Martin Bashir has said he ‘never wanted to harm’ Princess Diana with his bombshell Panorama interview, adding: ‘I don’t believe we did.’.
The journalist’s reputation is in tatters following Lord Dyson’s report that he used ‘deceitful behaviour’ to land his world exclusive 1995 sit-down chat with the Princess of Wales.
Bashir has maintained Diana was never unhappy about the content of the interview and said they continued to be friends after the broadcast, with the princess even visiting his wife Deborah at St George’s hospital in Tooting, south London, on the day she gave birth to the couple’s third child, Eliza.
‘I never wanted to harm Diana in any way and I don’t believe we did,’ Bashir said.
‘Everything we did in terms of the interview was as she wanted, from when she wanted to alert the palace, to when it was broadcast, to its contents … My family and I loved her.’
He said he is ‘deeply sorry’ to the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex, but disputes William’s charge that he fuelled her isolation and paranoia.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, he added: ‘Even in the early 1990s, there were stories and secretly recorded phone calls. I wasn’t the source of any of that.’
Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer, has said he ‘draws a line’ between the interview and his sister’s death, claiming Bashir’s actions led her to give up her royal security detail.
Bashir, who left the BBC last week due to ill health, said: ‘I don’t feel I can be held responsible for many of the other things that were going on in her life, and the complex issues surrounding those decisions.
‘I can understand the motivation [of Earl Spencer’s comments] but to channel the tragedy, the difficult relationship between the royal family and the media purely on to my shoulders feels a little unreasonable… The suggestion I am singularly responsible I think is unreasonable and unfair.’
Bashir commissioned documents purporting to show payments into the bank accounts of members of the royal household and showed them to Earl Spencer, according to Lord Dyson.
He said: ‘Obviously I regret it, it was wrong. But it had no bearing on anything. It had no bearing on [Diana], it had no bearing on the interview.’
Bashir explained that he is now concerned the scandal will overshadow the content of what Diana said in the interview.
‘She was a pioneering princess. When you think about her expressions of grief in her marriage when you think about the admission of psychiatric illness – just extraordinary! And her sons have gone on to champion mental health,’ he continued.
Bashir’s comments come after former BBC director-general Lord Tony Hall quit as chairman of the National Gallery after he was heavily criticised in the Dyson report for his botched inquiry into how the interview was obtained.
His resignation followed another former BBC executive involved in the 1996 internal investigation, Tim Suter, announced on Friday that he was stepping down from his board role with media watchdog Ofcom.
Earl Spencer is reported to have written to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick asking her to investigate the BBC.
Scotland Yard has already said that it will assess Lord Dyson’s findings to determine whether they contain any ‘significant new evidence’.
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