Prince William carries ‘wound that will not heal’…
Prince William has endured the personal agony of understanding how deeply his mom was betrayed — and now he’s decided to discover the reality.
“I’ve been discreet because I’ve gone as far as I was advised to go,” Andy Webb, creator of “Dianarama,” told Fox News Digital. “I describe William as having a wound that will not heal. It’s been made clear to me that he needs to know what happened. I think the impact on William must have been absolutely traumatic. He’s decided that the time has come. He needs to know. He really wants to know what went down 30 years ago.”
In November 1995, Princess Diana secretly gave an explosive interview to journalist Martin Bashir for the BBC investigative program “Panorama.” The then-34-year-old, who was already separated from her husband, Prince Charles, detailed how her marriage had failed because the future king, then 47, was still in love with his mistress, Camilla Parker Bowles.
Diana’s many revelations, including her battle with bulimia and how she intentionally harm herself in a determined bid for help, shocked hundreds of thousands. The princess never realized she had been manipulated into talking out — a choice her family members consider led to her death.
Webb, an investigative journalist, has spent 20 years uncovering what he described as the community’s cover-up. It was later revealed that Bashir used false paperwork and other dishonest ways to persuade Diana to agree to the interview.
Prince William has pushed to stop the BBC investigative program “Panorama” interview with his mom, Princess Diana, from being shown again. REUTERS
Speaking to Diana’s brother Earl Charles Spencer — himself deceived by Bashir’s ways — Webb revealed that the journalist had offered cast bank statements, claimed William’s watch was a listening gadget, alleged palace employees had been monitoring Diana, and even recommended Charles needed her killed to marry the boys’ nanny and take her kids away.
Bashir even produced a cast doc that recommended the nanny, Tiggy Legge-Bourke, had undergone an abortion paid for by Charles.
In November 1995, Princess Diana secretly gave an explosive interview, detailing how her marriage had failed because of Charles’s affair. Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images
Prince William At Guards Polo Club with Princess Diana. Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images
Fox News Digital reached out to Bashir for remark about Webb’s e book. The 62-year-old, who resigned from the BBC in 2021 citing health causes, said he deeply regretted falsifying the bank statements, calling it a “stupid thing to do.” He added that he felt it had “no bearing whatsoever on Princess Diana’s personal choice to take part in the interview.”
Webb said the results of Bashir’s deceit had been catastrophic. Consumed by isolation and distrust, Diana started purging her interior circle, letting go of trusted aides — including her longtime chauffeur — after Bashir reportedly satisfied her that even he was an informant.
“Diana had been schooled to believe that the people around her, the people closest to her, couldn’t be trusted, that they were actually taking very large sums of money, £40,000 in one case, to spy on Diana,” Webb explained.
“She could no longer trust these people. All the people whom she’d relied upon in her life up to that point, she got rid of. So, 18 months later, there is a different set of people. It turns out they were not the people you want to have in charge of your security.”
“The most heartbreaking thing is the very strong suggestion that if executives at the time had briefed Princess Diana on the fraudulent activity — the forgeries and lies she had been told — her life could have gone in a different direction,” Webb famous.
The fallout from the interview was swift and devastating. Queen Elizabeth II instructed Charles and Diana to proceed with a formal divorce. In its wake, Diana was stripped of many royal privileges and grew distrustful of those closest to her, including her personal secretary, Patrick Jephson. Just two years later, tragedy struck when the princess was killed in a Paris car crash while being relentlessly pursued by paparazzi.
“They said Diana was paranoid,” said Webb. “And I always suppose to myself, ‘That’s actually unkind,’ because you might have to keep in mind, this was the BBC telling her that they had firm info and paperwork proving people had been out to get her. That’s what Diana was performing on.
Two years later, the princess was killed in a Paris car crash while being relentlessly pursued by paparazzi. AFP via Getty Images
“At that point in her life, she knew her phone had been tapped, private calls had been recorded and even broadcast publicly. It was very embarrassing for her. She also worried whether a former friend she’d had a relationship with, who died in a motorbike accident, might have been targeted. She asked herself, ‘Is that a coincidence?’”
“That was the material Martin Bashir knew he was working with — that Diana was already deeply suspicious of being under surveillance,” Webb said. “He knew she was concerned about the death of this particular man. Then he came along with his documents, and he was very convincing.”
The interview and its aftermath stay a sorrow that has weighed on William for many years.
“I think it’s hard for William to realize that things might have been different,” said Webb. “If only Diana had been told what really happened — what Martin Bashir had done. It’s difficult to live with that knowledge.”
In 2020, The Sunday Times revealed new evidence exhibiting that Bashir used deceitful ways to attain Diana through her brother. It prompted the BBC to launch an unbiased inquiry led by senior decide Lord Dyson.
Bashir’s ways concerned cast bank statements, claiming William’s watch was a listening gadget and alleging palace employees had been monitoring Diana, heightening Diana’s fears. AP
The 2021 report concluded that Bashir breached BBC guidelines by fabricating pretend bank statements and exhibiting them to the earl to gain access to the princess. Believing there have been forces within the palace that needed to silence her, Diana agreed to inform her facet of the story — unaware Bashir was exploiting her fears.
The report also criticized the BBC for overlaying up what it knew about Bashir’s actions, noting that the company’s inside probe fell short of its common requirements of integrity and transparency.
“The interview was a major contribution to making my parents’ relationship worse and has since hurt countless others,” William said in a assertion. “It brings indescribable sadness to know that the BBC’s failures contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia and isolation that I remember from those final years with her.”
William was 13 when his mom spoke out, while his brother Harry was 11. WireImage
William’s youthful brother, Prince Harry, said in his own assertion that the issue was greater than just the BBC — and that “the ripple effect of a culture of exploitation and unethical practices ultimately took her life.”
“To those who have taken some form of accountability, thank you for owning it. That is the first step toward justice and truth,” he wrote. “Yet what deeply concerns me is that practices like these — and even worse — are still widespread today.”
William was 13 when his mom spoke out. Harry was 11.
“What teenager wants to watch TV and see his mother there being asked questions about, ‘Did you have sex with this boyfriend?’” said Webb.
“In the interview, Diana is encouraged to effectively trash William’s father when she’s asked, ‘Do you think he should be king?’ And she says, ‘No, I don’t think he’s got it in him.’ So William, at the age of 13, is sitting there watching this. What do his school friends think the next morning? You don’t have to be a prince to be horribly embarrassed by that.”
BBC Chairman Richard Sharp said the company accepted the investigation’s findings, including that “there were unacceptable failures.” The broadcaster also wrote to the royal household to apologize.
“William does not want this interview to be shown again,” said Webb. “He calls it illegitimate. What’s particularly sad is that, yes, some parts were valuable — but in reality, Diana gave that interview in a state of terror and fear.”
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