Mayfair townhouse where Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed first met before their ill-fated romance on sale for £10.5m
The London townhouse where Princess Diana first met Dodi Al Fayed and would later embark on an ill-fated romance that ended in her tragic death is up for sale with a price tag of £10.95m.
The Mayfair property was owned by the late Countess Raine Spencer, stepmother to Princess Diana.
Diana attended a lunch party thrown by Raine at the house in 1996 and was introduced to Dodi and his father, Harrods owner Mohammed Al Fayed.
It was the first time the Princess and Dodi had met and over the coming months the pair were often seen together, including on Al Fayed's yacht in the south of France.
The friendship ended on August 31st 1997 when both Diana and Dodi were killed in a car crash in a Paris underpass, an event that shocked the world.
The London townhouse (centre) where Princess Diana first met Dodi Al Fayed and would later embark on an ill-fated romance that ended in her tragic death is up for sale with a price tag of £10.95m
Diana attended a lunch party thrown at the house in 1996 and was introduced to Dodi and his father, Harrods owner Mohammed Al Fayed. Pictured: Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed in Saint Tropez, France in August 1997
Diana became a frequent visitor to the property and guests remember her sitting in the library (pictured), her late father's favourite room
Dodi, 42, also died in the speeding Mercedes that slammed into a concrete pillar as they sped away from the Ritz hotel in the French capital.
Raine was at the Georgian townhouse when she was told her stepdaughter had died at the age of 36.
Five years after Diana's death in 2002 she sold the five-bedroom property to a couple who ran an art gallery in Mayfair and downsized to a smaller home in near the American Embassy.
The listing for the stucco fronted home is the first time it has been on the market in 22 years.
Raine had inherited the house following the death of her husband Earl Spencer in 1992.
She took up residence after Diana and her brother Charles threw her out of the family estate at Althorp in Northamptonshire after their father's death.
Five years after Diana's death in 2002 her stepmother Countess Raine Spencer sold the five-bedroom property to a couple who ran an art gallery in Mayfair and downsized to a smaller home in near the American Embassy
The listing for the stucco fronted home is the first time it has been on the market in 22 years
The stepmother-daughter relationship improved following Diana's divorce from Prince Charles and stepping back from royal duties. Pictured: The late Princess of Wales lunching with her stepmother at the Connaught Hotel in Mayfair in March 1997
In 1973, after 25 years of marriage to the Earl of Dartmouth, Raine began a relationship with Earl Spencer (pictured together), Diana's father
Raine Spencer pictured alongside Princess Diana during Earl Spencer's funeral in Great Brington in April 1992
The Spencer children famously did not get on with their stepmother with the Diana and Charles referring to her as 'acid raine'.
The stepmother-daughter relationship improved following Diana's divorce from Prince Charles and stepping back from royal duties.
She became a frequent visitor to the property and guests remember her sitting in the library, her late father's favourite room.
Raine, whose mother was the Queen of Romance Barbara Cartland, died in 2016.
Art collectors Alan and Mary Hobart, founders of Pyms Gallery in Mayfair, 24 Farm Street on its first sale and used it as their home and a private gallery.
The couple hosted many glittering parties, attended by many Irish celebrities' including Bono and Terry Wogan and the house was adorned with pieces of art worth millions.
Pictured: Diana and Dodi in 1997 in France
Romance: Diana on the Al Fayed yacht Jonikal off Portofino, Italy, in August 1997
Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed in the back of the car before the accident
The car crash that killed Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed
Alan died three years ago aged 81 and Mary passed away earlier this year leading to the house being put up for sale by Wetherall and Chestertons estate agents.
Danis Arif, head of Mayfair sales at Chestertons, said the home's royal connections will attract interest from overseas buyers.
He said: 'With its aristocratic and royal connections we anticipate significant interest in this house from discerning buyers around the world.'
The house boasts two reception rooms, a library and drawing room.
Spread over three floors the house also has a lift and two outside patios on the ground and lower ground floor.
