The Truth About Princess Diana’s Death - Bodyguard Lee Sansum Tells All

35:11They're just officers that would sit on this and deal out the punishment, you know. You must have been hated more than a normal police store. Like the military police, because a lot of boys in the army, they do go away with the fuck up and they're in trouble. but I wouldn't like to, I wouldn't like you coming at my door. Did you go to people's door? Who went here? Yes. Yeah. Oh mate. Yeah. So I worked, I did so many different roles in the military police. I mean, I didn't wear a uniform for about three years, three and a half years. So the, the absentees and deserters, as we call them, generally the unit would have an absentees deserters facility there and they'd pick them up.

35:51Like you say, young lads, you know people just had enough and they're desperate so they pick them up and then they get processed either back into the military or into civilian life so there's a procedure some of them went to prison depending on what they've done but um i remember in northern ireland i took over the absentees and deserters file there which is like that thick man so i'm sat there thinking why has nobody ever done anything with this and it's well it's it's too fucking dangerous and i went i'm gonna do this and i nailed the lot mate and it was so exciting uh going into these really tough areas and we call terrorist areas where loyalist or yeah so either protestant or catholics and uh i would go in and get these people out just to get the but i did it for me i didn't have to do it it's the buzz that you get from doing that shit man so um yeah i have done that knocking on doors and i've done all sorts of stuff mate how were you treated from loyalists or like catholics upon the sense were you an enemy for the ira side or were you just military police are just enemy for both yeah i think the british army you you're you're not well liked from the Catholic side of things.

37:10And things then, you know, it was pretty tense when I was there, 1989, 1991, and it was a dangerous place, one of the most dangerous places to serve. And I've spoken to a lot of people who've served in Iraq and Afghanistan and a place like this, and they still say that was the most scariest place, depending on what they did, what job they did. And then with the Protestants, they were obviously pro-military, but at the real top end of the hardcore loyalists, they were always thinking, what are you doing? What's going on here? Why, you know, so they were always looking for people trying to infiltrate them, you know, through our various special forces people.

37:52So there was a bit of untrust at some level, but, and I remember once, right, this is fucking mad. So we're in this pub, me and this guy, and he was kind of working a little bit undercover and I was just wearing civilian clothes, hair a bit longer and all that kind of stuff. And there was three of us. So it was a real hardcore loyalist place in this real hardcore loyalist area. So we were just having a drink. And I go to the toilet and I come back and they're surrounded by a group of guys. And I look at them and they're shitting themselves. And I went back and they said to me, how are you doing, Father?

38:36I'm like I'm alright and I looked at my mates and they were asking me weird questions I said can we just stop this a minute I said to my mates what the fuck have you said they said I was just taking up the fatherhood and it was my last night out how ridiculous because we all had cover stories you see and I looked at the lads and I said right lads this has got to stop and they said right okay boys we know you're military we know you're not normal normal military you've got two options here you try and leave we'll fucking kill you if you stay you don't buy a drink all night we know you're all right stayed there till about three in the morning got pissed yeah crazy eh yeah mad what did you do then after the military stuff so um after the military i uh there's various reasons why I left but it just wasn't the right time for me I was I was I was due to go back to Northern Ireland to work for this special forces unit and then I got I was going through a divorce so I couldn't go back I think they said you have to wait 12 months 18 months you know because you obviously going through a divorce and stuff you know you're obviously mentally unstable or so they thought I was and I thought it was pretty cool so I left and I was determined not to go into security so I got a couple of jobs, I just couldn't hold them down, you know the story don't you I just couldn't hold it down so then somebody I think they gave me a call or something and said look on the Mohammed Al Fayed team it's a big protection team there's a guy called Paul Hanley Greaves who I'd met before in the military and said he's head of security, he's looking for guys so I I gave him a call went down to London got the job How hard was that to get the job for obviously it's a big family a little a billion it was a must be a must be a billionaire I'm fired but how was the interview for that job Well it was quite it was it was Paul cut corners with me so what you had to do then is you had to go down and have this interview with the head of security.

40:57And then you had to do all these tests to make sure you weren't getting any diseases or anything like that. Everything was tested by the doctors, you know, so you weren't bringing, you know, because a lot of military people, because you've been all over the world, you know, you couldn't be carrying stuff. So you had the medical stuff to do. And then there's another interview. And then you had to do a handwriting test. I forget the name of it. You know, when you do the handwriting, somebody looks at it and tells if you're a psychopath or something like that, don't they? Have you seen it? Yeah, I think you can draw a circle as well.

41:27And if you draw a perfect circle, I think you're a psychopath. I can draw circles, can you? I'm in good company. Love it, yeah. So I didn't do the handwriting test. Paul said, look, you don't need to do it. You can start next week. And one of the lads, this is so funny, I think he took it away when you did the test and then sent it in, you know. So his handwriting was really bad. So he got his wife to do it. So when he came back in, he said, We were a bit concerned you're pregnant, mate. Oh, yeah. And his wife was pregnant. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's mad, isn't it? So they can find out things about you with writing?

42:04With your handwriting. It's a dark art, isn't it? Yeah. That is mad. So, let us say, a massive family. And who were you protecting then, the father or the son? So you had the head of the family, Mohamed Al-Fayed, and his wife, Henny. and they had their four kids, Camilla, Jasmine, Omar and Kareem, Omar being the youngest, who I was chatting to last week actually, kept in touch. It's such a lovely story this. He got in touch with me. I'll get back to that. He got in touch with me, I don't know, maybe a year ago and he said, Lee, I'd just like to thank you. You know, you changed my life. How nice is that?

42:49He was only a young boy, same age as Damon. So, yeah, so each member of the family had their designated protection. And so when I went there, I worked in London, learning all the routes, all the secret passages and everything I needed to learn, you know, about the family. And then at that time, I think you spent about three weeks in their main residence in Mayfair, and you never got to meet Mr. Fayed for the first two weeks. Now, the first time you'd meet him is you'd open the lift door and he'd just look at you and walk past. And this was the vet. If he didn't like you, you'd gone. Then the next thing, maybe two days later, you were allowed to speak to him.

43:40So he's letting you in. Because, I mean, when you're working, I spent more time with their family than mine. so you know you get to see everything and and and so you know can you imagine letting somebody into your family that's going to live with you you know it's it's a big and i and i totally get it this episode is brought to you by paypal you know how a mom's bag has everything sunscreen snacks a stapler the new paypal app is like that but for your money shop pay manager account and earn rewards all in one place. And with purchase protection on eligible items, biometric security, and pass keys, you're protected at every step.

44:20Download the new PayPal app to get started. See paypal.com slash protection terms. This message is brought to you by Apple Card. With Apple Card, you earn unlimited daily cash back on everyday purchases like groceries, merch, or tickets to the game. Plus, it can be used anywhere MasterCard is accepted. No matter your team, no matter where you shop, Apple Card is here to help you tackle game day. Apply in the Wallet app on your iPhone today. Subject to credit approval, Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch. Terms and more at AppleCard.com. Brussels clean up nicely at Sweetgreen.

45:00Maple glazed, roasted, and edges perfectly caramelized. Sweetgreen's fall harvest is back on the menu. and the season's most overlooked little green vegetable is dressed to be devoured. You know what to do. Order on the Sweet Green app. So I worked in London for a little while and then I got moved down to their home in Oxedad. And then I worked a lot with the boys. Then I worked sometimes with the girls or with Mrs. Fayed. And then I went on to his team. so I looked after him then and that was like the it was you got paid more money it was a bit more credibility you know it's a great job I love the job and then I was team leader for a little while and yeah just had the most amazing experience you could ever imagine private jets everywhere helicopters boats the whole shooting match How many security was protecting that family?

46:05Well, I mean, at different stages, we had different numbers, but it was a considerable team. It was a considerable setup at that time. At any one time on the books, maybe 50. 50? On the books, yeah. And we all worked around in rotation. But this is the thing, James, what people don't understand. and I know you've read the book about close protection operators. Say, for example, in Northern Ireland, if we went out as a close protection team or, you know, because I worked in witness protection for a little while, you might have four guys on the ground. You might have 150, 200 people around you in support of that, you know.

46:57So on the bigger close protection teams, You've got your surveillance people, your counter surveillance, your drivers. You've got your close protection team that work with the VIP as such. And then you've got people around them. So there's layers of security. And then you've got people at the residences looking after them. So nobody gets in there and leaves things in there, cameras, bugs, whatever. So everywhere you go, you're trying to make it as sterile as possible because there was massive threats against the family. And him, he brought down the government with the cash for questions carry on, which I was involved with.

47:43Yeah, what was that? So what he did is he wanted his British passport, but they wouldn't give him the passport because when he bought Harrods, there was a big legal case that went on with him and this guy called Tiny Rollins who tried to buy it. And what they were alleging is he bought it with somebody else's money. And it was one of the sultan of a man who he used to work with. So I think he had his gold credit card and bought it. But the sultan went there and said, no, no, no, there's nothing going wrong here. His money's my money. I'm okay with this. This is fine. so I think at the end of that trial he was found not guilty but I think the upper classes put the death wish on him and said but it wasn't, he didn't do it like a gentleman so he couldn't get his British passport how crazy is that, everything he used to do here he was a very generous man, he did a lot for charity which he never told anybody for children's hospitals and things like this and for the older people in his town at Hampus at Christmas and everything but he never publicised it and you're thinking we need people like that in our country and i just don't get it you know in the uk so um yeah so what happened was he went to prominent politicians and said look can you ask these questions in in the house of parliament about my passport and there's some money go and stay at my Ritz Hotel free so he that's what he did and in the end they weren't asking the questions so he says right okay I'm gonna show you fuckers and he said right publicly that person that person that person I've done this this this and there's the evidence they brought the government there that's mad in it so they took money expecting him not to just walk away no but he's not that kind of guy he's always had a target on him for some reason even me and the news newspaper's always being negative about the man.

49:47How was he as an individual? He was one of the most intelligent men I've ever seen. There's him, and people are going to freak at this, Alex Salmond. I worked with Alex during the referendum. What an incredibly intelligent guy he is. Irrespective of his policies and what he believes, just him as a human being, hyper-intelligent, incredible. But Fayed was the same. attention to detail I've never said anything I've learned so much with him about attention to detail and stuff like that we walked through Harrods you know the size of it and we'd every day we'd walk the floor with him maybe sometimes for an hour sometimes for 10 minutes but he'd always walk around his store around the shop and you know he'd be walking past something he'd be like stop get me the manager and they would they would shit themselves out they come and he's gonna go look at that stand over there and I remember one it was with umbrellas one was upside down I think how did you see that in this massive store with everything going on in your life with all your businesses or you find a bit of dust somewhere Maddy he had all that billionaire and he was so invested into that store it meant so much to him it's incredible hey how many I was a day did you used to have to work when you'd done clothes protection how many I was a day because we're all ex-military we're generally in the cost protection industry in the area I work in it's a lot of 99.9 % ex-military so you're used to work in long hours so you don't clock off and it's given you know so if I if I was to go on

51:33on operation you would stay till it's finished I mean the worst I've done and I think it was three days, I was standing up asleep because we were just knackered. We had a few hours sleep in three days. It was hideous. And no matter how tough you are, no matter how trained you are, there's a breaking point in there, sleep deprivation. And I remember on this one job, the Queen came over to Northern Ireland and she had her protection with her and we were the next ring of protection looking after her. and I was absolutely hanging. And at the end of it, I was doing top cover in the Land Rovers. You stood at the top of the vehicles we had then with the weapons.

52:20You see them in the war zones, don't you? So I was doing top cover and I fell asleep in that position. There was nothing you could do. We were banging helmets. We were absolutely knackered. So operationally, you're not fit for purpose, you know. but generally you know in with the fire team and other jobs I've done sometimes you can put in an 18 hour day because what you've got to do is this is the thing a lot of people don't understand so you've got to do your physical training yourself to keep you you know keep it on top of your game so you've got to be mentally fit and physically fit so say for example you knew the family were were doing something let's say nine o 'clock so you'd be ready for eight for example and then you you've got to prep everything so that might be another hour then you've got to do your fizz which would be another hour then you've got a shower change all of a sudden so now you're getting up at five o 'clock and so they go out and do their own thing then say for example you go back to the residence or wherever you are on a yacht or something they'll go and have a sleep now you've got work to do then prepping for what you're doing that evening and then they might be out in the nightclub till 2, 3 in the morning repeat and repeat See when they're on yachts and stuff like the food I'd imagine the chefs and that they're all background checks with everybody with their food obviously because you see the Russians people are getting poisoned this and that was that always a question mark for himself like eating the right foods and the waters and everything was that all tested well it's was that a bit extreme no no no no not at all it is a concern but what we had with the chefs they'd been with the family for that many years they were known to us you know and and a lot of his staff stayed with him for a long time he used to pay the best wages expect the best and that's what he got so um new people were vetted of course and uh and then let into the fold slowly so they might maybe work at harrods for a couple of years three years so then you get to know them then they might come in and do something on a low level and then once they're accepted by the family they're trusted and that's that's pretty standard stuff you know was there ever any attempts obviously when you were working there?

54:44Were there any attempts? How can I say? When you have a protection team as professional as that one, the people who are watching you, and we did find people watching us doing surveillance on us from MI5, which was standard, and others, what you're hoping is they're going to look at your level of security and they're going to go, oh, no, we can't get away with this, it's too much. And then put them on to somebody else. Brussels clean up nicely at Sweetgreen. Maple glazed, roasted, and edges perfectly caramelized. Sweetgreen's fall harvest is back on the menu, and the season's most overlooked little green vegetable is dressed to be devoured.

55:31You know what to do. Order on the Sweetgreen app. Sierra has all the best active and outdoor brands for the super athletic stuff, like running gear for cruising up the trail. Woo! And the super athletic-ish stuff, like fishing gear for chilling by the creek. Nice cast. Fitness apparel to push for higher reps. You got this! And golf balls priced so you can afford to lose one. Or a few. Head to Sierra or Sierra.com for the brands you want at the prices that let you do it all, From athletic to athletic-ish, Sierra's got it. This episode is brought to you by Welch's Fruit Snacks. Back to school season can be tough on parents, but choosing a snack you and your kids can both get behind doesn't have to be.

56:17Stock up on Welch's Fruit Snacks, made with whole fruit, and now made with no artificial dyes. It's a snack kids already love, and one you can feel good about giving them. Go back to school with Welch's Fruit Snacks, now made with no artificial dyes. you know it's this is this is this is an interesting i've always thought this so say for example in glasgow let's say on a saturday night in glasgow there are i'm going to make this up 400 attacks against some the person in glasgow let's say for example there's 500 happened on a saturday night you can't change that that will always happen but you can make sure it's not you by taking precautions.

57:01So the people who didn't like him, and he had a lot of people who didn't like him, what you're doing when you're doing your close protection stuff is you're watching them watching you. And an attack starts, the principles of an attack are the same, are very, very similar. So the first thing that's going to happen is somebody's going to watch you. They're going to look at you. They're going to assess you. Sometimes it can be over a period of years. Sometimes it can be a minute. You're in a pub, somebody looks at you and you know something's going to kick off or in a kebab shop or wherever. So they're identifying victims and these people who are, you know, just out for fighting or just that kind of violence, they're assessing all the time, yes, no, no, yes, and they're picking out the victims and then they'll go for one.

57:53and if you miss the stage where you've been victim selected you're one rung up the ladder does that make sense now if you don't know it's happening the next thing that's going to happen is they're going to approach you they've got to approach you to to interact with you okay now if you so if you're at that stage you see the approach you can diffuse it at that stage if you miss the approach now the next thing that's going to happen is there's going to be some kind of distraction generally maybe verbal or something something's going to happen and then comes the violence after that now most people react to it when the violence is about to start so say for example you're teaching self-defense you grab me here I grab you there you hit me I do this that's bullshit it's too late so 99 % of avoiding trouble as a close protection team is done before the person even gets there and if you get if you get that right then you avoid attacks so say for example out in Libya was a really good example our team I've worked in several teams there all Brits very professional great guys and then you see some other countries doing there or the United Nations or NATO and you'd look at their close protection teams and we would look at them and go, shit, they're going to get hit.

59:21And they did often get hit because the drills weren't good enough. They were real gung-ho. It's all about me, the bodyguard, look at me. And no one's watching what they're supposed to be doing. But when the terrorists or the criminality look at this, that's what they're looking for because they want to get away with it. They don't want a hard target. They want something. They know we could do this and we can win. same as street violence you know you're never going to pick on the hardest bastard that you think is going to kill you you know unless you're high on drugs or something so if you harden yourself as an individual or as a close protection team and you make it really hard for the terrorists to even go nah forget that one we'll go for this one and just push him on to another team crazy isn't it yeah how was it was in speaking terms a lot with Al Fayed or was it just a case I do your job and go to bed.

1:00:15Yeah, yeah. With the Fyad family, great relationships with the kids. Used to chat to his wife quite a lot. She hated security. Hated security. I think it just interfered with her life. Not private. No. And her and her eldest daughter, they were really good at escaping from the security. And they'd go into shops, put a different jacket on, try and climb out the window. So his wife wouldn't try and clowning out the window, but she'd try and ditch security. And I remember I got put on to look after Jasmine, his eldest daughter, who lovely loved a girl. And she used to run the guys around like crazy.

1:00:56And if you lost her, you'd get sacked. As you would, wouldn't you? If you put somebody in charge of somebody you love and they lost them, then you'd just get rid of them. And that's what you'd do. So I said to Jasmine, I said, look, Jasmine, this is the score. I love my job I like working for the family but if you're going to try and hide from me or get away from me it's not going to work I'll go home and I'll resign now but if you and I can come to this arrangement that you're not going to do that to me I'll cut you a bit more slack I'll give you a bit more freedom but you've got to be honest with me and she went yeah okay I'll do that Is that all they wanted?

1:01:36Just a wee bit of freedom maybe hanging out with their friends that go for ice cream without the somebody watching over your shoulder. I think so, yeah. But a lot of the bodyguards, and I'm not saying a lot. It could be a lot, yeah. They're trying to speak to the clients, as we call it, or the person you're looking after, because they're like, yes, ma 'am, no, ma 'am. You know, they're really formal. Robots. Yeah. And I get it, but a lot of them, they just want you to be like, we're chatting now. Yeah, okay, I'm very professional. I do my job, as you know. but we're going to talk like human beings.

1:02:11I'm not subservient to you, although you know you call them mom or sir, whatever they want to be called, but you've just got to see through all the bullshit, man. It's crazy, isn't it? I know on one operation I was on in Libya, working for this big NGO, it was so dangerous. We were on the last ones out during the Second War. All the embassies left, and we were, I think it was Brussels or Geneva was headquarters and they wouldn't let us go with this one team of people I was working, there was about 50 of them and I was running the close protection team. We had about 35, 40 people in the protection team.

1:02:53And... It got to the stage where it was that dangerous. And we had swimming pools in this compound we're in. And we had the security set up there and we had their set up. And we got some direct fire, AK and stuff into the compound. But the rockets that was landing and the mortars and that, the swimming pool would shake. And there's loads of peacocks in this place. And the peacocks, have you heard them when they go off? They're loud, man. Hundreds of them. when one came close all the peacocks would start making the noise they make and all the pools were shaking so we're in this situation right and we can't get out no boats airport's been uh the battle of tripoli airport they smashed it to be said i was in that that was fucking horrendous so we're trying to get out um so uh we went and tried to buy a boat and i knew we were going to get we're going to get ripped off this is during the war this so i took some some guys down there tried to buy this boat and i knew we were going to get uh well you know your spider senses start tingling i thought they were going to just shoot us and take the money so we bugged out of this place it was like a big disused building and that was that was a bit tense so we go back and this one guy he was french and he was a reporter a journalist so he came up with this plan to go to Al-Qaeda.

1:04:24We had ISIS pushing through. We had Al-Qaeda there. And we had the militias kicking the shit out of each other. So it was a free-for-all. So he says, look, we'll go to Al-Qaeda, make a deal with them. I can do this. This is what he's saying.

1:04:42And they'll look after us. This was the plan. He was a wannabe. He wanted to be like us. you know the close protection guys he'd ask for a weapon and stuff you know and we would never let him he'd run round the round the camp like we used to do with a big Bergen on a big back but it was empty you could tell it's empty you know he's just crazy he's some kind of wannabe flipping James Bond guy so they went for this plan that they were going to do this and they asked me would I take my team in so this plan's been okayed and they said rightly come up and brief us So when you did any big operations there, you briefed, you know, the head guy and all these people.

1:05:25It was a big set up. And everyone put their 10 pennants in. And the head of the commission sat there. And my direct boss, he said, this is going to happen. Despite me saying, this is fucking suicide, we're going to die. So they're all going to do it. And he said, right, Lee, tell me what your take on this operation is. and I stood up and I said, right, this is my take on this operation. This is fucking insane. This is going to get everybody killed and I'm not sending my men in there. And everyone's like, shit, I don't believe you just said that. And he said, Lee, that's the most sensible thing I've heard all day.

1:06:03Everybody get out. And we had a chat, me and him. Where was the go? It went really well and we didn't do that operation, you know. but um it just sometimes having a somebody somebody will say put it down to oh you've got a big gob you you know you know that saying or you've got a loud mouth it's not i'm just i'm just trying to be sensible when in utter chaos you know so and that's generally and you know i generally get on with a lot of people but sometimes you've just got to say it as it is haven't you? How was your relationship with Dodie? So Dodie, Dodie was, he was a quiet guy and he would be around the family quite a lot and, you know, driving sometimes and he wasn't a very chatty guy, but he would talk to you, you know, and because he did a lot of films and so he did Chariots of Fire, executive producer for that.

1:06:56So he had this busy social circle going on, you know, a young man, you know, going around all the bars and nightclubs and all the rest of it, and then he had his business that he did. So I think he was a very thoughtful guy. So sometimes, you know, he's on his phone a lot. So really, you know, he wouldn't speak sometimes on a car journey. He would just say hello or whatever. So, yeah, and again, when you get a person who's a little bit introverted like that, you just give them their own space, don't you? I wouldn't want to speak to him, but if he wanted to speak to me, I'd speak, you know. Yeah.

1:07:30So obviously you've got your team then. It's a pretty good job. You're loving it, paid well. When did you find out who's with Princess Diana? So I'd been out to Saint-Tropez that year before for a couple of weeks with the family. And then when I came back, so generally we'd work two or three weeks on, two or three weeks off. So we'd only worked six months of the year on that job. And it did sometimes, you know, seven months maybe. So I knew she was coming out before I went on back to Saint-Tropez. Was that before it was in the press or the news or anything? Yeah, yeah. So we knew she was, but she'd been seeing the various teams we had in all the various locations.

1:08:12We'd get fed back all the intelligence would come back to us. So when you went on to work, we had a book that everything was recorded in. So when you went into work, you get the book and you just read through it, see where everybody was in the world, what they were doing, where the family were. Because, you know, these families, like the Fayyads, I could go into work on, say, a Monday morning. There might be no family there, you know. I've gone to the airport with my kit for the Balearic Islands and I've ended up in Gestalt with your hats and your shorts and all the rest of it. So you wouldn't even know where you were going to go sometimes.

1:08:52But the Fyred family were so generous. They'd buy you all new clothes and whatever you needed. Very, very generous guy. So you go in, find out where all the family were, and then obviously there was intelligence coming back from our teams that Dodie and the princess, so we knew they were seeing each other, but I wasn't interested. I had other things to do. because there's a lot of pressure when you do that job. You've got to be on the ball. So when we knew she was going to Saint-Tropez, it wasn't a shock to us. How was that then, protecting our family and then the most famous woman on the planet, getting involved who then never had any security because when she was left, the royal family took her security away.

1:09:36So did you just have to enhance security even more or just be more aware? Yeah, we enhanced security for that trip. and the princess came out with the boys, Harry and William, and they had a policeman each from the Royal Protection that came with them, two great guys. And because it was that busy with a paparazzi, you have never seen anything like it in your life. And because it was such a fast-moving environment, sometimes the policemen would be going out with Mr. Fayed or they could be going out with the kids. So we all just mixed in as one team, which was really cool for these guys. And the policemen said, you know, what a professional outfit we were, you know.

1:10:26So, and they'd been working in close protection for a while. And on the Fayed team, we had some of the top close protection people in the world, you know, ex-SAS, ex-Military Police, close protection lads, you know. So we had some great experience there, you know. and then we had ex-MI5 people working for us and all sorts of stuff. So it was a great team. What was the first conversation you had with Diana? Yeah, the first conversation I had with her, she was getting off the tender, the small boat that came from the super yacht, one of the super yachts. And she comes in and the paparazzi didn't know we were there then.

1:11:01This was day one. So I just leant over and give him my shoulder because you don't want to put your hand out. some people don't like touching you you know the high net worth individuals they don't even like touching you you know so i just put my shoulder down to uh for her to lean on if she needed to she didn't she just jumped straight out like a flipping like a flipping doink but uh she's a fit fit lady and she said oh what more heavies and smiled at me and laughed and i introduced myself and that's the first conversation i had so when she said more heavies she meant obviously more protection you know so how was it going as a holiday was going on once the media and that started finding out where they were like did that sort of give a lot of unrest as well especially cameras could potentially be guns behind that are people trying to attack that was that always a concern yeah yeah it's you know the princess then she was the most well-known person in the world you know without a shadow of a doubt and she was doing all the the demining stuff she wanted to stop them doing landmines.

1:12:05So there was people that she was obviously upset in there, and various things, and high net worth people, stalkers. She had a lot of stalkers and stuff like that that we knew about. We had pictures of them and things like this. So with the paparazzi, they were so aggressive. I think day two they started, and then there was two of them, and because we wouldn't let them into where they wanted to go on the beach because the beach is in France, they're not private. So they wanted to go on the beach and we wouldn't let them. And I think we upset them a little bit. One of my friends banged one out because they had protection with them as well, some of them.

1:12:49He had a protection. Because they're so aggressive in what they're doing, they know that people can get aggressive with the cameraman. So they call it backwatch. So some of them had their own protection. So a friend of mine, he banged out the protection guy and we sent them on the way and they said, right, we're going to tell everybody now. And they did. And there were hundreds and hundreds of them. Just, you know, it was just insane. At one stage I was looking and there must have been to our left, maybe 100 to our right, maybe the same. There must have been 50 boats just off the beach, this small beach, the fired beach.

1:13:36And there was even a helicopter went over. Because I think then some of the iconic pictures you see of the princess, there was one of me and her in a boat where she's whispering to me, that made it all over the world. Some of them sold for a million euros. So you can see why they were so aggressive to get in and get in your face and try and take a compromising photo or airbrush it, which they did then. I don't know if they still do it now. You never know. I would hazard a guess. But there was a famous one of her saying she's pregnant in this like a leopard-type print. And we looked at it and we're going, that's not her.

1:14:17They altered the photograph and they made the story up. Yeah, Frontline News, Diana's pregnant. It's going to sell all around the world. Yeah, going to make them a lot of money. Yeah, because see when she's like, does she have any agreement with the press to say like, take photos and then try and leave me alone? Or was it just a case that she had to surrender to what was around her? Yeah, she did. And we would speak to the princess in the morning. She'd come down in the morning and I would chat to her on the beach. That was her like routine. And she said, look, this is what I'm going to do. This works.

1:14:49She said, I'll pose for photographs from them. We'll tell them. They can get the photograph. I can manage it. They'll get the photograph and then they'll go. And their sort of like MO would be, once they got the photograph, they'd go into Saint-Tropez and they'd all get pissed. And then they'd turn up later in the morning. That's what they did. So some of the pictures you've seen of her sat on various things and just like reclining in the sunshine. They'd take the photographs and be like, look at her lapping it up she loves all this posing for the camera bastards eh yeah and she only did it so that they'd go and the children could go and play in the sea so she couldn't do right for doing wrong can you imagine living in that life yeah and she was a phenomenal woman like you say it was at the Halo Trust she had changed with her landmines like she'd walking down the street with landmines to change it then she was going seeing the kids with AIDS I know but like you say a lot of these high end people who don't even touch you.

1:15:48They don't even like to stand close to you. No. We're peasants. Yeah, yeah. To the high-end people. You're breathing my air. Yeah, go away. Was she just such a kind soul, as a lot of people say, like you say, the most famous woman on the planet, probably, to this day. Yeah. Was she as kind as she was when you'd seen a lot of TV? Yeah, she was. You know, she'd speak to the chefs, the cleaners. She sent me a lovely letter after it, you know, that she wrote with her son's signatures on, thanking me for looking after her. And imagine how busy she was taking time to do that. That's amazing, isn't it?

1:16:22And when you met her, she was a special person. You know, you meet somebody with that charisma, with that vibe, you know, and she was. And this is, we didn't have social media or anything then, of course, and the question is, why did everybody love her? Because people could see what she was like. And the media, especially the media in the UK, the tabloids then, just destroyed her. I just find it hard to believe that they could have wrote so many good things about her but chose not to. Bad news sells in the UK, right? Yeah. Did she ever read the articles herself? I think she did, yeah. There was one with a picture of her.

1:17:07I think it was the Sun newspaper or one of them. There was a picture of her and a picture of Camilla. So it was a beautiful picture of her and an awful picture of Camilla. How can you do that to people? And I think it said, Charles chooses her over her, that kind of thing. It was headlines, front-page news. I saw it in the newspaper that morning, and I was like, oh, my God. What a bad position to put Camilla in and Prince Charles and the princess, and they've got kids. Why would you do that? It sells papers, right? So I said to the princess, I said, have you seen the daily papers today? Because I wanted to just give her the heads up.

1:17:46as to what was in and she said are you meaning that article in that paper and i said yeah like are you okay with it and she said well it's his choice i just changed the conversation great that says a lot about a person that doesn't it and you know and seeing her play with her boys what a great mother she was delighting in playing with the boys you could hear her hooting and hollering and you know and she was a lovely lovely woman yeah do you not get your boys felt though because did they not go dancing princess diana and doddy and you were kind of making a diggity dancing you know when someone comes out your mouth and you go you dick why did you say that and and and she was known for dancing she was a good dancer and she she danced with some of the top professional dancers and you know she obviously liked dancing doddy on the other hand wasn't as gifted he was gifted in many things but dancing was perhaps something he needed to pay a bit more attention to so i just made a a glib comment say uh something like i can't remember now you know what do you think about dordies dancing or something like that she said lee i remember this i didn't even understand what the word meant at the time she said lee don't make me terse with you that was it and looked me right in the eye and i knew shut the fuck up lee took it too far Bridge too far And you know And someone comes out And you're thinking Because I would I would chat to her Every day you see So Yeah I apologised And Yeah Give myself a slap Yeah Because Did her life What year was this?

1:19:2397 So that was the same year She passed She passed a few weeks After that yeah So Because she wrote a letter To Was it Paul Burroughs In 96 And it says That they were going to kill her In a car accident Yeah Was she ever In fear of her life Did you ever feel that? Yeah, she was. Yeah, I spoke to Paul Burrell actually in London the other day and he was telling me about that same letter. And he's got, you know, his own things. I don't really read the news or I don't follow media or anything like that. So, you know, I don't follow the Princess Diana stuff. But yeah, her friend Gianni Versace was killed and everybody thought it was a planned hit.

1:20:01You know, looking at what happened in the security industry, that's what everybody thought had happened it was classic uh but it turned out it was something slightly different but um i bumped into her on the top deck of the boat i was going to look for the security cabin we had an allocated security cabin on this massive boat so that we could get changed and just hang out you know if we went on the boat and they changed the security cabin and i was trying to find it and i was on this big open deck you know just all glass and there's only i walked in there and I'm almost like as close as I am to you to the princess with her back to me looking out over the uh over the harbour and she turned around she'd obviously been crying and a lot and uh she said have you heard about my friend um and I said yes yeah we have you know it's awful what's happened you know and you know I know you knew him and I'm really sorry and and she was crying and she said uh do you think they're going to do that to me do you think do you think and i kind of like say no and look at your team you know we'll protect you trying to calm her down and as she steps closer anybody else you just give them a hug right i think that's what she wanted to feel that but can you imagine if i'd have done that the paparazzi got a snap of that that would have been awful wouldn't it so all your human instincts wants to comfort somebody but you can't, you've got to step back and I had to step back and said look I've got to go now, I'm really sorry if you need anything just give me a call and just walked out and shut the door.

1:21:39See letters like that with her saying that she was fearful of her brakes getting cut and they were going to kill her next lap do yous get briefed on that as well or is that just something you hear through the media? Well at that time we were aware of it so you do your background, when you work with somebody you always do your background checks on them and and you do a pre-profile them so you would profile the person and look for anything like that so you just so you understand where what where they're coming from and what mindset they're in because if you're working with a client who is fearful of their life they're going to be more happy to work with you and your recommendations if you if you want to protect somebody who doesn't see the need for it they're not going to want it so it helps you pitch where your level of security will be but also it helps you understand their mindset what they're thinking but also it helps you understand of what things they've encountered and what threats they feel are against them and then you've got to try and work it all out and do a risk assessment on that you know were they happy together with the kids harry and william like was that could they enjoy it as a family yeah or was it so difficult because you've got security you've got paparazzi like yeah you've got all the negative press yeah like could they enjoy being a family yeah they could yeah and with the fire security because we were all you know we'd worked for the family for a while so you change your stance so say for example we were operating in london you'd be in a suit and a tie and all the rest of it if we went on holiday you know say to i don't know new york or or wherever so now you've got to blend in so your security posture goes lower it's still there but nobody would know you're a security team so you're almost like a surveillance security team and and you're watching them and you're close but you're dressing up to blend in and and you know when you do it right and i've done this loads of times and you're in a situation where it could be at a meal it could be at a meeting and people come up to you and say and what do you do here you know are you a ceo of a company or something like that now you've got it right then because you don't know that your security you don't stand out which is which gives you an advantage you know yeah so who was prince william and harry how were they both as kids great kids yeah yeah harry naughty little boy mischievous boy reminds me a lot of my son uh damon when he was little uh and uh william was like a thoughtful more thoughtful boy but we would sit for hours chatting with them on the boat when we were we tried to sail off to various beaches that we knew the paps couldn't follow us uh and they would eventually catch us but you know the boat would go out we'd and we'd say we've got an hour and a half here before they come and then we'd move so the boys would sit with all the security guys and chat to us because they were fascinated by the military at that young age and everyone was telling stories and they were telling us stories about stuff they've done at school which i would never repeat because some of them are quite quite funny but uh yeah so we was chatting like we were chatting like you would chat with kids you know and I get on with kids I've got six kids so I love kids So at the end of the holiday this is the last time you see Princess Diana, did you ever have a feeling did you ever worry for her life when she was leaving or was it just good vibes I had a good holiday and it was just I'll see you soon Yeah it was good vibes because you know at that time we were the security team we were bolstering up the team in America, when Dordie went to America, where he lived in, you know, in the Los Angeles area, he used an American security team.

1:25:50So one of our lads went over and we thought, hang on, why is somebody going over then? And then they said, the head of security said, right, I want some volunteers. You know, I think it was four people, five people, I can't remember now. I put my name down because I wanted to go, you know. I've got a lot of family in the States. So we knew before then that something was happening. Then when the princess told me she was going to live there, it kind of made sense, you know, why Mr. Fyad wanted a big security presence there to obviously possibly double up and look after the princess, you know. Yeah.

1:26:26So both of them are going to live in America? Yeah. And you're going to go and protect them as well? Yeah. Now, apparently, the house she looked at was Julie Andrews' old house. So although they weren't going to live in the same house, they were in the same area, so it just made sense. And it just looked like a young love affair to us, to me. You know, when you see somebody for the first time just getting to know each other, I didn't think anything would, you know. Now everybody's got their own opinion of it, of course. But for me, and I generally say it as it is, they were just a young couple.

1:27:01he was obviously

1:27:06smitten by her I would say and for the first time in years Dodie was like a different guy smiling happy I thought yeah good on you good on you mate yeah so after that then like 19 31st August I think 1997 was that when they were in the Ritz yes before they jumped in the car yeah were you not they are that neat no no so um when we left that that that one stint in in Saint-Tropez we knew Trevor Rhys-Jones who was Dodie's bodyguard he was going with Dodie and the princess on a med cruise and another person had to go with them Dodie well generally they just have one person with him because he's quite under the radar Dodie Dodie uh so nobody wanted to go because we were hanging, man.

1:27:59I was tired. I think I slept for about two days after that one. So we drew straws as to who would go. It was about five of us drawing straws. And one of the lads was on the boat. We'd isolated him there because he had the flu, so he didn't give it anyone. So one of the lads, he drew his next SAS lad. He drew the short straw and he went, I guess that's Kez's then. His name was Kez, the guy who had the flu. So he said, right, it's Kez that goes then. so we told him he was pissed off he didn't know what we'd done but we said yeah you drew the short straw mate so I was thankful because I didn't want to go I was absolutely hanging tired you know we'd had a busy summer month of just really working hard because probably one of the most it's like the biggest death probably ever on the planet because there's so much speculation so many conspiracy theories blood getting tampered with like why wasn't there security behind the car I think the driver as well Henri Paul is it yeah like he worked with mi6 as well zach there's so many things you know and and i i i can only comment on what what i what i saw and what i heard but all these conspiracy theories i think because there's so many holes in it and you know so many things that went wrong you know that car that went in they've never found a car and there was motorbikes that went in that they you know The security cameras were off.

1:29:22It just leads for people to go, well, why? Why did that happen? What's the problem with the blood? When they first searched his flat, they found two bottles of booze. Then when they searched it again a few days later, they didn't have to stock a bar. Why did they miss it? And I think, actually, I was reading through the coroner's inquest. I gave evidence down there. And I think the policeman who was in control of the search said, yeah, I agree. it could have been put there after the first search. So even those small things are enough for people to just grab hold of them and go, right, well, if that's wrong, what about this?

1:29:57And they start looking then, don't they? But I don't think we're ever going to know what happened in that tunnel. I do say in the book, I believe the intelligence services were there and why would they not be looking after, watching what was happening? I would be surprised if they weren't. Can you imagine? Right. Imagine this. So you're the head of the intelligence services, let's say in the UK, for example, and we're at a bit of a meeting and you say to your heads of your department, right, so where's Princess Diana now, the mother of the heir to the throne? And they go, I don't got a clue. It's not going to happen, is it?

1:30:38You know, it's... So I think that alone that they denied and my evidence about that was kind of not thrown out. The barrister tried to belittle what I was saying and it didn't go too well for him actually. But, you know, I think when people look at it and go, right, well, the intelligence services have no idea what went on. The cars was never found. The security cameras were off. There was motorbike scene going in. There was this, this, this, this, this. Quite easily you can start saying, hang on, what's going on here? And I think that's what's happened really. I believe it was a tragic accident, but I believe that there are people that knew what went on in that tunnel and I don't think we'll ever know.

1:31:34And do you know what as well, you know, James? You know, our secret people are secret and they don't want to be, we don't want people to know what they do because they look after us. They look after the country. They look after our safety. And they do an amazing job. So I get it that they can't say that they're in certain places. And I understand why. And thank God that they're there to look after us all. But I think it may have even been the French. But I do believe the people in there, and I believe it was the people on the motorbikes. That's just my gut feeling. Because I'd stopped two guys in Saint-Tropez.

1:32:11So we're whizzing through Saint-Tropez. as I say whizzing, we're not speeding. Let's just let everybody understand that they see bodyguards whizzing around in cars and all the rest of it, and speed kills. And if you speed into an ambush, you go into an ambush quicker. So that's for Hollywood. So we were driving down, and so we had a convoy of vehicles, and we'd sent a couple of cars out before, so the paparazzi didn't know, you know they might have followed one and said they're not in that one or they're not in that one it's all black black tech windows so the convoy goes down this and we go down this narrow road just enough to get a car down maybe a foot and a half each side and i was in the last car as my plan my master plan so we were in the back car and armored car and as we got down this narrow road we stopped our armoured opened the doors so even if they pushed against us they'd push the doors back open on themselves onto the wall you know they couldn't get past and there's two guys came down on different motorbikes the paparazzi were generally on mopeds and things like this a couple of high powered motorbikes dressed in a way that ex-military were dressing and they spoke to us in a way that ex-military would speak to us yeah you're right lads are you going to let us pass Mucca which is a military term and we said lads you know we can't do that he said yeah we thought you'd say that anyway cheers anyway lads and just drove off no cameras nothing so my understanding of that was they were obviously watching the princes and the princess and why wouldn't they be so MI5 MI6 were watching yeah but I mean you've got you've got the you've got Harry and William one of them is going to take over as king as the monarch could you imagine just sending two policemen out into that shit show do you know what i mean yeah imagine the prince saying who's with my boys all got two policemen see when they left the ritz why was there only like one bodyguard with them and none of them had seatbelts on was that always the case not have seatbelts on in case you were under attack as quick as a leave or should have had their seatbelts on as well they should have had the seatbelts on yeah and uh trevor had his on but is that why he's the only one survived yeah yeah it's um i think that's trevor can't remember anything about it by the way he's just lost his memory on that and uh that must torment him and i remember he said to me lee when i carried him out of the golf buggy to see dodie's grave and he's my size big guy but he just lost so much weight he was horrendously injured and he says this is the biggest thing that's happened in the world he said i was there and i can't remember anything of it you could see it was disturbing him you know it's very emotional and because it's such a fast-moving environment people say you know sending the decoy car out you know was really bad policy but you know and not having a backup car for when they moved.

1:35:21But you can only call it shots if you're there, right? And we did do one-vehicle moves. We did do one-vehicle moves on occasion for whatever reason because this is private security. This isn't police or military. So you've got to compromise, and you've got to compromise with the clients as well because they've got their needs. They pay the bills. so you don't know what happened but dodie didn't like wearing his seatbelt he was known for it he hated putting his seatbelt off and he would kick off and he did that with me once the first time i drove him and i said to him look um so you put your seatbelt on please and he said no i don't wear my seatbelt i said i'm not starting the car till you do and you're late for your dad he says i'm not putting my seatbelt on i said right okay next thing i'm gonna do is i'm gonna to call your father or you can explain to him and he put his seatbelt on because Mr.

1:36:24Fayyad one of his big rules was everybody must wear a seatbelt he was really big on it and it's so tragic that it was that that killed his son something his father you know if you were driving the kids without the seatbelt on you'd get sacked because his dad said just stay here and then they wanted to leave at such a late time because their route changed as well even going under that bridge it shouldn't have Yeah. What happened? Yeah. Why was that route change? Do you know? I don't know. I don't know. It's one of those things. It's such a fast-moving environment, you know, James, that unless you were there, everybody's got an opinion on it, everyone.

1:36:59But unless you were there at the time, Trevor can't remember. Kez has got his opinions on things. But had the crash not happened, we wouldn't be having this conversation. You know? So it's just an awful thing that happened. because when in the bridge I think seven of the paparazzi got to jail they got charged and then they got released because the guy the driver is it Henry Paul Henry Paul they then said that he was drunk and then put the blame onto him like you say in the house this is whether for the outsider like you say if you're MI5 they're going to cover up everything nobody needs to know but for the outsider who then blamed him and says he was drunk and then they done the blood test and says yeah there was blood in his system or there was pharmaceutical drugs to then that getting overturned 11 years later whatever and says that it wasn't drunk yeah I think with the bloods I think the French weren't I don't know if you want to prove something about anything you get enough experts you've got deep enough pockets you can change opinion on anything so there's that many experts there and all the rest of it but I think the way the police handled that evidence gathering left a lot of questions to be answered, I think, by the way they did it.

1:38:17And without getting into it, I don't know, the toxologists and the carbon dioxide in his blood was a big issue. They said it came from the airbag. I just don't know. I'm not an expert in that. But what's interesting is at the end, because they took blood from different parts of his body and it absorbs quicker in different parts and dissipates quicker, they can they can kind of say well you know he had I think it was twice the legal limit so what's the legal limit then I don't know it's not my bag this let's say it was a pint and we had two we've had two pints we had four so he wasn't and you can see on the pictures he wasn't staggering drunk you'd expect but he was made out to be pissed out of his head and Trevor said to me and Kes has said to me as well he was not drunk we would not allow him to drive why would you why would you allow somebody pissed to drive and they were both sober by the way uh kez was a former police officer a police royal marine police guy so he was used to dealing with drunks and stuff and and i think it was just it was just a horrible accident that i think that our intelligence services or the french were there and they should have been there I wouldn't expect them not to have been there and I think somebody's gone shit we can't be seen to be here and I think that caused a catalogue of things which allowed the conspiracy theorists to jump on the bandwagon So you think they've had to cover that up because MI5 are going to be watching like you say it's the future King's mum or it's Diana so they think they've been following you anyway it's just happened the paparazzi's crashed into them let's get out of there they've died they've got out of there but then the cover ups with the speed camera wasn't working the cameras were off because it was a white Fiat you know it was a paparazzi man but there was marks on the side but again it's because I think the ambulance was like an hour two hours to get Diana to the hospital and that stopped twice I know so when you put it all together it's a fucked up isn't it it is it's all fucked up and people who are far more intelligent than me come up with these conspiracy theories.

1:40:36I just think it was an accident. I think it was an accident. I think we had people there at government level, whether it's MI6 or the French or whoever, that saw what happened and just had to bug out there quick. Yeah, because I think it's Eric Peter as well. He was the only witness there, but they never used his evidence either. So there's a lot of question marks everywhere. Because I think Al-Fayed, he believes the son was killed. Yes, he does, yeah. And it tore him apart massively. And the whole family. And living through that, you know, this is what people don't understand, that Dodie died, his son, you know, the brothers of these children.

1:41:21So we went through, I went through the whole thing with the family, you know. And grief is grief, isn't it? And then the princess obviously died. It was such a sad time for her family. But, yeah, it was interesting that she told me that she'd gone to the highest level in government and asked them to create a bill to calm this down. And she was told in no uncertain circumstances, no, we're not going to do it. And she said, I didn't cry in front of them. I waited until I got back in my car to cry. Yeah, but was that not Tony Blair that had never done that? she wanted to take away the paparazzi or get security but Tony Blair signed it to say no but yet he was speaking at her funeral I know that's fucked up why did that happen when I saw that I was like this is fucked up yeah but hey and she said to her well if I take the paparazzi off you they're going to come for me how fucked up is that who said that the princess but who said that to her Tony Blair yeah so he says if I take the paparazzi on you they'll come at me yeah my government fuck mate she was so upset when she was telling me you know and I don't have an opinion on Tony Blair I don't have an opinion on the government I can only say what I heard and what I saw and that's it but and people are people aren't they at the highest level people are normal people and they're in they're in it for their own agenda what they can get out of it mad isn't it fucking mad mate sad as well man but there's just so much speculation around that because there's still, especially the 25th year anniversary and there's still never been answers but like you say, that higher arcy, higher power you're never going to get the answers and that's why there's always speculation because who says what's right or what's wrong you don't really know because there was never an inquest either what should have been, is that not law?

1:43:23that if a British person passes away over abroad then there should be an inquest if there's speculation around the death. Yeah, there's so much. I've spoken to some very, very senior policemen about this and they have their opinions. And, you know, I don't kind of trouble my mind with that. It's just like the JFK thing. Very same, isn't it? I know that was, you know, he was short, I get that. But I think when the criminal trial went on and years and years later he had the coroner's inquest, two different things. but I think that set the precedence, that criminal trial that went ahead. And then when the coroner's inquest went on, I had two people from Scotland Yard here.

1:44:07They stayed here for three days, question me, for three days. And they were great guys, by the way. And I think had that level of inquest had gone on at the first trial, various things might have unfolded differently. because you'll never know the tunnel as well they'd open that up four hours after the crash jet cleaned it jet washed it and then you've got Prince Harry saying that he had to leave because he didn't want to end up like his mum mad eh do you know what I mean and it's sad like there's so much madness goes on but again it's for the human mind it's still you're intrigued by it 25 years later we're still talking about that I know what would your full rundown be on at all and your own professional Yeah, I think it's an incident that happened and they'll be talking after it long after we've gone.

1:45:04But I think some people make their living out of it, don't they, out of Princess Diana. I mean, you get, I think that's why I've been on so many shows and they're all over the world because people love the princess, they still do. If they can get her picture on the front of their magazine, it sells that magazine like crazy or that newspaper so she's still people you know the people's princess and people just loved her and people you know it's just crazy isn't it yeah there was rumours that she was pregnant is there any we did a sweepstake to see who she was because we looked and we were like she's not pregnant but you never know so we did a bit of a sweepstake yeah but no we didn't She didn't show any signs of being pregnant.

1:45:57And again, if a female was pregnant at her young stages, or early stages, you wouldn't know. Where did you hear the news that she had passed away? So I'd got, where'd I been? I'd been somewhere. I'd gone back. I think I was actually back in Saint-Tropez. Yeah, I was. I went back to Saint-Tropez for a couple of weeks, and it was like a walk in the park, man, because it was just a family there. I was like, yes, this is brilliant. And I came back home. I think I slept for a couple of days, and then I had a barbecue at my house and invited all my family around. And on this one particular night, I started to clean up.

1:46:40It might be near midnight, of course, which I never do. I just go to bed, you know. I don't know why I did it then. I had Sky News on, and I heard it on Sky News. Then I went to my phone. I see I'd missed loads of calls. so I called the operations room, the ops room, and then I was getting a rundown real time of what was happening before it even hit the news because I thought, I packed my bag and stuff because I thought I was going to have to go back into work, which I didn't have to do actually, which was a blessing really because I think it was very upsetting for the guys there going over to Paris and doing all that stuff.

1:47:13And I went back about two weeks later when all the funerals and that was going on, all that kind of stuff. It's incredible. the outpouring of grief was just insane millions and millions of morners millions how was it for you did you ever feel like if you were there you could have saved it from happening as a guy who protects like you'd always feel as if you would protect the person you're with but did you ever get sleepless nights that what if you were there no no i didn't you know because i just accepted the fact i wasn't there you can't you can only fix what you can fix right so i i know um some people have but i i certainly didn't so trevor reese jones who's a friend of yours he was only survivor in the crash how long after the crash did you get to see him so i he came out of hospital and it was weeks later and he came down to the family home and and um mr fire had built like at this beautiful thing, you know, in memory of his son.

1:48:19And it's probably about half a mile from the actual house, but in the grounds, you know. So I took Dody and we used to have a tennis, you know, the tennis buggies, you know, they used on the tennis courts. And that's tennis, I'm saying golf. Golf, what am I talking about? My head's flipping whizzing. Golf buggies. And I drove Trevor around. and, you know, when you see somebody and you think, fucking hell, I don't know you. His face was fucked, man. And he'd lost, he must have lost three, four stone weight. So I kind of picked him out of the car and held him to the thing and he was just like, he was like a 90-year-old man.

1:49:02You know, how much trauma he'd had. And that's when, you know, when I spoke to Trevor and he was very emotional, and so was I. but yeah I've seen him since and yeah he's a great guy real professional guy you know if somebody was to say look somebody's going to look after your family I would choose Trevor because he's such a good bloke you know. How hard is that to see a brother suffer like that like on a job trying to protect people but then the effects it has on the people who do protect it is the more you see it James the more you're okay with it you know a lot of my friends you know quite a few of my friends have killed themselves and and when you're trying to help them through it you know the self-medicating with which we all have with various things and it's so sad that really proud men men's men can crumble like that and kill themselves how fucked up is that yeah so after that the death for Diana and Doddy that you're supposed to go to America change your life looking after a princess and a man that after that happens then what's the steps for your life then did you totally transform it in a different lifestyle or did you just stay close protection yeah that was one of the biggest changing points in my life so what happened then was the family you know they were in mourning some of the security guys left Some got posted to different places.

1:50:38And I went back out to Saint-Tropez for a few months to look after the villa there. The guy who was looking after, I think his dad had died or something, and he had to go. So I volunteered to go there, and it was good, really. It was just a couple of months of just chilling out, really. So the rich people of the world, in all their places all over the world, they'll generally have a security person there that they can trust. just keep an eye on it. So after that, there was a place, a vacancy came in a place called, a village called Rolls Hall, which is near Lairg in the middle of Scotland. It's in the middle of the country, this tiny little village.

1:51:23Because Mr. Fyad there, he's got his castle and he's got all his hunting and fishing estate about another hour north of that. and the lad that was there, the security lad, he was moving somewhere, London or something. So I spoke to my mate Paul Hanley-Greaves who gave me the job and I knew he was leaving and I said, Paul, send me there. I want to go there. But not only that, I wanted to get my boy Damon because he was struggling with his mother. He was getting a bit out of control. She couldn't handle him. so I thought right if he can come with me I can look after him and sort him out square him away and so he said no um the boss won't let you do that I said he'll never know will he I've been out in Santa Payne now I'm off his radar just send me there and I badged him and he said for fuck's sake Lee right go so I went there my boy came to live with me but Damon was probably about 11 then and uh i was living there you know tom sellick you know the magnum i was like the magnum of the highlands mate hunting fishing it was great just getting into the community there's just one pub a few houses doing things in the community and uh i obviously look keeping an eye out on his estate and then we had a security team in the castle which i didn't go to and then uh so i'm just living the life of Riley there having a great time and what what happened then was I went down to the castle um I think the family were coming up to stay we had a big meeting like we always did and I then there were some members of the Guinness family coming in to come up to the estate where I lived and the security team used to ferry VIPs about you know but they were too busy preparing for the fired family coming so I said look I'll do it I'll do the trip so I go down to pick uh the Guinness family up and I met Kate there who's now my wife and the plane was delayed and we got talking in the airport, it's a tiny airport in Inverness then, tiny little airport we got chatting and I got the Guinness team in and one of the CEOs of one of his companies was there, Mark he was called and I got them together and I says Mark, I hope you don't feel like this is unprofessional, I said see that lady over there he went yeah, I said I've just got to go and get her number, is that okay and he went yes he says come on go for it son so I got Kate's number and then we met and then we started seeing each other went to Ibiza had a great time there came back and then and then Mr.

1:54:05Fayed visited so he came up to Rose Hall and he had a little shop there that he gave the village rent free so they could have stuff there and people could make some money and I thought shit I've got to stay out of the way. So he was there. My cottage was opposite. And one of the boys came over and said, Lee, the boss wants to see you and your boy. I said, okay. We go over. He buys my boy everything in the shop. And he says to me, he says, Lee, what are you doing here? And I said, I've been here for like 18 months. And he went, no, no, no. You come down to London and work with me and my family.

1:54:43The boys like you. And I said, I've got my boy here. He's in school. I said no I'll get your house we'll put him to school sort all that out and that was the change then because I didn't want I didn't want that for him I didn't want him to grow up in that lifestyle and I was happy there and I just met Kate so I left I left the employment of the fire family then So was he going to put your kid through a private school with his own sons in a big house in London did you see though your son struggling because the father figure wasn't around? Yes. Yeah, that's why I brought him back because he's a very strong-minded guy then.

1:55:24You see the stuff he's done in sport and that. He's the highest level. He's one of these guys, he gets something in his brain, he's going to do it, man. Same as yourself, though. Sorry? Same as yourself. Yeah, yeah, pretty much. And we did that when he was 17, 18, big style. Because I didn't know what I know now, you know. And we often talk about it. and bringing up boys, you know, is difficult. And Kate, she did a lot of research about bringing up boys and, you know, the testosterone through those years. And once I began to understand it as a father, I sometimes think to myself, you fucked that right up, Lee.

1:56:03But you only know what you know, right? But now knowing what I do know with my boys now, my twins who are 11 and my boy who's 17, I can manage myself better and see to their needs rather than mine. You know, so it was a great lesson. But Damon and I were like best friends, you know. So it was a tough decision, but not a tough decision because you know you had your family here to leave the Al-Fayed because you've not worked with Tom Cruise in that as well. Well, during the Fayed years and after, I've worked with quite a few celebrities, but because Dordie was into the film production, we'd have these people coming through all the time and we'd look after them and take them about and all that kind of stuff.

1:56:42And that scene, I just don't like. It's not my bag. Some of them are very needy, extremely needy. Like who? Lots and lots of needy. But the best one, this is funny, Jean-Claude Van Damme, right? Fucking hell, mate. I have nothing against the guy. I think he's actually quite good fun, but I've looked after him a couple of times with Fayed. when he came down and he screwed the nut with us because we were like Fayyad's bodyguard team and most people shit themselves when they came into our, because we were so professional and most of the guys were about my size, you know, six foot two or something and all fit and with bearing, you know, so we were quite a good team and so he'd just sit quietly in the car, put his makeup on, do whatever, he had a big cocaine problem which is a problem and a lot of people have, and it's well-documented, so I'm not kind of sort of saying stuff out of turn here.

1:57:43So people have got to have their own space, haven't they, to put the makeup on, to take the cocaine, to do what they've got to do, and you've got to work with them rather than put your opinions on them. That's why a lot of guys struggle in this, and they can't cope working with these people because they have opinions on their lives. I say to my teams now, and I train teams all over the world now, and and you know i still work in security operations but managing it now that you know i say to people how dare you have an opinion on anyone we're here to keep them safe not to have an opinion on their life just make it right for them so uh van dam was coming over to do a fly on the wall documentary right and there's a friend of mine that was running it and he was going to various locations doing various stuff and i got a call and he said lee i need your help and i says what do you need john he says i need some close protection for the van damme documentary i'm doing i said okay i can help you when's he coming and he says day after tomorrow and i went shit you've got problems mate so i says right find me the itinerary i'll see what it was it's about a week so i looked at the itinerary and i got i said right mate he's not going to get in that helicopter He's only got one engine.

1:58:58He's not going to go there. He's not going to go there. He won't go there, and he won't do that. He said, well, he's got to. He's contracted to. I said, no, he's not, mate. He's a superstar. He'll do what the fuck he wants. I said, so you're going to have to take that out and take that out. And I said, it's going to be a bit of a nightmare for you. So he says, right, I need security. So I've got one guy I knew, God bless him, a very good friend of mine, Rock. And if you're listening to this, Rock, I love you, man. so he's one of the hardest men i've ever met in my life he's fucking nails great cp operator not the best at organizing right so i put him on the job i put my friend jack morley who's died god bless him ex scotland international rugby player he played rugby for scotland cricket for scotland and he did kickboxing for scotland great guy huge monster of a man very intelligent He does some great stuff in his life and in his career.

1:59:58So I put Jack down to look after Rock. I put Rock there to look after Van Damme. And I put a team around them. Okay. So the waiting at the airport in Birmingham for him to fly in, he's not on the flight. He's flown from Hong Kong. He's not on the flight. Rock's on there. I said, you can't lose him. We haven't even picked him up yet. Fucking find him in the airport. He says, he's not on the plane there. I've checked the itinerary. He's not there. I've been airside. He's not here. I'm like, shit, what are we going to do? Nobody could contact his PA because she was in the air flying on a different flight.

2:00:36So Rock stood outside the airport thinking, what the fuck are we going to do? All of a sudden, this car pulls up. Van Damme gets out, goes, cheers, mate. He'd hitched a lift. He'd gone to the wrong airport. His flight was to the wrong airport. He'd hitched a lift from London to Birmingham. Check that. How funny is that? So he gets out and the show goes on. And it's drama after drama because he wouldn't change the itinerary. So he's got to get a shower in between appearances, hasn't he? He's got to take his flipping cocaine. He's got to put his make... He's got to have time to do that. And in the end, we're in this big show in London and he's just come from this event.

2:01:14And my mate's there, he's about his size, and he's got his tux on and all the rest of it. Van Damme walks in mad as bollocks with his sweaty shirt on that he's just been doing some kind of martial arts demo goes into this place and he throws a shirt at my mate he says give me the fucking tux so he had to give him the tux and he sat there at this dinner with a sweaty t-shirt on a pair of joggers laughed my head off but I think it was about three days in Jack my friend he says Lee we've got a big situation down here I says what he says Van Damme's been an absolute dick rock's gonna fucking kill him he's going up to his room now to fucking smash him i'm like stop him now we won't get paid i said get him on the phone i talked him down he said i'm gonna fucking kill him i said no you're not i will not pay you if you fucking smash up the vip and i talked him down thank god rock thanks mate that's not good for business so what's life like now working with the biggest names on the planet like being through a bit of trauma yourself a bit from being bullied to being a native dan that's an unbelievable career and stories but how's life like now yeah life's really good life is really good we've got our martial arts that we do that's our passion i've got various um things going on in in in somalia we've got some stuff going on in Saudi we've got some stuff we're waiting for I've got Marley to quiet down a bit.

2:02:44We've got some work there. I do organise close protection for VIPs and I'm very choosy who I touch now. So they've got to fit my criteria as well as me fitting theirs. So I've got some great people I work with that look after people. I've got a close protection training school that we're just about to launch in Spain, which is super exciting. so we've got all that going on and we do a lot of work with the community here we work with challenged children we work with kids who have opted out you know some of it we do for free some of it my team get paid for so that's nice looking after some of these kids they've just been forgotten by the system I could cry for them you know and you look at them and you think fucking hell what's happened to you where are you going to go I know where they're going to go some of these kids and so it's really fulfilling working with them I think I'm going down to Birmingham to work with some kids who are in gangs I love doing that because if you go in to see some of these kids as a tough guy kickboxer, bodyguard all that you can speak to them in a different way say look I've been where you have been I went from school I didn't take my exams or anything I took a couple of exams, walked away.

2:04:09I hardly went to school in the later years. And a lot of my friends, some of my friends off the council estate, you know, died of drugs and all the rest of that kind of stuff. So I know what it's about. So when you can talk to them, like we're chatting now and say, look, guys, come here, there's a different way. There is a different way to do this. And I'll tell you my story. And if it just inspires some of them to go, you know, I'm big on affirmations. I write it in the book, you know, meditations and affirmations, and it can change your life. And for some of these kids, you know, there was one kid, and he was on one of the last visits I did, and would do six at maximum because some of these kids, they can't even speak to you.

2:04:54And, you know, they've all got issues. And one kid, he had this really deformed leg, and he had lots of issues. And I said to him, like, well, I'm going to show you how to do affirmations now So you can be the best that you can be at whatever you want to be. One kid wanted to be a joiner, but he knew shit. Everyone told him he was shit. He was thick. These kids are lost. So we start to tell them, look, right, let's make a little life plan for you. Let's set some affirmations that you can say to yourself, because you are good, you are special, there's only one of you in the world, one of you, and you can be whatever you want to be.

2:05:28And this kid, so they're always kind of saying what kind of jobs they want to do or what they'd like to do or maybe go to college, but they haven't got the, they've got nothing. So this kid says, I want to get married. This kid's only 16, 15. And I said, well, what's the issue, mate? And he says, everyone told me nobody will marry me. Look at me, look at the fucking state of me. Mad. Yeah, it's sad, isn't it? Some kids mean sad. Yeah. So I spent about, I don't know, half an hour with him telling him all the good points he had, all the good stuff he had in his life. And you see, like, the cloud lifts.

2:06:07And this kid goes, I can't get married, can't I? I said, you're fucking right, you can't, mate. Now, what else do you want to do? Try to bring a better belief into him. Yeah, yeah. Where can people buy your booklet? So you can buy it online, Amazon. How was it writing the book? It was interesting. interesting uh and it it took me back to dark places that i didn't really want to go back to you know because in the book there's there's two occasions when there's lots of occasions where it's been close where i nearly died and you make peace with yourself and i know we were talking about it earlier in those situations um the the somalia one was fucking horrendous but the one in libya just took it to the next level, one of them.

2:06:55And so we're standing two on the roof of this fucking place and everyone's in their stand-to positions because we think we're going to get attacked. And you're speaking to your mates that you've worked with closely, you know, I think it was four or five of us, and we knew that ISIS wanted to grab us and obviously behead us. It's a normal format for them, isn't it? You know, put in the orange jumpsuit and fuck you up. and that would be a worse nightmare wouldn't it so we're we're talking to each other we're talking rationally right guys the guy who's in charge of the ammunition the dick didn't order enough ammunition so we only had about three magazines each for our rifles maybe two magazines for our pistols went to the armory and said right break out the ammunition he says that's it you're like who was going to shoot who with your last rounds.

2:07:56But not in a frightened way, in a real cool, clear way. Because in those situations, you know, you're worrying about yourself, your ego, your build, your this. Then you're worried about nothing. Everything is clear. The clarity of mind is insane. You've said goodbye to everybody, yourself. Obviously, I didn't say it to Kate or phone anybody up. But you've made your peace. You've left your video. You've done all that. Now I can get on with this shit. Now I can start working. And that feeling of clarity is very similar to combat sport times by about a million. And once you've felt it a couple of times, it's a comfortable place to be in.

2:08:42That's mad, isn't it? Yeah. Crazy. So see, if you're under attack and you know you're going to a war zone, do you have to do a video before for your family to say you love them uh i don't but what i do is when i go away i always do a journal so i'll do a video journal or i'll do a journal and i write my stuff in there and uh one day i'll sit and watch them with kate but um but what you do on some of the well a lot of the jobs is you do a proof of life thing so i i write down everything about my my life and Kate writes as well you know the different different things that we know only she knows I know and we'll have our things that if they have to prove I'm alive they will come to Kate and go through my proof of life and they'll ask questions to establish them if I'm alive so imagine Kate going through that just that alone is nails in it yeah it's madness just before we finish up brother for anybody I know you're big on mental health and that I know you've lost friends through mental health I know you've battled yourself sometimes with mental health for anybody that's maybe struggling on themselves what advice would you have for them it's tough it's tough James you know the government saves us help out there there's not enough but it's a start it is a start now people with mental health issues this is what I would say to a lot of people is look you can turn this shit around there's books out there you can buy and it might sound a bit crap but you can take ownership of it you can go in search of things read about inspirational people who've been in the same situation as you look how they've done it and be proactive you don't have to lie back and say the government's shit they're not helping me well yeah okay we get that now what are you going to do about it as a person come on fucking get out there as dark as it may seem Just try one thing.

2:11:12it. It's the one short for everything your day brings. Invest in your happiness and get 20 % off your first purchase at viore.com slash core 20. That's V-U-O-R-I dot com slash K-O-R-E-2-0. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions.

2:11:37F.X.'s American Horror Story returns for an unrivaled 13th installment. With the iconic horrors you love to fear and an all-star cast reprising fan-favorite roles. Light your candles, draw your pentagrams, and prepare for a supreme surprise. FX's American Horror Story 13 premieres September 24th on FX and Hulu. And C, because there's not a lot of help out there. People are lost, aren't they? When you're down that dark place where you don't give a fuck whether you die or not, you just really don't care, and you can't get out of it, and you want to get out of it, but you know what's happening, and you just go down that fucking tunnel, right?

2:12:28And it's got to be at some stage, you've got to go fucking stop. Let me get something positive in my life now, whether it's a video, whether it's a song, whether it's something, and just start that proactive thing of you standing up there and going, you know what? I can fucking beat this shit. Yeah, that's amazing. Lee, for coming on the day, brother. I thoroughly enjoyed that. I'll leave the link in the description for your book as well. But great story, mate. I wish you all the best for the future thank you God bless you great seeing you