A new £1.7m home, a £66,000 Mercedes – but the shadow of Panorama is still hanging over Bashir
HE HAS a new £1.7 million six-bedroom home and a £66,000 Mercedes-Benz, but Martin Bashir looks decidedly glum.
Perhaps the imminent broadcast of a Panorama investigation examining the tactics used by the BBC journalist to obtain his bombshell interview with Princess Diana in 1995 is getting him down.
Or maybe it is the inquiry into the scandalous affair by Lord Dyson, whose report is also expected soon.
Whatever the reason, the 58-year-old appears downcast in these exclusive photographs – the first of the controversial reporter at his new home, bought just days before the BBC announced that Lord Dyson would examine allegations that Mr Bashir forged bank documents and spun a web of deceit to land his career-defining scoop.
He was seen leaving the Edwardian house in Winchester on Friday before driving off in a dark grey electric Mercedes EQC 400 parked nearby.
According to estate agent details, the property, bought on November 13 without
‘He seems to be keeping a very low profile’
a mortgage, Land Registry documents show, boasts a large landscaped garden, is ‘beautifully refurbished throughout’ and has ‘elegant reception rooms’ arranged over three floors.
‘ He seems to be keeping a very low profile,’ said one onlooker. ‘His car is very flashy, so maybe that’s why he hasn’t got it parked on his drive. I don’t think he wants to be recognised.’
The father-of-three moved to the historic Hampshire city after selling his large North London townhouse to Lucy Litwack, owner of the Coco de Mer lingerie firm, for £1.8 million in November. The sale came days after Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, went public with allegations that the journalist told an extraordinary series of lies to win her trust and get her to agree to take part in the programme.
Citing notes taken at meetings where Mr Bashir sought to persuade Diana to give an interview, Earl Spencer alleged that he told 32 lies, including that his sister’s phone was being tapped, that Prince Charles was in love with her sons’ nanny, Tiggy Legge-Bourke, and that Prince Edward was receiving treatment for AIDS.
Diana agreed to the interview, which was watched by almost 23 million on November 20, 1995. In it, she famously said ‘There were three of us in this marriage’, referring to Charles’s relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, and admitted her affair with James Hewitt.
In his evidence to Lord Dyson, Mr Bashir, who is now the BBC’s Religion Editor but has been signed off sick since last year after getting Covid-19 and having heart surgery, reportedly denied lying to Diana and pointed to a letter she sent after the interview in which she denied he put her under pressure.
The BBC announced shortly after Earl Spencer made his claims that it had found the note. Lord Dyson is also examining the conduct of BBC executives at the time of the Panorama programme, including former director-general Lord Hall, to establish if they covered up for Bashir.
Current director- general Tim Davie apologised to Earl Spencer in November for the use of fake bank statements. Lord Hall has instructed lawyers to help protect his reputation ahead of the Panorama programme, The Times has reported.
After joining the BBC in 1986, Mr Bashir moved to Panorama in 1992. The Diana interview, which won a Bafta for Best Talk Show, made him the toast of the TV world. He then went to ITV and worked on Tonight With Trevor McDonald, including a fly-on-the-wall documentary on Michael Jackson.
He moved to America to work for ABC and MSNBC, leaving the latter after calling former vicepresidential candidate Sarah Palin a ‘world-class idiot’.
The BBC did not respond to a request for comment last night.