Diana interview: Ex-BBC head quits

London, May 22: Tony Hall, who was director of BBC news and current affairs at the time of the public broadcaster’s explosive 1995 interview with Princess Diana, resigned Saturday as board chairman of Britain’s National Gallery. Hall, who subsequently rose to the top job at the BBC, was heavily criticised in a report this week for a botched inquiry into how journalist Martin Bashir obtained the blockbuster interview.

In a statement, the 70year-old said his continued presence at the gallery would be a “distraction to an institution I care deeply about”. “As I said two days ago, I am very sorry for the events of 25 years ago and I believe leadership means taking responsibility,” said Hall, who served as the BBC’s directorgeneral from 2013 until

2020. John Kingman, the deputy chair of the National Gallery’s board of trustees, will assume Hall’s role for the time being.

He said the gallery “extremely sorry” to lose Hall but that “we entirely understand and respect his decision”.

The 126-page report by retired Judge John Dyson, published Thursday, found the internal BBC investigation had covered up “deceitful behaviour” by Bashir, who was little-known as a journalist when he interviewed Diana. The BBC also has faced questions about why Bashir was rehired in 2016 as the broadcaster’s religious affairs correspondent.

Diana’s sons, Princes William and Harry, have excoriated the BBC since the report’s publication, saying there was a direct link between the 1995 interview and their mother’s death in a traffic accident two years late. In the interview, Diana said her marriage to Prince Charles had failed because he was still in love with former lover Camilla Parker Bowles, whom Charles would go on to marry a decade later.