Why we’re still talking about an old interview with Princess Diana

Twenty-five years ago, Princess Diana made waves in a revealing interview with BBC reporter Martin Bashir in which she noted that ‘there were three of us’ in her marriage to Charles, Prince of Wales. The remarkable sit-down then caused a shock wave in the royal family.

This interview is again in focus as the BBC announced this week that it will be investigating the circumstances of the organization and the role, if any, of the network in a possible breach of journalistic ethics.

William, Duke of Cambridge, who is notoriously media shy about his late mother, said on Thursday that he was “tentatively welcoming” the BBC investigation, adding in a statement: “The independent investigation is a step in the right direction. ”

Diana, who died in a car accident in Paris in 1997, was spectacularly frank in the chat of “Panorama”, now the world’s oldest current affairs show.

But an ITV documentary that aired earlier this month featured a graphic designer who said he prepared forged documents that would make it look like someone was paying for the Princess’s surveillance, which was separated from Prince Charles at the time.

Earl Spencer, Diana’s brother, said Bashir showed him these forged documents, prompting him to introduce the reporter to the princess. Spencer wants an apology, according to ITV.

But 25 years is a long time, and many fans of shows like Netflix’s current hit “The Crown” may not be familiar with what made this interview a landmark. This happened before the Internet, at a time when newspapers, TV news, and informal books had much more influence than today. And Princess Diana was perhaps the most famous woman on the planet, while still part of the privacy-obsessed royal family.

Here are seven reasons why Princess Di’s interview with Bashir – who hasn’t spoken to anyone lately as he recovers from COVID-19 – rocked Buckingham Palace and shocked the world.

She got real about Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles

Diana told Bashir that she was aware that her husband renewed his relationship with longtime sweetheart Parker-Bowles in 1986, but “was not in a position to do anything about it.” She said it was “quite devastating” to be married to a man in love with someone else.

Charles had previously admitted the case in a 1994 television documentary after an embarrassing recording of a conversation with his lover was released early the previous year. Camilla, who had divorced Andrew Parker-Bowles about eight months before Diana’s interview, married the prince in a civil ceremony in 2005, long after the princess died in 1997. But to hear about it so frankly , directly from the princess, was surprising.

“There were three of us in this marriage,” Diana told Bashir, “so it was a bit crowded.”

She confirmed a suspected case

“Yeah, I loved him. Yes, I was in love with him, ”Diana told Bashir when he asked if she cheated on Charles with James Hewitt, who had been a member of the Royal Family’s cavalry and had been drafted to give riding lessons. to the princess. The two have been involved for years, going their separate ways in 1991. But the princess was very disappointed when Hewitt participated in Anna Pasternak’s revealing book, “Princess in Love,” which came out in October 1994.

“He was a great friend of mine at a very difficult time, again difficult, and he was always there to support me. And I was absolutely devastated when this book came out, because I trusted it and because, again, I was worried about the reaction on my kids, ”Diana said.

“And, yeah, there was factual evidence in the book, but a lot of it was from another world, didn’t match what happened. … there was a lot of fantasy in this book, and it was very distressing to me that a friend of mine, whom I trusted, was making money. It really bothered me.

She said Charles was jealous of his fame

“The pressure on both of us as a couple with the media was phenomenal and misunderstood by a lot of people,” she said. In particular, the media and fan attention towards her was problematic as it aroused “a lot of jealousy” on Charles’ part.

Diana spoke of her six week tour of Australia and New Zealand with Charles, where “all you could hear was, oh she’s on the other side” – meaning Charles was easier to access, but not who they wanted near.

“Now if you are a man, like my husband a proud man, you mind if you hear it every day for four weeks. And you feel depressed, instead of feeling happy and sharing it, ”she said.

This preference made Diana uncomfortable, she said, because she “wanted to share.”

She admitted to telling friends to talk to Andrew Morton

“Diana: Her True Story” – published by biographer Morton in May 1992 – was one of the things that made Queen Elizabeth II’s “annus horribilus” or “horrible year” of 92. In the interview with Bashir, Diana admitted that she gave her close friends permission to speak to the writer.

“I was at the end of my rope. I was desperate, ”she explained. “I think I was so sick of being seen as someone who was a locker, because I’m a very strong person and I know it causes complications in the system that I live in.

The book revealed “what had been hidden – or rather what we thought had been hidden” – in broad daylight, Diana said, leaving the royal family “in shock, horrified and very disappointed”.

After Diana’s death, when he published an updated edition of the book titled “Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words”, Morton revealed the existence of hours of recorded conversations with the Princess, which disproved her insistence to Bashir in 1995 that she had never met the biographer.

She discussed bulimia and self-harm

“I had bulimia for several years. And it’s like a secret disease, ”Diana told Bashir. “You are doing this to yourself because your self-esteem is at its lowest and you don’t think you are worthy or valuable. You fill your stomach four or five times a day – some do more – and it makes you feel comfortable.

“It’s like having a pair of arms around you, but it’s temporarily, temporary,” she continued. “Then you’re disgusted with the bloating in your stomach, and then you bring it up. And it’s a repeating pattern that is very destructive to yourself.

Diana’s bulimia, which is extensively dramatized in season 4 of “The Crown,” was not the extent of her self-destructive ways when she was with Prince Charles. She also admitted that she had ‘hurt [her] arm and [her] legs ”, a reference to his numerous suicide attempts.

“When no one is listening to you, or you feel like no one is listening to you, all kinds of things start to happen,” she says. “For example, you have so much pain inside that you try to hurt yourself on the outside because you want help, but it’s the wrong help you are asking for.”

Separately, Diana revealed that she struggled with postpartum depression after William was born. “It gave everyone [in the royal family] a wonderful new label – Diana is unstable and Diana is mentally unbalanced. And unfortunately, it seems to have gotten stuck.

She revealed her hopes for sons William and Harry

What Diana wanted for her boys was to step away from the traditionally buttoned-up approach to the feelings of the royal family.

“I want them to understand people’s emotions, their insecurities, their distress, their hopes and their dreams,” said the princess. By that time, she had already taken them to “homeless projects” and to visit people living with AIDS, which was still a death sentence at the time.

“I’ve taken the kids to all kinds of areas where I’m not sure anyone this age has ever been with this family,” she says. “And they have knowledge – they may never use it, but the seed is there, and I hope it grows because knowledge is power.”

She spoke without loop with her royal comrades

Just sitting down for the interview without Royal Communications or the Royal Family giving their approval was a no-no. Diana and Bashir conducted the interview in secret at Kensington Palace following an introduction by her brother, Earl Spencer.

William, who was 13 when the interview aired, was particularly upset not to find out until after the play was recorded.

“William was absolutely pissed off,” Diana’s close friend Simone Simmons told Vanity Fair earlier this month. “Of course it was in all the papers and William told me he was teased at school because of it. He felt really bad for his mother because of what she had been through, but he was furious with her. People at school called him all kinds of names.

“The following weekend they got into a fight at Kensington Palace. William was furious and Diana was distraught. I was there the day she spoke to him and Diana was in terrible shape.