Prince William Is Glad The BBC Is Investigating The Situation Surrounding His Mom’s 1995 “Panorama” Interview

As we all know by now, the Royal Family’s usual response to a messy situation they’ve been either dragged into or generally associated with is a polite hand wave and the heavy implication that there will be no comment on the matter. Sometimes it requires a statement, like when they really want to be removed from the narrative, or the odd time you’ll get some random sources spilling the beans on their behalf. Currently, the Royal Family has found itself drama-adjacent after the BBC decided to open an investigation into the late Princess Diana’s infamous 1995 television interview with Martin Bashir for Panorama. Prince William has decided to say something about that investigation, and he’s very much in support of it.

Diana did the interview before she got divorced from Prince Charles (it was at the point where their marriage was pretty much dunzo). And you’ll probably know it from her now-infamous quote about there being “three of us” in their marriage (the third being Duchess Camilla). Or the quote that has served conspiracy theorists for 23 years, when she said that she believed the Royal Family considered her to be a “threat.” Essentially, she spilled a lot in that 55-minute interview.

Now that season 4 of #TheCrown is on Netflix we can’t forget who Princess Diana was, a queen of people’s heart ❤️ pic.twitter.com/ZLlIhvoBcz

— duda (@dudinhamfs) November 16, 2020

The fact that Diana, a public person who was actually pretty private, really didn’t hold back had a lot of wondering how Martin Bashir landed such a huge interview in the first place. People magazine points out that back in 1996, there was talk that Martin Bashir and his team faked a bunch of bank statements that they gave to Diana’s brother Charles Spencer, which were allegedly used to convince Charles that people close to Diana were selling secrets about her. Charles allegedly took that info to Diana, and then it was decided she’d tell her story herself. An internal investigation happened in 1996, and it was determined that the faked documents had “no bearing” on whether they influenced Diana’s decision to be interviewed.

More than two decades later, and it looks like those fake bank statements are a whole lot more relevant than previously determined. The BBC has announced they’ve hired an independent third party to lead another investigation into Martin Bashir’s maybe-shady tactics. Charles Spencer gave the following statement to People last week, and it’s very clear he’s on Team Something Shady Went Down.

“[The BBC] have yet to apologize for what truly matters here: the incredibly serious falsification of bank statements suggesting that Diana’s closest confidants were spying on her for her enemies. This was what led me to talk to Diana about such things. This in turn led to the meeting where I introduced Diana to Bashir, on 19 September 1995. This then led to the interview. The BBC have so far refused to acknowledge the above. They claim Diana wasn’t misled. They have ignored my inquiry as to whether the apology over their false bank statements extends to the ones that actually persuaded Diana to meet Bashir.”

Prince William had less to say, but it’s pretty clear he is with his uncle and thinks those faked bank statements aren’t innocent.

“The independent investigation is a step in the right direction. It should help establish the truth behind the actions that led to the Panorama interview and subsequent decisions taken by those in the BBC at the time.”

People reached out to Prince Harry for comment, but he didn’t have anything to say. Clearly, Harry was close with his mom and has mentioned that he really struggled after her death. So it’s not a stretch to assume he’s very supportive of this investigation to see if Martin Bashir did his mom dirty. People probably just weren’t able to get a comment from him, because they led with, “Harry, we were talking to William and…“, to which Harry responded by hanging up the phone. You can’t lead with a mention of one of the many who shall not be named.

Pic: Wenn.com