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The BBC will investigate allegations made by Princess Diana’s brother that he was shown “fake bank statements” to help encourage his sister to give an interview to the Panorama program.
The late Princess of Wales sent shockwaves to the British royal family when she was interviewed by reporter Martin Bashir in 1995.
She said in the documentary “Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” a reference to Camilla Parker Bowles, whom the Prince of Wales later married.
The circumstances under which Diana agreed to be interviewed by Bashir prompted a BBC investigation at the time and a recent Channel 4 documentary.
In the weeks leading up to the show, Bashir reached out to Charles Spencer and, in what is believed to be new details, now claims that he was shown “fake bank statements” relating to alleged payments made to two members of the royal household by the security services.
Allegations that other false financial documents related to a former employee of the earl were produced, were examined by the BBC investigation in the 1990s, while trying to determine whether or not the princess had been misled, with a key piece of evidence. , a note. , suggesting that he had not.
Bashir, now the BBC’s religion editor, is seriously ill with Covid-related complications and is in no condition to respond to the earl’s accusations, the BBC said.
It is understood that the earl and the BBC have been in a dialogue by correspondence, and the corporation’s CEO, Tim Davie, has apologized to the earl for the events of 25 years ago.
In light of his new claims, the princess’s brother has requested an apology from the BBC “addressed posthumously to Diana; to all who were so grossly lied to, including a global audience; and to me”, in part of the correspondence. published. in the Daily Mail.
A spokeswoman for the BBC said: “The BBC has apologized. We are happy to repeat that apology. And although this was a quarter of a century ago, we will absolutely, robustly and fairly, investigate new substantive information.”
“We have asked Earl Spencer to share more information with the BBC.
“Unfortunately, we are hampered at this time by the simple fact that we cannot discuss any of this with Martin Bashir, as he is seriously ill. When he is well, we will of course conduct an investigation into these new issues.”
The Earl claims in his letter that the earlier BBC investigation into whether Diana had been misled, by Tony Hall, then the BBC’s news and current affairs director and later CEO, was a “cover-up”.
He wrote: “I am now formally asking the BBC to open an investigation into this matter, and I hope it gets to the bottom of the key questions: why didn’t Tony Hall’s investigation seek the truth from me?
“Why did he go out of his way to whitewash Bashir? Who else knew the extent of his yellow journalism when he got what Hall calls ‘the interview of the decade … or the generation’?”
The BBC maintains that there is a written note from Diana, although it no longer has a copy, attesting that she had not seen the false bank statements of her brother’s then employee and that they did not influence her decision to grant the interview.
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