Diana, Princess of Wales, was given a diamond ring by Dodi al Fayed shortly before she died, but the pair were not planning to marry, it was claimed.

Diana's former butler, Paul Burrell, claimed she was wearing the £3,000 Bulgari yellow band with diamonds when she died. And he said he was handed it in the Paris hospital where her body was being prepared to return to Britain.

In a serialisation of his new book, The Way We Were, published in the Mail on Sunday, Mr Burrell said Diana told him about the ring in a telephone call two days before her death.

He said he advised her to wear it on her right hand as a token of friendship, rather than on her left as an engagement ring, and she agreed.

More on Princess Diana's diamond ring from Dodi in The Guardian.