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In 1995, Princess Diana made broadcasting history and shaped the future of the Royal Family when she sat down with Martin Bashir for an episode of BBC’s Panorama. Three decades later, the interview continues to make headlines—not least because a new book, which will be released on November 25, brings to light yet more shocking revelations.
In Dianarama: The Betrayal of Princess Diana, author Andy Webb unpacks the Panorama interview, during which Diana famously said there were “three of us” in her marriage to the then-Prince Charles. That wasn’t the most scandalous thing to come out of it, however, as it was later revealed that Bashir duped the royal into giving the interview with faked bank statements that suggested those in her inner circle were being paid by MI5.
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Although the Metropolitan Police conducted an assessment into the Panorama interview and Bashir’s tactics to secure it, the force concluded there was not enough evidence to proceed with a criminal case. As such, no further action was taken and Bashir was not prosecuted.
Whether you’ve already got your copy of Dianarama or you’re looking for the TL;DR, here are 10 claims made in the book by author Andy Webb.
Martin Bashir made untrue claims about the royals.
In addition to showing Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, fake bank statements in a bid to convince him to get Diana on board for the interview, Webb says Bashir told Spencer a series of untrue claims about the Royal Family.
Webb reports that Bashir’s false claims included that Prince Edward had AIDs, and that Prince William and Prince Harry’s former nanny had been having an affair with Charles and had aborted his baby. The author adds that Diana believed the lies so much that she confronted Tiggy Legge-Bourke, the nanny, about the alleged affair during a Christmas lunch.
Another lie Diana was apparently told was that William had a special watch with a device to record their conversations. All of these allegations were noted down by Spencer during his initial meeting with Bashir, and are now included in Webb’s book. In response to the claims, Bashir told an inquiry that Spencer’s notes were false and could have been written later.
Martin Bashir was “charming” and “ruthless.”
Webb says that Bashir was “pathologically, compellingly charming” and “ruthless” in his deceitfulness.
Martin Bashir gave Earl Spencer a recording device.
After convincing Earl Spencer that Diana was being spied on, Webb claims Bashir gave him a device to record his own communications. “I’ve still got it,” Spencer tells Webb of the device. “It’s a little two-way earpiece that you can put in your ear for telephone conversations.”
“He was trying to make me paranoid,” Spencer goes on. “It was all sort of, ‘You’re in really dangerous waters here, and I’m your friend, Martin. I’m going to make it all OK. Here’s a gimmick that’ll help you’.”
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Martin Bashir was seeking a book deal.
Webb claims in Dianarama that Bashir’s ultimate goal was to secure a £1.5 million book deal. “Bashir’s focus, once he had won Diana’s trust, was at first not on an interview for Panorama at all, but on something entirely different,” he writes. “He imagined himself following the example of Andrew Morton by using the relationship with Diana to write a bestseller and earn a fortune, as Morton did.”
Webb credits this claim to Roland Philipps, a well-known figure in the book world who, at the time, was a publishing director of Hodder and Stoughton.
Martin Bashir bragged about his friendship with Princess Diana.
During his research for Dianarama, Webb got his hands on a set of heavily-redacted emails that were sent from Martin Bashir to Richard Burgess, a former news executive at the BBC.
“I may yet tell the story of my relationship to royalty and produce all of the documents that prove there was no deception,” Webb reports Bashir said in the emails. “Indeed, I was writing her speeches and cooking pasta in Kensington Palace for her long before she sat down to talk about the three people in her marriage. But that’s for another day.”
Princess Diana feared she would be in a staged car crash.
In his book, Webb recalls a meeting Diana had with her lawyer, Lord Mishcon, days before her Panorama interview. During the meeting, she asked him to record a memo, as cited by her private secretary, Patrick Jephson, who was present at the meeting and was interviewed for Dianarama.
In the memo, Diana claimed she had been told by “reliable sources” that Queen Elizabeth was going to abdicate within six months and that Charles planned to marry Legge-Bourke. The note also said that Diana believed she would be hurt, possibly in a staged car crash, and that “efforts would be made” to either get rid of her or injure her enough that she would be “declared” unbalanced. To that end, Diana thought that both she and Camilla Parker-Bowles were going to be “set aside” in favor of Legge-Bourke.
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Martin Bashir is blamed for Princess Diana’s death.
In Dianarama, Webb concludes that there’s a direct line between Bashir’s interview and Diana’s untimely death in 1997. “It seemed to me that because of what Martin Bashir had done in 1995, and more importantly because it had then been covered up, Diana’s life had been sent off on a terribly dangerous course, resulting in her death,” he writes.
Webb is not alone in thinking this way. After a formal inquiry into the case, Prince Harry memorably said, “Our mother lost her life because of this.”
And, in Dianarama, Webb quotes the then-Princess of Wales’ therapist as saying, “I hold Bashir fully responsible for Diana’s death. Not partly responsible. Fully responsible. If it wasn’t for him, she would still be alive.”
Prince William hasn’t got over the interview.
The impact of Diana’s Panorama interview is still felt by members of the Royal Family, particularly by her sons, Webb says. Sources who spoke to him claim that the interview is an “open wound which will not heal” for Prince William.
According to the author, William is “taking steps to discover” the truth about Bashir’s interview. What’s more, the future King allegedly criticizes BBC managers, saying they “looked the other way, rather than asking tough questions.”
Webb also claims that William believes the interview was a big contributing factor to the worsening of his parents’ relationship and significantly added to her fear and paranoia before she died.
Kensington Palace has not commented on the book’s claims about Prince William, but an insider not named in Dianarama says William is an “implacable antagonist” and “has people on the case.”
The man who faked the statements attended Diana’s funeral.
Per Webb, the freelance designer who was asked by Bashir to make the forged bank statements, joined mourners at Diana’s funeral over the guilt he felt.
“I was standing right by the gate at 4 a.m. because I felt very strongly that I did have a hand in it,” Matt Wiessler is reported as saying. Dianarama also reports that Wiessler has since been paid compensation by the BBC and received an apology after he was banned from working for the corporation in 1996.
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Earl Spencer stayed quiet over fears for Diana’s reputation.
Webb writes that Spencer did not criticize Bashir for more than two decades over fears it would paint his sister as a “fool.”
“To come out as a strong critic of Bashir would have been in effect to paint his sister as a gullible fool,” writes Webb. “Far better to say nothing than to open a family rift.”
Long after Diana’s tragic passing, however, Spencer finally went public with his concerns in 2020. At the time, Webb was making a Channel 4 documentary about the interview. In the making of his latest project, Webb revisited the past with Spencer, and a press release from the book’s publishers says it has been written with his “full support.”
Dianarama: The Betrayal of Princess Diana is available for pre-order now.
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