Martin Bashir’s interview with Princess Diana was viewed by over 20 million people and made headlines across the globe. At the time, it was hailed as a journalistic triumph.
Speaking candidly about her mental health (‘I didn’t like myself’), her fling with Captain James Hewitt (‘I was in love with him’), as well as confirming Prince Charles’ affair with Camilla (‘There were three of us in this marriage’), the 54-minute interview was the final nail in the Wales’ relationship. Less than a month later, divorce papers were filed upon Queen Elizabeth’s advice.
However, an investigation led by retired judge Lord Dyson in 2021 found that Bashir had spun a web of deceit in order to manipulate the Spencer family and gain access to the Princess.
The inquiry found that Bashir showed Earl Charles Spencer forged bank statements that falsely suggested individuals were being paid to keep the Princess under surveillance. Alarmed, Charles introduced the journalist to his sister Diana. When questioned by BBC bosses, Bashir denied that he had shown the forged documents to anybody.
Bashir also played on Diana’s paranoia ‘that she was being spied on’, according to the inquiry, by telling her she was being watched by MI6. He also showed her an ‘abortion receipt’ suggesting that Charles and the royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke had an affair.
Thanks to journalists at the Daily Mail and The Sunday Times, Bashir’s lies were eventually revealed. On this day in 1996, the BBC’s Tim Gardam was telephoned by the Mail on Sunday who were investigating how Princess Diana was introduced to Bashir.
Prompted by the journalists, Gardam questioned Bashir again and he folded, admitting that he had in fact shown the fake bank statements to Earl Spencer to draw the seemingly vulnerable Princess into his confidence and to secure the bombshell interview.
But royal author Tina Brown, who was a close confidante of Diana, believes the Princess had ‘no regrets’ about the interview – despite it casting a long shadow over her sons Prince William and Prince Harry.
Princess Diana speaks to Martin Bashir in November 1995
The Princess spoke candidly about her mental health and her affair with Captain James Hewitt, as well as confirming the then-Prince Charles’ affair with Camilla
Diana’s statement that ‘there were three of us in the marriage, so it was a bit crowded’ was covered extensively by the press (Pictured: Daily Mail coverage, November 21, 1995)
Writing in her book The Palace Papers, Brown said: ‘There is no doubt that the deplorable Martin Bashir successfully exploited Diana’s lonely mistrust of all around her. But the princess was fully complicit – and satisfied with everything she said on Panorama.’
Brown suggests that the princess spoke to British-Pakistani businessman Gulu Lalvani after the notorious interview and said: ‘I’m glad I did it, I know the family didn’t like it, but I’m glad.’
Lalvani recalled that the princess didn’t have a bad word to say about Bashir and realised the interview served her purpose, allowing her to frame herself to the British public as a betrayed woman, before the increasingly inevitable divorce from Charles.
Opinion polls in the wake of the interview showed support for the princess at 92 per cent. ‘She had the public in the palm of her hand,’ writes Brown.
Although Bashir eventually admitted that he had shown Charles Spencer the forged bank statements, he maintained Diana did not see them. In her own words, Diana assured the BBC: ‘Martin Bashir did not show me any documents, not give me any information that I was not previously aware of.
‘I consented to the interview on Panorama without any undue pressure and have no regrets concerning the matter.’ The word ‘no’ was underlined, as was her name.
Despite Diana’s pragmatic reasons for doing the interview, her son Prince William seems to have been unable to forgive the BBC for its behaviour over the Bashir saga.
In 2021, William issued a grave address on camera where he could not quite hide the fury that still haunted him.
The Prince and Princess of Wales at Buckingham Palace after their wedding at Westminster Abbey on July 29, 1981
Bashir used forged bank statements (pictured) to falsely suggest individuals were being paid to keep the Princess under surveillance
In his inquiry, Lord Dyson found that Bashir deceived Earl Spencer (pictured) into introducing the journalist to his sister by showing him forged bank statements
The BBC’s Tim Gardam was telephoned by the Mail on Sunday who were investigating how Princess Diana was introduced to Bashir. (Pictured: The Mail on Sunday’s coverage on April 7, 1996)
Diana’s handwritten letter to Martin Bashir after the 1995 Panorama interview
Bashir resigned from the BBC in May 2021, citing health reasons
The prince said: ‘This Panorama programme holds no legitimacy and should never be aired again. It effectively established a false narrative which, for over a quarter of a century, has been commercialised by the BBC and others.
‘Our mother was an incredible woman who dedicated her life to service. She was resilient, brave, and unquestionably honest.’
Prince Harry added: ‘The ripple effect of a culture of exploitation and unethical practices ultimately took her life.’
Mr Bashir apologised for the forged documents, stating ‘it was a stupid thing to do and was an action I deeply regret’, but insisted that ‘the bank statements had no bearing whatsoever on the personal choice by Princess Diana to take part in the interview’. He resigned from the BBC in May 2021, citing health reasons.
In 2022, the BBC paid about £200,000 to royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke and admitted she was subjected to ‘baseless’ smears by Bashir.
Both brothers received ‘unconditional apology’ letters from the BBC over Bashir’s conduct and the 25-year cover-up and they promised to never show the interview again or license it to be used by another broadcaster.
Despite this, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex used snippets of the interview in their explosive Netflix docuseries Harry & Meghan, which aired in November 2022.
Midway through the first episode of the series, clips are shown of Princess Diana speaking to Bashir.
William (pictured watching the Women’s Singles final at Wimbledon with Diana) was left in floods of tears after he watched the interview as a 13-year-old at Eton
Following 2021 report, Prince William demanded a boycott of the 1995 interview and blasted Bashir’s ‘false claims’ which fuelled his mother’s ‘paranoia and isolation’ of her final years
Before the clip is shown, Harry, speaking about his mother’s struggles with press intrusion, says: ‘I think she had a lived experience of how she was struggling living that life. She felt compelled to talk about it.
‘Especially in that Panorama interview. I think we all now know that she was deceived into giving the interview. But at the same time she spoke the truth of her experience.’
Sources close to William at the time said he would have been ‘furious’ that his brother appeared to ignore his plea that the Panorama interview never be aired again.
Robert Lacey in his book Battle Of Brothers: William, Harry And The Inside Story Of A Family In Tumult, revealed how young William was impacted by the interview.
He wrote that Diana did not initially consider how it would impact her boys, and according to Simone Simmons, the Princess’s confidante and faith-healer, it took a phone call from William’s Eton housemaster, Dr Andrew Gailey, to prompt the Princess.
At the time of the notorious interview, William was in his first weeks at Eton, which had a notorious bullying culture where prefects could pour a bucket of raw eggs and Worcestershire sauce over the heads of younger boys who made a mistake.
His housemaster Gailey had read the advance publicity in the newspapers and phoned Diana to tell her it was ‘imperative’ that she should come to explain things to William, face to face.
In another phone call the next day, Gailey effectively ordered Diana down the M4 motorway to talk to her son.
Princess Diana, Prince Harry, Prince William and Prince Charles on William’s first day at Eton in 1995, two months before the bombshell interview
The boyfriend in question was the dashing Captain James Hewitt (pictured at the Royal Berkshire Polo Club in 1991), William and Harry’s riding instructor
She caught William briefly after the school’s Sunday Service to say: ‘I didn’t want it to catch you by surprise.’
Recalling the short conversation with Royal biographer Tina Brown, paparazzo Mark Saunders told royal biographer Brown: ‘After a few more moments, he walked away from Diana, making no attempt to kiss her or say goodbye.
‘I watched in amazement as she got into the car and drove off, leaving a sad William watching from the doorway.’
Afterwards, she drove on to Ludgrove, Harry’s prep school half an hour away, to deliver the same message to him.
William went down to his housemaster’s study shortly before 8pm that Monday to sit alone and watch as Panorama’s revolving globe and percussive theme music made way for the close-up of his mother’s wide eyes as she fired off her broadside of embarrassing accusations.
He later told a classmate that as soon as he saw his mother’s face appear on screen for the interview, he was overcome with dread.
Before the 58 minutes ended, William was weeping, according to Robert Lacey. His housemaster Gailey told Diana that he found her son slumped on the sofa, his eyes red with tears.
The prince managed to pull himself together to rush back to his room – but when, an hour later, Diana telephoned on the house phone, he refused to take her call.
A 2021 investigation into the interview found Bashir had used ‘deceitful behaviour’ by falsifying documents to convince Diana to take part in the programme
William felt a mixture of humiliation and fury that she had denigrated his father and had mentioned Hewitt.
‘He hated the idea of everything being on television,’ recalled Simmons. ‘And he knew his friends would poke fun at him, which they did.
‘He felt she made a fool of herself – and of him.’
