The sparkling eyes highlighted by the eyeliner, the head slightly reclined, the soft voice. But the words are heavy as stones: “There were three of us in that wedding, so it was a bit crowded”. The final indictment of Princess Diana against her husband Charles (and the whole monarchy), squared in front of the subjects from the screens of the Bbcin what quickly became one of the most famous interviews of all time. But behind those 60 minutes with an open heart there were hidden unspeakable secrets, which come back to the surface after 25 years. Now on the eve of the publication of the investigation promoted a year ago by Bbc on the way in which that face to face was obtained, the interviewer, Martin Bashir, accused of having circled the princess with a web of lies to bring her in front of the cameras has decided to step down from the UK network for health reasons after being on sick leave for several months.
The investigation wanted by Prince William
The deputy news director Bbc, Jonathan Munro, told the editorial team that Bashir “made his decision known to us last month, just before being readmitted to the hospital for another heart operation. He has decided to focus on his health. ‘ The investigation was passed by the independent body in charge of carrying it out to the BBC, which is expected to publish it shortly. The doubts about the way in which the interview had been obtained had provoked the extraordinary intervention of Prince William last November in defense of the memory of his mother. The Duke of Cambridge had sided in favor of the investigation: “It is a step in the right direction – William said -. It should help establish the truth behind the actions that led to the interview. ” Sources close to the prince have let the English newspapers know that he considers the story as a personal matter, which touches the moral heritage of the mother, and that William had kept in close contact with the BBC, in order to put pressure on the British broadcaster to accept the investigation.
“A scary thing”
The interview in question is Diana’s disarming open-hearted confession granted in 1995 to Bashir for Bbc Panorama: it was then that the princess pointed the finger at Charles’s infidelity for his long relationship with Camilla Parker-Bowles, and he revealed all his unhappiness to the world, including depression, self-harm and bulimia. Consequently, Queen Elizabeth, who privately called the interview “a frightening thing”, ordered that Charles and Diana, who had already been separated for three years, immediately go to the divorce, which was formalized the following year. But what emerged then is that Bashir persuaded Diana to give the interview with a series of lies destined to fuel the princess’s paranoia: he told her that her staff spied on her in favor of the newspapers and the secret services, that there was a plot hatched by her bodyguards and that Carlo was having an affair with the court nanny Tiggy Legge -Bourke (according to the Daily Mail he would even show her a fake receipt of an alleged abortion). The reporter also falsified bank documents, with the help of BBC graphics, to induce Diana’s brother, Count Spencer, to intercede with his sister.
Never complain, never explain
The effect was shattering. Diana broke the unwritten code of the royal family (“Never complain, never explain”, never complain, never explain), decided to tell her side of the story and came to question whether her husband was fit to be king. And the shockwave of those words was only amplified by the princess’s tragic death in 1997. Now, 25 years later, the results of the investigation are awaited, but in the meantime, Bashir has stepped aside.
May 16, 2021 (change May 16, 2021 | 08:05)
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