess's body in the early afternoon