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LONDON – The extraordinarily candid interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1995 – in which she spoke of her ‘crowded’ marriage to Prince Charles, admitted to an affair, and told how, in her despair, she suffered from ‘endemic bulimia’ – shook England.
Hailed by British journalists at the time as ‘the scoop of the century’, he was seen by around 23 million people and catapulted his BBC interviewer, Martin Bashir, to an international profile.
But this week old questions about how Mr Bashir got the interview resurfaced in a two-part documentary aired on UK network ITV on Monday and Tuesday, including allegations that Mr Bashir used dishonest tactics to gain Diana’s trust and persuade her. in the interview.
The British Broadcasting Corporation, which aired the interview on its “Panorama” show and sold the international rights for $ 1.6 million, said it would open an independent investigation into the allegations.
“The BBC takes this very seriously and we want to find out the truth,” Tim Davie, chief executive of the company, said on Monday. “We are in the process of commissioning a solid and independent investigation.”
Mr Bashir, now BBC News religion editor, has in the past been faced with questions about the tactics he used to get the interview to be exonerated in an earlier internal BBC investigation, and has not been able to respond to the latest allegations because he is ill.
The BBC reported that he was recovering from quadruple heart bypass surgery and complications from Covid-19, which he contracted earlier in the year. Neither the BBC nor Mr Bashir immediately commented further.
Diana, who was legally separated from Prince Charles at the time of the interview but not yet divorced, died in a 1997 car crash in Paris at the age of 36.
Michael Grade, a former BBC chairman, called the allegations “very, very serious” in a radio interview with the company, adding that it left “a dark cloud over BBC journalism”.
Before the interview even aired in 1995, it was the subject of widespread scrutiny and speculation. Aware of his sensitivity, the BBC conducted the interview in such secrecy that its then chairman, Marmaduke Hussey, was not made aware of it, apparently for fear that he would tell his wife, a lady of the honor of the queen. .
On the weekend it was broadcast, Mr. Bashir went into hiding to avoid media crush. The interview was conducted without Queen Elizabeth II’s blessing and angered Buckingham Palace, leading the royal family to reconsider their relationship with the country’s public broadcaster.
It wasn’t long before claims emerged that forged bank statements – allegedly proving royal employees close to the princess were being paid for spying on her – were used to gain Diana’s trust.
The BBC ordered an investigation and in 1996 Mr Bashir was exonerated by then-company news chief Tony Hall. Mr Hall himself then headed the BBC, retiring as managing director in August this year.
Internal documents obtained in a Freedom of Information request by journalist Andy Webb, who made a documentary about the interview for another UK channel, Channel 4, show Mr Hall cleared Mr Bashir by punishing a graphic designer, Matthias Wiessler, who produced the amended bank statements.
According to the documents, reported in the ITV documentary, Mr Hall said that if Mr Bashir was “an honest man” who had “deep remorse” Mr Wiessler would never work at the BBC again because he had spoken to the media. on events.
Speaking publicly for the first time, Mr Wiessler said in an interview for the ITV documentary that internal documents made it clear that he had been used as a scapegoat. He went on to say that Mr. Bashir asked him to fake bank statements to be used as props for “filming purposes”.
He said he didn’t know what they were for until the interview aired. When he approached BBC officials about his concerns, he said, he was warned not to speak to the media. But after an unsatisfactory confrontation with Mr Bashir, he eventually spoke to a reporter, which helped spark the first investigation.
“I clearly felt that I was the one who was going to be the fall guy in this story,” Mr. Wiessler said. His contract was not renewed and he eventually left the industry when the job dried up, he said.
In a statement, Mr Hall told BBC Radio the initial investigation focused on whether the Princess had been misled and the company’s new investigation would no doubt examine this along with any new issues raised. He did not immediately respond to new requests for comment.
The new revelations have reignited questions about the media’s relationship with the Princess and come after a sustained campaign by her brother, Earl Spencer, raising questions about how the interview was obtained.
“I knew Martin Bashir used fake bank statements and other dishonesty to trick my sister into doing the interview,” the count said on Twitter on Sunday, adding that he had only recently discovered that the BBC knew not only, but “had concealed it.”
Mr Wiessler told ITV he wanted an apology and that at the time the BBC’s management, producers and presenters “were protecting themselves at all costs”.
He told the BBC on Tuesday that Mr Bashir had to speak publicly.
“He’s the only one with the answers,” he says.
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