Drama as inquest sees Diana letters

"Diana was deeply and blissfully in love with Dodi". This could have been a headline in a gossip magazine. In fact it was uttered in a court of law.

The speaker was Raine, Countess Spencer, who was dressed in black from head to toe. She lifted her veil before entering the witness box.

She had been transformed, during Diana's life, from wicked stepmother to close confidante.

The daughter of Barbara Cartland and employee of Mohammed Al Fayed said she felt it was highly likely Diana and Dodi would have become engaged and then got married.

When asked whether the princess would have allowed herself to become pregnant outside wedlock, her reply could have been inspired by one of her mother's novels.

Diana 'old-fashioned'

"Diana was brought up in a quite old-fashioned way," said the countess.

"I don't personally believe she would have considered it. It would have been out of the question for her." The true nature of the relationship has been the subject of many column inches over the years.

It's now a key issue for the jury to consider. Was it just a summer fling - a princess on the rebound from her break-up with the love of her life, the heart surgeon, Hasnat Khan - or was it something deeper, its enduring potential the reason, as Dodi's father alleges, that the couple were murdered by the British intelligence services?

"Solve this mystery to allow poor Diana and poor Dodi to at last truly rest in peace"
Countess Spencer

Mr Al Fayed released two of her letters to prove his point. In one she writes of her holiday with Dodi on a yacht - "six magical days on the ocean waves" - and of how he'd brought joy "into this particular chick's life".

A week later Diana sent Dodi a treasured personal possession accompanied by these words, "These cufflinks were the very last gift I received from the man I loved the most in the world - my father."

Another man in Diana's life loomed large this week - her father-in-law, Prince Philip.

Again, parts of once private letters were made public. Did she take any secrets to the grave, you may well wonder?

This correspondence was written in 1992 as her marriage was disintegrating. In one of his typed letters, the duke offered to help Charles and Diana but said he had no talents as a marriage counsellor.

In her handwritten replies, Diana referred to him as "Dearest Pa" and praised his "great understanding and tact" - characteristics which challenge his caricature.

Prince Philip allegations

These extracts weren't released to satisfy the tittle-tattle mongers, rather to answer the allegation Prince Philip had sent Diana unpleasant and insulting letters.

The coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, who has read all of the released documents, told the jury this wasn't the case.

The Queen's husband is at the heart of Mohammed Al Fayed's central allegation of a British establishment conspiracy to murder.

Mr Al Fayed is unlikely to abandon his attempt to persuade a so far unconvinced coroner of the need to summon Prince Philip to the witness box.

Such a royal appearance would electrify Court 73 and even overshadow the testimony of a veil-wearing daughter of a prolific romantic novelist.

As well as exhorting the court, in her words, "to solve this mystery to allow poor Diana and poor Dodi to at last truly rest in peace", Countess Spencer also had time to offer advice for those in royal circles who are troubled at dinner parties with impertinent questions about the Windsors.

She told the court she and her late husband, Diana's father, used to give this stock reply: "It is very kind of you to ask. I am afraid we cannot possibly answer that because we know too much."