A WEB OF DISGRACEFUL LIES
Martin Bashir has got an awful lot to answer for. The lies he told Princess Diana in order to gain her confidence – and isolate her further – were callous, cruel and calculated. She went to her grave not knowing that her private secretary Patrick Jephson was not pocketing huge amounts of cash for selling her out or having her watched.
She also had no idea that Tiggy Leggebourke, her estranged husband’s assistant who was entrusted with looking after her sons, never had an affair with Prince Charles, much less became pregnant and had an abortion.
It was all totally fabricated and peddled by Panorama reporter Bashir, to persuade her that everyone around her was behaving terribly and that she should put across her side of the story.
These despicable lies have impacted people’s lives and careers since 1995.
In court, Tiggy’s lawyer revealed that she was so keen to disprove the rumours, she revealed private medical details providing ‘incontrovertible evidence’ that the pregnancy and termination didn’t take place. She had no idea at the time who the source was. Diana, who’d been shown a ‘hospital letter’ appearing to confirm the procedure, didn’t believe her.
Many years later, the BBC has apologised in the most grovelling terms for the way in which Bashir was able to conduct himself and for the utter whitewash of an investigation afterwards, which failed in every way to get to the truth. Bashir was actually re-hired by the BBC in 2016 and only quit last year citing ill health – ahead of
Diana’s trust in Bashir was totally unfounded
Lord Dyson’s damning independent report. The BBC has so far paid out around £2.65 million in damages to those affected by the scandal, including a £1.5 million charity donation to try and win back favour with the royals. That is 16,666 licence fee payments, in case you were wondering.
Has Bashir apologised for the lives he ruined? Has he heck! The only thing he’s said he ‘deeply regrets’ is faking the offshore bank statements purporting to show how Diana’s trusted staff were betraying her (although he still insists they had ‘no bearing whatsoever’ on her decision to talk to him). Yeah, right.