Diana told top lawyer Queen was about to abdicate ... and she feared for her life

REBECCA ENGLISH and MICHAEL SEAMARK , UK Daily Mail - Oct 03, 2007

Princess Diana told her solicitor that she believed the Queen planned to abdicate to make way for Charles, her inquest was told.

She feared that both she and Camilla Parker Bowles would be 'put aside' to allow the prince to marry his sons' nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke.

'Reliable sources' had informed her of the plan.

The astonishing allegation was recorded by Lord Mishcon in a tense private meeting with Diana in October 1995. He kept it secret until after the Paris crash in which she died almost two years later.

His note of the meeting was read to the six women and five men who yesterday began the task of deciding how the princess and her lover Dodi Fayed died.

Lord Mishcon, who died aged 90 last year after a long illness, wrote that 'HRH' told him "the Queen would be abdicating in April and the Prince of Wales would then assume the throne".

The existence of the note, and Diana's fears that the 'authorities' would 'get rid of her' in a car accident, emerged last December when former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens published his report which concluded that the princess was killed in a tragic road accident in a car driven by a drunk.

But the abdication claim has never before been made public.

Lord Mishcon, who admitted he could 'not believe what I was hearing', added that Diana "was convinced that there was a conspiracy that she and Camilla would be put aside".

Diana also told him that Miss Legge-Bourke had undergone an abortion and that she would obtain a medical certificate to prove it.

She said the ideal solution would be for Charles to abdicate - and allow William to become King.

The amazing revelation came on a stormy first day of inquest in which the coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, set about demolishing many of the conspiracy theories from Dodi's father Mohamed Al Fayed.

The Harrods owner is adamant that Diana and Dodi were murdered on the orders of the Royal Family and the princess was expecting his son's baby.

But the coroner told the jury she could not have been pregnant by Dodi when she died.

He said that it would have been impossible because the two of them were not even in a relationship when the rumour emerged.

He showed the jury of five men and six women the infamous photograph of Diana in a leopard-print swimsuit which revealed what appeared to be a slightly bulging tummy.

The picture was taken by paparazzi as she holidayed with Dodi and his father in July 1997.

They were also reminded of her teasing comments to journalists in the Mediterranean days before she died in which she told the world: "You are going to get a big surprise with the next thing I do."

But Lord Justice Scott Baker told the jury: "Just as her comments to journalists would appear to have nothing to do with Dodi, neither could her physique at a time before their relationship had begun."

The coroner's comments put him on a collision course with Dodi's father, who insists that the couple were murdered by British secret services on the orders of Prince Philip.

In addition to the remarks he made about Diana's alleged pregnancy, Mr Al Fayed also made clear he objected to the coroner's comments on the speed of the deathcrash Mercedes - which he said was travelling at between 60 and 65mph when it crashed - and comments its chauffeur Henri Paul is said to have made to photographers at the Ritz Hotel.

The jury were told that Paul told the waiting paparazzi "not to try to catch them because they would not succeed". His spokesman Michael Cole accused Lord Justice Scott Baker of 'bias' during his opening address to the court.

The tycoon's first public clash with the coroner came on the day the much-anticipated inquest finally opened, ten years after Diana's death.

Lord Justice Scott Baker declared that the hearing would be a 'search for the truth'. He warned the 11 men and women chosen for the jury that the eyes of the world were upon them.

The six-month hearing, he said, will 'fully and fearlessly' investigate the deaths of the Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed in a Paris underpass in 1997.

But he insisted that they should look at the facts of the case 'dispassionately' and stressed that the purpose of the inquest was to 'allay suspicion and rumour'.

The coroner told them: "This is an investigation and not a criminal trial. There is no prosecution, no defence - just a search for the truth."

Lord Justice Scott Baker said the jury - who on Monday night will retrace Diana's last, fateful journey in Paris - had to decide four key issues: who the deceased were and where, when and how they came by their deaths.

More evidence of Diana's fears for her life were recounted to the jury in the note she sent to her butler Paul Burrell. In the note written in October 1993, she claimed Charles planned to kill her. It read: "I am sitting at my desk today longing for someone to hug me and encourage me to keep strong and hold my head high.

"This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous. My husband is planning an accident in my car, brake failure or some serious head injury in order to make the path clear for him to marry Tiggy.

"Camilla is nothing more than a decoy so we are being used by the man in every sense of the word."

But Lord Justice Scott Baker urged the jury to "bear in mind that this meeting took place at a time in Diana's life when things must have been very traumatic and stressful for her."

The coroner, referring to the Mishcon note, added: "Events showed her so- called reliable sources hardly proved right about the abdication and the future of Mrs Parker Bowles."

He also pointed out that despite her fears, Diana had dispensed with her personal protection officers.