The BBC is to publish the findings of an internal investigation on Thursday into how the journalist Martin Bashir secured an explosive 1995 interview with Princess Diana.
Questions have long been asked about how journalist Martin Bashir persuaded Princess Diana to talk, with the princess’ own brother claiming he used faked documents and bank statements.
The interview, on the BBC’s flagship “Panorama” program in November 1995, was watched by a record 22.8 million people and lifted the lid on Diana’s troubled marriage to Prince Charles.
Read more: BBC announces probe into explosive 1995 Diana interview
She famously said “there were three people” in her marriage — her, Charles, and his long-time mistress and now wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles, and also admitted adultery.
Bashir, 58, was little-known at the time of the interview but went on to have a high-profile career on US television networks, interviewing big-name stars, including the singer Michael Jackson, before returning to work for the corporation as religion editor.
He stepped down last week, citing ill health, hours before the report was submitted to BBC director-general Tim Davie. A scheduled BBC program into the controversy was also delayed.
Princess Diana’s brother Earl Spencer has just shared this image of the two of them as children – ahead of the Inquiry later into the BBC’s 1995 Panorama interview with Diana. @cspencer1508 said: “Some bonds go back a very long way." pic.twitter.com/L0VvXhtpW6
— Chris Ship (@chrisshipitv) May 20, 2021
British media said Thursday the six-month probe by a retired senior judge had concluded Bashir used underhand methods to convince Princess Diana to talk, in breach of editorial guidelines.
The Daily Telegraph suggested the report’s findings could be comparable to phone-hacking revelations at the News of the World tabloid, which forced its closure.
A previous BBC inquiry had cleared Bashir of wrong-doing.
Read more: Jemima recalls ‘shy’ Diana as she watches ‘The Crown’ Season 4
Diana and Charles formally divorced in 1996. She died aged 36 in a high-speed car crash in Paris the following year. Prince Charles married Camilla in 2005.
AFP with additional input by GVS News Desk