Princess Diana was 'due home day before' her tragic death

Princess Diana was due home the day before she was tragically killed in a car crash in Paris, her former butler Paul Burrell has told Good Morning Britain.

Today marks 21 years since the death of the 'People's Princess' in a car crash in the French capital as she and lover Dodi Fayed tried to escape paparazzi eager to snap pictures of the couple. Images of the couple were highly prized, selling for hundreds of thousands of pounds and making front pages across the world.

In the following inquiry, the actions of the media were partially blamed for the death of the Princess.

The death sparked a change in relations between the British public and the Monarchy, signalling a watershed moment for how the Royals approached relations with the British people.

Former Butler Paul Burrell told Good Morning Britain: "I was at Kensington Palace waiting for the Princess to come home and she'd rung me and said 'I'm going to be a day late, would you postpone all my engagements until the day after,' which I did and she never came home."

An emotional-looking Paul continued: "I went to Paris to bring her home safely."

Recounting the night that the news broke of the death, former Deputy Editor of the News of the World, Neil Wallis said: "I got a phone call about 2 o'clock saying she has been involved in a car crash and I got another phone call at 3 o'clock telling me she had died."

He said the newsroom went onto auto-pilot in the 24 hours following the crash and subsequent death of the Princess. The country was in a state of mourning, piles of flowers were left outside the gates of Royal Palaces as thousands took to the streets to express their grief.

The Royal family were blasted for their lack of appearances in the days and weeks following the death, a controversy that has been detailed in film.

During the interview, Paul said that Meghan Markle - now the Duchess of Sussex - should receive more support from the Palace to control her family, he went on suggest that Royal officials should have sent a press aide to support father Thomas Markle ahead of the wedding to prevent media controversy.