The Duke of Cambridge has blamed failures over the BBC’s 1995 interview with his mother Diana for worsening the relationship between his parents and adding to her paranoia.
After an inquiry found the BBC fell below its standards, Prince William said he was “most saddened” his mother never learned she had been deceived.
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Prince William said his mother was failed “not just by a rogue reporter” but also by bosses at the BBC.
Prince Harry also criticised the BBC.
In his separate statement, the Duke of Sussex said that the “ripple effect of a culture of exploitation and unethical practices” ultimately took his mother’s life.
He added he had deep concerns that practices like these “are still widespread today”, adding that it’s” bigger than one outlet, one network or one publication”.
The BBC has written to apologise to Princes William and Harry, as well as the Prince of Wales and Diana’s brother Earl Spencer.
The independent inquiry – by retired judge Lord Dyson – found that interviewer Martin Bashir acted in a “deceitful” way and faked documents to obtain the interview.
The BBC’s own internal probe in 1996 into initial complaints about what happened was “woefully ineffective”, it added.
Prince William said the interview was a “major contribution to making my parents’ relationship worse, adding it has “since hurt countless others”.
“But what saddens me most, is that if the BBC had properly investigated the complaints and concerns first raised in 1995, my mother would have known that she had been deceived,” he said.
“She was failed not just by a rogue reporter, but by leaders at the BBC who looked the other way rather than asking the tough questions.”
The duke said that, in his view, the deceitful way the interview was obtained “substantially influenced what my mother said” in response to Bashir.
He said the Panorama programme had “no legitimacy” and should never be aired again.
“It effectively established a false narrative which, for over a quarter of a century, has been commercialised by the BBC and others,” he said.
Bashir said mocking up the documents “was a stupid thing to do” and he regretted it, but said they had had no bearing on Diana’s decision to be interviewed.
The independent inquiry was commissioned by the BBC last year, after Earl Spencer, who introduced Bashir to his sister, went public with the allegations.
Its findings were published on Thursday.
The earl told BBC Panorama: “Well, the irony is that I met Martin Bashir on the 31st of August 1995 – because exactly two years later she died, and I do draw a line between the two events.”
He said it was “quite clear” from when he introduced Bashir to Diana in September 1995 that “everyone was going to be made untrustworthy, and I think that Diana did lose trust in really key people”.
Bashir’s interview with Princess Diana for a special edition of Panorama was a huge scoop for the BBC. In it, the princess famously said: “There were three of us in this marriage,” – referring to her husband’s affair with Camilla Parker Bowles.
It was the first time a serving royal had spoken so openly about life in the Royal Family – viewers saw her speak about her unhappy marriage to Prince Charles, their affairs, and her bulimia. (BBC)
