When it comes to famous royal interviews, two stand out in particular.
The most recent of which was in 2019 when Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis grilled Prince Andrew about his friendship with the paedophile sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein – leading to his effective sacking from the Royal Family.
However, the original blockbuster interview was Princess Diana‘s sit-down with BBC Panorama’s Martin Bashir which aired on this day in November 1995.
It was watched by 20million people and became notorious when Diana spilled the secrets of her and Charles’s messy marriage, including the iconic line ‘there were three of us in the marriage, so it was a bit crowded’.
But in 2021, an investigation into the interview found Bashir had used ‘deceitful behaviour’ by falsifying documents to convince Diana to take part in the interview.
The findings prompted Prince William to make an unprecedented statement saying it should never be aired again after it had created a ‘false narrative for over a quarter of a century’.
Here, MailOnline looks back at the scandal-ridden royal interview.
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Princess Diana’s sit-down with BBC Panorama’s Martin Bashir was aired on November 20, 1995
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A 2021 investigation into the interview found Bashir had used ‘deceitful behaviour’ by falsifying documents to convince Diana to take part in the programme
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It was watched by 20million people and became infamous when Diana spilled the secrets of her and Charles’s messy marriage, including the iconic line ‘there were three of us in the marriage, so it was a bit crowded’
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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
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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
In the early 1990s, the disintegration of Princess Diana and Prince Charles’s marriage was splashed across every newspaper in Britain – dubbed ‘The War of the Waleses’.
But things escalated in 1994 when Charles gave Jonathan Dimbleby an interview in which he acknowledged his relationship with Camilla.
‘Is it true,’ William had poignantly asked Diana after the revelatory broadcast, ‘that Daddy never loved you?’
That interview has been seen as one justification for Diana’s bizarre broadcast the following year when she was determined to get her side of the story out.
However, her decision to do the tell-all interview with Bashir, would only come about through deceit.
At the time it was hailed as the scoop of a generation, however Bashir had spun a web of deceit to trick Diana and her brother, Earl Spencer, with preposterous smears about senior royals to gain her trust.
He used forged bank statements and lied that MI6 had recorded Prince Charles planning the ‘end game’, and that Prince William’s watch had been bugged, all designed to draw the vulnerable princess into his confidence.
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The only other royal interview to become as notorious as Diana’s 1995 sit-down with Bashir was in 2019, when Emily Maitlis grilled Prince Andrew about his friendship with the paedophile sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein
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The Daily Mail’s front page the day after Princess Diana’s shocking Panorama interview in 1995
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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)
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Princess Diana, the then Prince Charles and their children watch veterans as they march past on The Mall as part of the commemorations of VJ Day in August 1995
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Bashir used forged bank statements (pictured) and lied that MI6 had recorded Prince Charles planning the ‘end game’, and that Prince William’s watch had been bugged, all designed to draw the vulnerable princess into his confidence
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Press coverage at the time discussed the BBC’s failed ‘investigation’ into Bashir
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However, despite allegations at the time, Bashir managed to dismiss claims he had lied to get the interview by alleging it was a smear campaign
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The allegations that Bashir lied to get the interview were covered up by the BBC for 25 years
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The truth of Bashir’s dirty tricks only came out following an official investigation led by a retired judge Lord Dyson in 2021
However despite allegations at the time, Bashir managed to dismiss claims he had lied to get the interview by claiming it was a smear campaign to get him.
The allegations were covered up by the BBC for 25 years, with the truth only coming out following an official investigation led by a retired judge Lord Dyson in 2021.
But the interview would leave a lasting scar on the young Prince William.
The 13-year-old boy was ill-prepared for his mother to go on national television and say ‘Yes, I adored him. Yes, I was in love with him’ about her extramarital boyfriend.
The boyfriend in question was the dashing Captain James Hewitt, William and Harry’s riding instructor.
Royal expert Tina Brown was told Diana chose to speak about Hewitt because he was the only one of her ex-lovers who wasn’t married.
It was during this interview that the princess said ‘there were three of us in the marriage, so it was a bit crowded’ – a reference to Charles’s affair with his now wife, Queen Camilla.
She spoke of her early expectations of life with Prince Charles and how she had ‘desperately wanted it to work’ in light of her own parents’ divorce.
Diana also opened up about the health issues she’d silently faced, which included bulimia, post-partum depression and self-harm, leading to her being labelled by others as unstable and mentally unbalanced.
‘It was a symptom of what was going on in my marriage,’ Diana revealed on Panorama. ‘I was crying out for help, but giving the wrong signals.’
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Royal expert Tina Brown was told Diana chose to speak about Hewitt because he was the only one of her ex-lovers who wasn’t married
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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
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Princess Diana, Prince Harry, Prince William and Prince Charles on William’s first day at Eton in 1995, two months before the bombshell interview
As well as admitting to her own extramarital affairs, Diana also suggested that Charles might not be cut out for the throne.
‘I would think that the top job, as I call it, would bring enormous limitations to him, and I don’t know whether he could adapt to that,’ she said of her ex-husband.
The 54-minute bombshell interview was the final nail in the Wales’ marriage, and less than a month later, divorce papers were filed upon the Queen’s advice.
Although the interview also had an extraordinary impact on William, the implication seemingly passed over the head of the younger Harry, who was then just 11 years old.
Diana’s cascade of confessions and barbed insults added up to a maliciously crafted attack on both her husband and his family — her children’s father and family.
Robert Lacy 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 Diana did not initially consider how it would impact the 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 Diana.
Gailey had read the advance publicity in the newspapers and phoned to tell her it was ‘imperative’ that she should come to explain things to William, face to face.
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Bashir later claimed in an email there was ‘irritation’ that ‘a second-generation immigrant of non-white working-class roots should have the temerity to enter a royal palace’
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Bashir was disgraced after the investigation into the interview and resigned from the BBC in May 2021, citing health reasons
In another phone call from Gailey the next day, Simmons told Ingrid Seward the editor-in-chief of royal magazine Majesty, he effectively ordered Diana down the M4 motorway to talk to her son.
Diana had a brief encounter with William where she told him ‘I didn’t want it to catch you by surprise’.
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.
Before the 58 minutes ended, William was weeping, according to Robert Lacey.
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.
He felt a mixture of humiliation and fury that she had denigrated his father and had mentioned Hewitt.
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The Daily Mail front page on November 3, 2020, covered Diana’s brother’s claim the BBC carried out a whitewash over the interview
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The was eventually revealed that Martin Bashir carried out 32 smears to get the interview with Diana
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Martin Bashir’s long list of lies were eventually uncovered in the 2021 investigation
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The original Daily Mail story that revealed Diana’s interview with Bashir was obtained after he faked documents
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The Prince and Princess of Wales at Buckingham Palace after their wedding at Westminster Abbey on July 29, 1981
‘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.’
William was in a fragile place and was still 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.
William 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.
The scars on William’s back from his parents’ poisonous crossfire as a schoolboy seemed to have stayed with him.
It wasn’t until 2021 when an official investigation led by a retired judge Lord Dyson, found that ‘Bashir seriously breached BBC rules by mocking up fake bank statements to gain access to the princess,’ via the BBC.
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In 2022, Netflix ignored pleas from Prince William not to exploit the interview during the fifth series of The Crown in a two-episode bombshell (pictured)
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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 that falsely suggested individuals were being paid to keep the Princess under surveillance
Prince William lays into BBC over Martin Bashir Panorama interview
Understandably aghast, Diana’s brother Earl Spencer was said to believe his vulnerable sister had been trapped in a web of lies by Bashir who had established ‘coercive control’ over her.
In his inquiry, Lord Dyson found that Bashir deceived Earl Spencer into introducing the journalist to his sister by showing him forged bank statements that falsely suggested individuals were being paid to keep the Princess under surveillance.
Prince William’s full statement following the Dyson Inquiry into the Bashir interview in 2021
‘I’d like to thank Lord Dyson and his team for the report. It is welcomed that the BBC accepts Lord Dyson’s findings in full, which are extremely concerning. That BBC employees lied and used fake documents to obtain the interview with my mother, made lurid and false claims about the royal family which played on her fears and fueled paranoia, displayed woeful incompetence when investigating complaints and concerns about the programme, and were evasive in their reporting to the media and covered up what they knew from their internal investigation.
‘It is my view that the deceitful way the interview was obtained substantially influenced what my mother said. The interview is a major contribution to making my parents’ relationship worse and has since hurt countless others.
‘It brings indescribable sadness to know that the BBC’s failures contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia and isolation that I remember from those final years with her. But what saddens me most is that if the BBC had properly investigated the complaints and concerns first raised in 1995, my mother would have known that she’d been deceived.
‘She was failed not just by a rogue reporter but by leaders of the BBC, who looked the other way rather than asking the tough questions.
‘It is my firm view that 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.
‘This settled narrative now needs to be addressed by the BBC and anyone else who has written or intends to write about these events. In an era of fake news, public service broadcasting and a free press have never been more important. These failings, identified by investigative journalists not only let my mother down and my family down, they let the public down too.’
Royal biographer Andrew Morton also said Bashir told Diana the security forces were planning to kill her. He said Bashir warned her: ‘They’re going to wipe you.’
It was also alleged that Diana was shown a ‘faked abortion receipt’, which suggested Charles had been romantically involved with one of the royal nannies.
The report slammed BBC bosses, including former director-general Tony Hall, for covering up information on how Bashir was able to secure the interview.
In his defence, Bashir claimed criticism of the interview was down to racism over his non-white status and ‘professional jealousy’.
The inquiry plunged the Corporation into one of the worst crises in its history, with Diana’s two sons William and Harry accusing it of ruining their mother’s life with its ‘deceitful’ interview and helping to bring about the tragic chain of events that led to her death two years later.
William issued a grave address on camera where he could not quite hide the fury that still haunted him.
He railed: ‘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.’
Since then the BBC has promised to never show the interview again or license it to be used by another broadcaster.
But it continues to cast a long shadow over the princes.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were criticised for using elements 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 the journalist.
Sources close to the Prince of Wales 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.
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.’
And in 2022 Netflix ignored pleas from Prince William not to exploit the interview during the fifth series of The Crown in a two-episode bombshell.
Both brothers received ‘unconditional apology’ letters from the BBC over Bashir’s conduct and the 25-year cover-up.
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’.
Royal expert Tina Brown wrote in her 2022 book The Palace Papers that Lord Dyson’s report unmasking Bashir’s trickery gave the two princes some rationale for why their mother did something so destructive to their happiness.
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Gulu Lalvani (pictured in 1997), was the wealthy, British, Pakistani businessman Diana briefly dated in the last year of her life. He said that the Princess was pleased about the interview
But she argues she never really regretted doing the interview, although she was never aware of the dishonesty in Bashir’s approach.
Gulu Lalvani, the wealthy, British, Pakistani businessman Diana briefly dated in the last year of her life, told Tina Brown that the Princess said in July 1997 she was pleased about the interview.
He said she didn’t have a bad word to say about Martin Bashir and realised it served her purpose.
It allowed 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.
Despite Diana’s pragmatic reasons for doing the interview, her sons seem to have been unable to forgive the BBC for its behaviour over the Bashir saga.
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