Princess Diana's brother yesterday dismissed conspiracy theories about her death and said no one in his family was aware of plans for her to marry her lover, Dodi Al Fayed.
In an interview with BBC television, Earl Spencer also said his emotional funeral speech for Diana in Westminster Abbey last September was not meant to be an attack on the stuffy ways of the British royal family.
Conspiracy theories for the death of Diana and Dodi, who died in a high-speed car crash in Paris on August 31st, were given a fresh airing in a British television documentary earlier this month.
The programme drew heavily on the insistence of Dodi's father, the Harrods department store owner, Mr Mohamed Al Fayed, that they were murdered because they planned to marry and that Dodi, a Muslim, was not acceptable to the British establishment.
But Earl Spencer (34) said such theories made no sense. "There'd be easier ways to do it if you're going to do it. I've seen absolutely no evidence that it was anything other than an accident," he said.
Persisting with conspiracy theories was particularly unfortunate for Diana's sons, Prince William (16), and Prince Harry, 13: "It just drags everything over and over again for the boys. It's just desperate for them."
Rachel Donnelly adds:
The Diana, Princess of Wales, Memorial Committee yesterday announced five key projects to commemorate her life, after receiving more than 10,000 proposals from the public.
A new £5 coin, a community nursing scheme to support seriously ill children, a Princess Diana medal for young achievers, a funeral route "walkway", and a controversial memorial garden in front of Kensington Palace, subject to consultation with local residents, will mark Princess Diana's contribution to British public life in a "sympathetic" way, according to the committee.
The chairman of the memorial committee, the Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, paid a warm tribute to the British public for submitting their ideas.
The five projects represent the most popular and appropriate suggestions received by the committee, recognising Princess Diana's concern for sick children and their families and her encouragement of young people to become involved in helping vulnerable members of their communities.
Mr Brown said he expected the £5 commemorative coin to be available in time for the anniversary of Princess Diana's birthday on July 1st, 1999. The timing is seen as an attempt to avoid upstaging the Royal Mint's plans to issue a coin for Prince Charles's 50th birthday in November.
The Association for Children with Life Threatening or Terminal Conditions and their Families (ACT) welcomed the nursing scheme, which has already been described as "Diana's Angels". ACT said it felt sure Princess Diana would have approved the scheme.
Mr Brown made it clear yesterday that the committee wanted to see the Kensington Palace plan go through.
An international ban on landmines, one of the causes championed by Princess Diana, could be the subject of British law before the first anniversary of her death, the British government indicated yesterday. The Defence Secretary, Mr George Robertson, told a British Red Cross conference the government was looking at the issue "with some degree of urgency".