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The final nail in the Wales marriage's coffin was Diana's jaw-dropping "there were three of us in this marriage" sit-down with Martin Bashir for the BBC's Panorama that aired Nov. 20, 1995. It was watched live by approximately 15 million people, with even pub TVs tuned into the interview so patrons could watch while sipping their pints.
"I lost all respect for the royal family after watching that last night," one man, quizzed about his reaction, told a reporter, while another woman said of Diana, "I thought she was stunning."
But the royal family didn't care for her unprecedented, polarizing candor (even Oprah Winfrey wondered, when Sarah Ferguson was on her couch, why neither of them would "play the game" and "go along with the program" for all the obvious perks), and the interview directly hastened the divorce that, when they announced their separation, neither Charles nor Diana had planned to get.
The subsequent coverage in 1996 was wildly snarky, with one American correspondent saying in his report from outside Buckingham Palace: "And so the world's most famous dysfunctional family now launches the world's most famous divorce proceedings. There shouldn't be much fight over the record collection—their tastes in that are different, too—but there are the royal houses, the royal castles, the royal silver and, of course, the royal children to consider."
Commentary included descriptions of Diana as "grim-faced but 17 million pounds richer." A sighting of her still wearing her engagement ring and wedding band was read as a thumbed nose at Charles, a reminder that she didn't want a divorce. "She looked beautiful," one female observer noted, "but I noticed she was wearing a lot of makeup."