Fresh findings {that a} BBC staffer used doubtful means to scoop an interview with the late Lady Diana have led to harsh criticism from her sons Princes William and Harry and put the highlight again on trial-by-media protection of celebrities. Interestingly, the controversy has been reignited at a time when revelations by Harry and his spouse Meghan have set the cat among the many pigeons once more within the royal family.
What Is The BBC Interview Controversy?
In 1995, Princess Diana and Prince Charles had been separated three years after their marriage fell aside over Prince Charles’ affair with Camilla Parker Bowles. As Diana herself would reveal, her falling out additionally affected her place inside the royal family.
“People’s agendas modified in a single day. I used to be now separated spouse of the Prince of Wales, I used to be an issue, I used to be [seen as] a legal responsibility, and the way are we going to cope with her? This hasn’t occurred earlier than.”
Embattled and isolated, it was the UK public broadcaster BBC’s Panorama programme that saw Diana come out with massive revelations about her time with Charles, the royal household and what was wrong with her marriage. But, as would become evident right after that interview was aired, everything was not hunky-dory regarding how the BBC reporter Martin Bashir had secured the interview.
In what can be considered as the reporter playing on his subject’s anxieties to manipulate her into giving him the interview, Bashir was alleged to have shown forged documents to Diana’s brother Charles Spencer that suggested the palace staff was being paid to keep an eye on Diana.
Allegations against Bashir had emerged after the interview was first aired with Matt Wiessler, then a BBC graphic designer, claiming that it was he who had created fake bank statements of payments to royal household staff.
BBC launched an internal investigation in 1996 into the Diana interview but it concluded that while documents were forged, they were not linked to Diana’s decision to give the interview.
Why is the interview back in the news again?
When the personalities involved are members past and present of the British royal family, their domestic affairs are never too old to stop being of interest to the media and the public. A documentary on the Diana interview — Diana: The Interview That Shocked the World — was aired last year by the UK’s Channel 5 and was set to become available on Netflix this year before that was postponed.
In November last year, BBC reopened its investigation into the Diana interview, asking retired British judge Lord Dyson to prepare a report. The new probe ruled that Bashir had indeed shown fake bank statements to Charles Spencer that “deceived and induced him to arrange a meeting with Princess Diana”.
The report offers a clear chit to Wiessler, noting that he’s “a wholly respected graphic designer”, but holds that Bashir’s actions were not above board in how he went about obtaining the interview. It also censures the BBC’s 1996 internal inquiry into the interview, saying that it “covered up… facts as it had been able to establish about how Mr Bashir secured the interview”.
Dyson additional identified how BBC had didn’t make amends and point out the problem to its viewers, thus falling wanting “the excessive requirements of integrity and transparency that are its hallmark”.
While BBC has tendered an unconditional apology and also wrote to Princes William and Harry, the two sons of Diana have come out strongly against the public broadcaster. William blamed BBC for contributing “significantly to her fear, paranoia and isolation” and stated that if “BBC had correctly investigated the complaints and considerations first raised in 1995, my mom would have recognized that she had been deceived”. He also criticised “leaders at the BBC who looked the other way rather than asking the tough questions” and stated it was his “agency view that this Panorama programme holds no legitimacy and will by no means be aired once more”.
Harry, who along with wife Meghan Markle, has faced self-admitted difficulties with the royal household, lauded the BBC’s move to own up to its mistakes, but said that it “deeply concerns” him that “practices like these — and even worse — are nonetheless widespread in the present day”.
Interviewer Bashir, who last week quit his post as BBC’s religion editor last week citing health reasons, has apologised for obtaining fake bank statements but said they did not influence Diana’s decision to chat with him on tape. He added it was “saddening” that the row over the pretend paperwork had “been allowed to overshadow the princess’ courageous determination to inform her story”.
So, what were the revelations made by Diana in the BBC interview?
Mainly, it was her rocky marriage to Charles that shaped the principle substance of the interview that was performed in Kensington Palace. Her remark that “there have been three of us on this marriage, so it was a bit crowded” in reference to Camilla’s presence in Charles’ life, and revelations about her romantic affair with British military officer James Hewitt are seen as having lastly led to the couple divorcing in 1996. Charles and Camilla would marry in 2005 in what was a second marriage for each of them.
Diana additionally spoke of her issues with bulimia and despair within the interview that reportedly “blind-sided” the royal family and gave a glimpse to the public of how not all was well with the House of Windsor, as the British royal family is also known. Diana died in a car crash in 1997 along with her boyfriend Dodi al Fayed.
A quarter of a century down the line from the Panorama interview, Harry and Meghan found themselves in a similar position as that of Diana after an interview with Oprah Winfrey in which the couple talk about, among other things, racism within the household and how they felt trapped in the British royal family.
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