In The Crown’s final season, Dodi Al-Fayed is shown proposing to Princess Diana right before their fatal car crash. Did that really happen?

According to Vogue, Dodi did buy a ring for Diana, however, there was no indication that he ever gave it to her, and it was not confirmed to be an engagement ring.

As the pair spent their night in a private suite at the Ritz, we can’t know for sure what actually happened at that dinner, but there’s no evidence to suggest Dodi proposed. Reports claim Diana’s friends denied the couple were engaged or even thinking about getting married.

According to Express, Lady Annabel Goldsmith shared a phone call with Diana on August 29, 1997, and claimed the Princess said she needed “marriage like a rash on [her] face”.

Princess Diana and Dodi Al-Fayed

However, during an inquest in 2008, Dodi’s father Mohamed Al-Fayed had assured the court that the pair were in a serious relationship. It’s unclear whether or not his son was going to propose to Diana or that he had already done so, but Mohamed claimed: “The couple called him to announce the news on the night they died.”

Mohamed even went on to allege that Diana was pregnant, claiming she told him in a phone call an hour before the crash. However, a coroner confirmed Diana was not pregnant at the time of her death.

The official investigation into Diana’s death by the Metropolitan Police stated that even if Dodi was planning to propose, they concluded: “The Princess of Wales was not intending to get engaged or married to Dodi Al-Fayed.”