The BBC has since issued an unconditional apology for the controversial interview, in which Princess Diana disclosed the details of her difficult marriage with her husband Prince Charles. When it first aired on television, the interview was said to have pushed the British monarchy into a once-in-a-generation crisis.
Diana was gullible; BBC got her at a very weak time of her life and took advantage. The interview that was aired on 20th November 1995 stunned viewers and the royal family, especially the statement by Diana that “there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a little crowded”, and though she knew she would lose her titles, she still longed to be Queen of people’s hearts. Diana also asserted that she wouldn’t go quietly, though she didn’t even need to say those words. Diana was the most famous woman in the world at the time. Diana also asserted Charles was not fit to be king.
The interview caused a stir, especially a comment about Prince Charles not being suited to be a king and Diana’s press secretary immediately resigned and then her private secretary also left Diana’s employ. No one had any real warning that Diana had gone rogue like this, but once she had the Palace felt disappointed and sadly resigned.
Three months later the announcement was made that Charles and Diana would divorce, which was perhaps the last thing Diana needed. Martin Bashir, the BBC journalist who tricked Princess Diana into giving an explosive interview, now apologised to Princes William and Harry but said claims linking his actions to her death were “unreasonable”.
Diana must have been taken in by Bashir’s stories since they fit so well with what the scared and paranoid young royal thought. Diana believed the royal family was out to get her, to silence her and maybe even end her life. So, yeah, it was under these premises that poor Princess Diana was completely duped. She had no one in the royal family in her corner. No one she could trust, most certainly.
A report by retired senior judge John Dyson published found that Bashir commissioned faked bank statements that falsely suggested some of Diana’s closest aides were being paid by the security services to keep tabs on her. It was controversial for a great many reasons. It was a spiteful attempt to fundamentally damage her then husband, to make accusations and give a totally one sided overview of a very complicated situation.
Her attack on Camilla was particularly ferocious. Charles and Camilla didn’t resume their physical relationship although they were always the closest of friends and Charles had loved her all of his life until long after Diana had found comfort in the arms of other men apart from James Hewitt all of them married men. The damage done to their children by that interview was profound, you can only imagine how it was for them facing their friends at school.
Diana was certainly not an evil person, she did far more good things than harm in her life and her death was tragic, but she was a seriously damaged young woman before joining that family, and marrying into that family made her worse. She hoped for a charming prince, and she got a rather bookish, remote man, unable and ill-equipped mentally and emotionally to deal with the problems that she had.
Instead of being able to calm down her hysterical outbursts, I believe he loved the mother of his children but was never in love with her. She was in love with the idea of him, but couldn’t stand the reality. Diana sadly never managed to hold onto her friends or her lovers, they all backed away in the end and that’s the tragedy, and it makes anyone feel so sad. Charles, on the other hand, is blissfully happy with Camilla. He adores his sons and his beautiful grandchildren. It seems so cruel that Charles survived the misery that was their marriage and thrived, while Diana died looking for her Prince Charming.
Diana died in a Paris car crash in 1997; aged 36.Bashir disputed the accusations, saying “I don’t feel I can be held responsible for many of the other things that were going on in her life, and the complex issues surrounding those decisions.”The suggestion I am singularly responsible I think is unreasonable and unfair,” he told the paper. He argued that the 1995 interview had been conducted on Diana’s terms, and that they remained firm friends after it aired to an audience of 22.8 million people. A former BBC chief who was criticised for his “woefully ineffective” probe into Martin Bashir’s deception in securing a bombshell interview with Princess Diana on Saturday resigned as chair of Britain’s National Gallery.
I have always had a strong sense of public service and it is clear my continuing in the role would be a distraction to an institution I care deeply about”. Retired senior judge John Dyson said Bashir commissioned faked bank statements that falsely suggested some of Diana’s closest aides were being paid by the security services to keep tabs on her.
Diana’s son Prince William said the interview had made “a major contribution” to the demise of his parents’ relationship, while the BBC’s “woeful incompetence” in uncovering the truth had “contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia and isolation” in her final years. Diana died in a high-speed car crash while being chased by paparazzi photographers in 1997.
