The BBC has apologized and agreed to pay "substantial damages" to Prince William and Prince Harrys' former nanny over the network's controversial 1995 interview with their mother, the late Princess Diana.
Last year, an internal company investigation found that former BBC journalist Martin Bashir acted deceitfully regarding how he secured the bombshell interview. On July 21, William and Harry's former nanny, Alexandra Pettifer, formerly known as Tiggy Legge-Bourke, appeared at London's High Court to receive the public apology from the broadcaster over false claims that she had allegedly had an affair with Prince Charles after he and Diana separated—allegations the BBC says Bashir made about her in order to obtain the interview.
"We have been working with those who suffered as a result of the deceitful tactics used by the BBC in pursuit of its interview with Diana, Princess of Wales for the Panorama programme in 1995, including the matters that were mentioned in court today in respect of Miss Tiggy Legge-Bourke, now Mrs Alexandra Pettifer," Tim Davie, BBC Director-General, said in a statement.
He continued, "The BBC has agreed to pay substantial damages to Mrs Pettifer and I would like to take this opportunity to apologise publicly to her, to The Prince of Wales, and to the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex, for the way in which Princess Diana was deceived and the subsequent impact on all their lives."
In an agreed statement read out in court, Pettifer's lawyer said the claims had included "the very serious and totally unfounded allegations that the claimant was having an affair with HRH Prince of Wales, resulting in a pregnancy which was aborted," according to BBC News. The attorney added, "These allegations were fabricated."
Following the hearing, Pettifer said in a statement, posted by The Guardian, that she was "disappointed that it needed legal action for the BBC to recognise the serious harm I have been subjected to. Sadly, I am one of many people whose lives have been scarred by the deceitful way in which the BBC Panorama was made and the BBC's subsequent failure to properly investigate the making of the programme."
During the interview—at the time, the most revealing and controversial one from a member of the Royal family—Diana opened up for the first time about her failed marriage to Charles. The BBC's internal probe had found that Bashir—who left the company due to health issues, per the broadcaster, just ahead of the release of the investigation results—acted deceitfully by showing her brother Earl Charles Spencer fake bank statements in an attempt to secure his interview with the Princess of Wales, who died two years after it aired.
After the results of the investigation were made public in May 2021, William said in a statement, "What saddens me most, is that if the BBC had properly investigated the complaints and concerns first raised in 1995, my mother would have known that she had been deceived. She was failed not just by a rogue reporter, but by leaders at the BBC who looked the other way rather than asking the tough questions."
In his July 21 statement, Davie said that "it is a matter of great regret that the BBC did not get to the facts in the immediate aftermath of the programme when there were warning signs that the interview might have been obtained improperly. Instead, as The Duke of Cambridge himself put it, the BBC failed to ask the tough questions. Had we done our job properly Princess Diana would have known the truth during her lifetime. We let her, The Royal Family and our audiences down."
Bashir has also apologized for his actions. "I never wanted to harm Diana in any way and I don't believe we did," he told The London Times last year. "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."
The Royal family has not responded to Bashir's comments.
Adding that "my family and I loved her." Martin also said, when asked if he is able to forgive himself, "That's a really difficult question because it was a serious error. I hope that people will allow me the opportunity to show that I am properly repentant of what happened."