Princess Diana’s brother attacks BBC over notorious 1995 interview

In an unprecedented attack on the BBC, the late Princess Diana’s brother has accused the state broadcaster of duping his sister into an interview a quarter of a century ago.

According to the Daily Mail (November 02), Charles Spencer (better known as Earl Spencer) claims “sheer dishonesty” was used by the BBC journalist, Martin Bashir, to secure the interview with Princess Diana on November 20, 1995.

The BBC Panorama interview was a seminal event in the life of the modern British royal family as it was watched by nearly 23 million viewers.

In the interview, Diana – who died in a car crash in Paris in August 1997 – explained in detail her unhappy marriage to Prince Charles, who is next in line to the British throne.

She infamously said “there were three of us in this marriage”, a thinly-veiled reference to Prince Charles’ affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles.

Grave accusation

At the heart of Earl Spencer’s accusation – set out in a letter to the BBC director-general Tim Davie - is that Bashir had used faked bank statements to entice or even coerce the late Princess Diana into taking part in the interview.

The faked bank statements purported to show that two senior courtiers were being paid by the British Security Service (MI5) to collect intelligence on the late Princess Diana.

Earl Spencer wrote in the letter that “if it were not for me seeing these statements, I would not have introduced [Martin] Bashir to my sister [Princess Diana]”.

“In turn, he [Martin Bashir] would have remained just one of the thousands of journalists hoping that he/she had a tiny chance of getting her to speak to them, with no realistic prospect of doing so”, Earl Spencer added.

Furthermore, Earl Spencer accused Bashir of “yellow journalism” and complained the BBC had not accepted the “full gravity of this situation”.

BBC on the defensive 

According to the Sunday Times (November 01), the director-general of the BBC has written to Earl Spencer to apologize for the use of the fake Bank statements.

But crucially – according to the Sunday Times – Tim Davie has declined to open an investigation into the matter.

Indeed, the BBC continues to insist that a “note” from the late Princess proves she had not even seen the fake bank statements, and therefore – according to the BBC – the underhand methods employed by Bashir had not influenced her to participate in the interview.

“They [the fake bank statements] had played no part in her decision to take part in the interview”, the BBC says resolutely. 

The BBC also contends that the man at the heart of the scandal, the BBC News religion editor, Martin Bashir, is too ill with Covid-19 to be interviewed about the matter.

"Unfortunately, we are hampered at the moment by the simple fact that we are unable to discuss any of this with Martin Bashir, as he is seriously unwell. When he is well, we will of course hold an investigation into these new issues", the BBC conveniently said in a statement.

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