William, Harry slam BBC over Diana interview
LONDON: William and Harry have hit out at the BBC and journalist Martin Bashir over what they called “the deceitful way” in which he had obtained an explosive TV interview with Princess Diana, their late mother, back in 1995.
Their stinging criticism of the British TV channel came hours after an independent inquiry found that Bashir had used falsified documents to get his sitdown with Diana, and that the BBC’S leadership had failed to adequately probe how he had arranged it.
William said the “deceitful way” the interview was obtained had “substantially influenced” what his mother had said on the air during that interview.
William’s younger brother Harry said the inquiry report was “the first step towards justice and truth”.
Diana and Charles, the heir to the British throne, formally divorced in 1996. She died aged 36 in a car crash in Paris the following year.
Britain’s media minister Oliver Dowden said the government would consider whether further reform of governance at the BBC was needed after the broadcaster was pilloried by an inquiry into its controversial interview.
In an upcoming documentary series, meanwhile, Harry emphasised that the Buckingham family had turned a blind eye to the struggles of his wife Meghan Markle, saying that he will “never be bullied into silence”.