'Darling Dodi' letters read at inquest

The so-called "Darling Dodi" letters written by the late Princess of Wales to her boyfriend were read out Friday at the inquest in London into the couple's deaths.

"This comes with all the love in the world and as always a million heartfelt thanks for bringing such joy into this chick's life," Diana wrote in one letter thankingDodi Fayed for a six-day holiday on his yacht in the summer of 1997.

The two died in a car crash on Aug. 31, 1997, while being driven through the streets of Paris. French and British police say the driver, Henri Paul, was well over the legal alcohol limit.

Fayed's father, Mohamed Al Fayed, alleges the couple was about to become engaged and were murdered in a plot directed by Prince Philip to keep a Muslim out of the royal circle.

Michael Mansfield, a lawyer for Fayed's father, introduced the letters Friday as he questioned Diana's friend, Rosa Monckton.

He also produced a letter that accompanied a gift of cufflinks from the princess.

"Darling Dodi, these cufflinks were the very last gift from the man I loved most in the world, my father," she wrote.

"They are given to you as I know how much joy it would give him to know they were in such safe and special hands. Fondest love, Diana."

The lawyer questioned Monckton about Diana's relationship with Fayed and a previous boyfriend.

Mansfield asked: "She was treating this relationship with Dodi as a serious matter wasn't she? It doesn't suggest it was little more than a fling after a couple of days."

Diana "tended to speak and write in an extravagant way," Monckton replied, butsaid the sentiment was genuine.

Monckton said Diana said she would still have been in a relationship with heart surgeon Hasnat Khan, but he couldn't cope with the constant media attention and ended the relationship.

Monckton rejected Mansfield's suggestion that Diana dropped Khan because she had fallen in love with Fayed.

"She told me Hasnat would never have her back once the photographs of her with Dodi had appeared and she was very upset about it," Monckton said.