Explosive New Book Reveals BBC's Diana Interview Cover-Up
A groundbreaking new investigation into the Martin Bashir Panorama interview with Princess Diana has uncovered evidence of a systematic cover-up by BBC management that spanned more than two decades. Journalist Andy Webb's book Dianarama: The Betrayal of Princess Diana reveals that at least four crucial documents have mysteriously disappeared from BBC archives relating to the 1995 interview that changed royal history forever.
The Wound That Won't Heal
For Prince William, the Panorama interview represents what a close associate described as "a wound that will not heal." Webb suggests that the future King, who was just 13 when his mother died, believes the BBC's actions set Diana's life on a "terribly dangerous course" that might have been avoided had corporation executives acted differently.
Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, Webb explained the profound impact on Diana's eldest son: "The wound we're talking about is the vast uncertainty about whether his mother's life had to follow the course it did or, had the BBC management done something different, it would have followed an entirely different course."
Quarter-Century Cover-Up Exposed
Webb's dogged investigation began in 2007 with his first Freedom of Information request, which the BBC initially stonewalled. His persistence eventually paid off during lockdown on the 25th anniversary of the infamous interview, when he received a heavily-redacted 67-page document that contained a bombshell revelation.
On page 43 was a note from former Director General Tony Hall suggesting that Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, had shown Bashir the forged bank statements used to gain the Princess's trust. When Webb contacted Spencer for comment, the earl was "outraged" and declared: "I did no such thing."
This contradiction became the turning point that "blew the lid off" the cover-up that began in 1996, according to Webb. Earl Spencer then approached the BBC's newly-appointed Director General Tim Davie with a detailed account of Bashir's deceptive tactics.
BBC's Costly Legal Battle
The corporation's efforts to conceal the truth extended to spending over £1 million of licence-fee-payers' money in a three-year legal battle to prevent Webb from accessing crucial emails. Despite the BBC's claims of operating with "radical transparency" under Davie's leadership, Webb argues the corporation continued to protect the "fiction that was created in 1996" under Lord Hall.
Webb's investigation reveals that the BBC repeatedly declined to release documents, including as recently as 2024 when it refused to disclose a letter from Buckingham Palace received ahead of the Panorama interview's broadcast on November 20, 1995.
Royal Consequences and Charter Concerns
The scandal had immediate royal consequences in 1995, with Queen Elizabeth II so furious that she removed the BBC's exclusive rights to produce her annual Christmas broadcast. Now, with the BBC's Royal Charter due for renewal in less than two years, Webb raises a crucial question: "Well, if the future King issuing the Royal Charter doesn't trust Britain's public broadcaster, there's a big problem."
Webb believes Prince William suspects there's more to come from the BBC's "whitewash" of the scandal. The journalist emphasises the human cost behind the paperwork: "William is now 43 years of age - or seven years older than his mother was when she died. His eldest son is 12. William was 13 when he watched this infamous interview go out on television."
The book comes at a difficult time for the BBC, which is currently fending off legal threats from Donald Trump over a doctored version of his Capitol Hill speech. For Diana's family, however, Webb's investigation may finally deliver the "real answers" they've sought for nearly three decades about the interview that changed everything.
