Princess Diana. Image Source: USA Today
The Royal family receives an apology.
According to reports, Tim Davie, BBC director general, has apologized to the royal family, including Prince Charles, Prince William, and Prince Harry, for the ‘Panorama’ interview of the late Princess Diana in 1995.
The BBC announced that Alexandra Pettifer, a.k.a. Tiggy Legge-Bourke, the former nanny of Prince William and Prince Harry, had won a defamation lawsuit in the London High Court on Thursday. She filed the action in response to the false claims made in the interview that she had an affair with Prince Charles and was pregnant with his child which she aborted later and also had received a "substantial" sum of money from the network.
In a statement, Tim Davie said that since the Dyson Report was released the previous year, they have been focusing on helping people who were harmed as a result of the BBC's dishonest methods used to secure their 1995 interview with the late Princess Diana, Princess of Wales, for the Panorama program. The BBC has agreed to pay Alexandra Pettifer significant damages and would like to use this opportunity to publicly apologize to her, the Prince of Wales (Charles), the Dukes of Cambridge (William), and Sussex (Harry), for Princess Diana's deception and the ensuing effects on all of their lives.
The BBC's director general went on to say that they deeply regret their errors in fact-checking and in following the program's immediate aftermath despite warning indicators that the information could have been obtained illegally. Tim Davie went on to remark that the BBC did not ask challenging questions. If they had done their job properly at the time, Princess Diana would have understood the truth throughout her life. He added that the channel disappointed her, The Royal Family, and the viewers and mentioned that now that they are aware of the abhorrent technique used to get the interview, the BBC will never again carry the program, and will not grant a license in whole or in part to any broadcasters.
According to the BBC's statement, the interview will continue to be regarded as a historical document. In the future, there might be circumstances in which it is appropriate for the BBC to use brief excerpts for reporting purposes. However, these instances will be uncommon, and they will need to be approved at the Executive Committee level and taken into account in light of everything we now know about how the interview was obtained, he added. He also advised others to exercise similar moderation.
It was said that William and Harry wanted to find the truth and required answers to their queries since they were on the same page regarding the inquiry. Harry was upset by the interview and its dubious nature, but William was determined to get to the bottom of it and discover the truth.
Prince William at the time said that in his opinion their mother's statements were significantly impacted by the dishonest means through which the interview was collected. The interview significantly harmed their parents' relationship and has since caused harm to numerous others. William added that knowing that the BBC's shortcomings largely contributed to her anxiety, paranoia, and loneliness during those final years with her conveys an unspeakable sense of regret. But the thing that makes him saddest is that their mother would have realized she had been duped if the BBC had properly looked into the objections and concerns made in 1995. She was let down not only by a dishonest reporter but also by BBC executives who chose to ignore the situation rather than confront it head-on.
Prince Harry responded to the findings in a statement at the time, saying thank you to the ones who have embraced some type of culpability, and added that this is where the quest for justice and the truth begins. Prince Harry added that what concerns him the most is that these types of behaviors and perhaps worse ones remain prevalent in modern society and mentioned that both then and now, it is bigger than a single source, network, or newspaper. Prince Harry said that their mother, Late Princess Diana sacrificed her life due to this, and nothing has changed and added that they safeguard everyone's safety and respect the dignity with which she lived by preserving her legacy. Let's not forget who she was and the principles she upheld.
Alexandra Pettifer released the following statement after she won the case as she said that she is saddened that legal action was necessary for the BBC to acknowledge the substantial injury that she has experienced. She added that unfortunately, she is one of many people whose lives have been negatively impacted by the dishonest manner in which the BBC Panorama was produced and the corporation's subsequent inability to conduct a thorough investigation into the production.
The rest of her statement stated that she was very upset about the harm done to the royal family and that she was personally aware of both the severity of the effects at the time and the way that the program and the false narrative it gave rise to have plagued the family ever since. Particularly because there is still a lot of components of the program's development that require suitable justification.
Screenshot of the Panorama interview from 1995. Image Source: People
Princess Diana was enthusiastic about the prospect of speaking with the BBC, but it was made apparent that the interview preparation process had been improper and that the BBC was deeply sorry. Tim said in his statement that Lord Dyson has pointed out a glaring flaw. The phony documents, for which Martin Bashir has expressed regret and added that BBC had no influence whatsoever on the personal choice of Princess Diana to take part in the interview.
When Princess Diana spoke out to journalist Martin Bashir about her struggle with food (bulimia) and her troubled marriage to Prince Charles in 1995, it made headlines. One year before Diana died in a vehicle accident in Paris, the former couple divorced in 1996 after divorcing in 1992.
