Why Princess Diana’s 1995 BBC interview shocked the world

Princess Diana’s BBC interview with Martin Bashir, ‘Interview with H.W.V. the Princess of Wales’ aired on 20 November 1995 in the Panorama documentary series. Filmed in Diana’s sitting room at Kensington Palace, the explosive interview made history for the candid way in which Diana revealed intimate details of life as a royal and her marriage, including her struggles with postpartum depression, bulimia and, most shockingly, her husband’s affair her with Camilla Parker Bowles.

It was the final blow to Charles and Diana’s troubled relationship. In 2021, revelations about the fraudulent manner in which Bashir had obtained the interview made headlines, thrusting Diana back into the spotlight 24 years after her untimely death and raising new questions about the media’s role in the tragically short life of the “people’s princess” “.

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Diana reveals mental health issues

In the interview, Diana discussed the lack of support she received from the royal family when she was experiencing postpartum depression: “Well, I was maybe the first person that was ever in this family that was ever depressed or was ever openly tearful,” she said. “And obviously that was scary, because if you’ve never seen it before, how do you maintain it?” She said her struggles quickly led to her being written off: “It gave everyone a wonderful new label: Diana is unstable and Diana is mentally unstable . And unfortunately, that seems to have stuck.”

Diana admitted that she cut herself and spoke openly about her bulimia. She blamed her heartache on her failed relationship: “It was a symptom of what was going on in my marriage. I cried for help, but I gave the wrong signals and people used my bulimia as a coat hanger: They thought that was the problem – Diana is unstable.”

Her candor was revolutionary for a royal: “No one has ever heard a royal talk about bulimia or self-harm. It was Diana who broke the taboo in these shocking revelations,” says Katie Nicol, author of The new royals Queen Elizabeth’s legacy and the future of the Crown.

“There were three of us in the marriage”

Both Charles and Diana engaged with the press about the breakdown of their marriage. Diana had provided information to Andrew Morton about his biography Diana: Her True Story and Charles confessed to infidelity when questioned by Jonathan Dimbleby, author of The Prince of Wales: A Biography. But it was the first time Diana directly referred to Camilla Parker Bowles as the “third person” in her marriage.

Diana told Bashir, “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a little crowded.” She went on to admit to her own affair with ex-Army officer James Hewitt, who served as her and her sons’ riding instructor. She told Bashir that she was “very disappointed” when Hewitt contributed to a revealing book about their affair, The princess in love.

“It was shocking because this was Diana in her own words and what she was saying was incredibly explosive,” Nicole says. “Diana took control of the narrative on camera for the first time.”

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Diana on her husband’s future as King Charles III

When asked if Charles wanted to rule, Diana told Bashir, “there’s always been a conflict on this subject with him when we’ve discussed it” and that “being king would be a little more stifling. And knowing the character, I would think that the high office, as I call it, would bring him enormous limitations, and I don’t know if he would be able to adapt to that.”

“That he doubted Charles’s ability to be a good king did enormous damage to the institution,” says Nicol. “There is a fine balance between using television as a means of royal advantage and not allowing too much daylight into the mystique of the monarchy.”

Fallout from Diana’s BBC interview

Although Charles and Diana had been separated since 1992, the 1995 BBC interview was the final blow to the marriage. “There were both personal and political considerations,” says Carolyn Harris, historian, author and royal commentator. “On a personal level, there was a strain on the Queen’s grandchildren, Williams and Harry. On a political level, Diana criticized Charles’s fitness to be king.

A month after it was taken, Queen Elizabeth II sent letters to Charles and Diana urging them to finalize their divorce. “The Queen could see the damage she was doing to the monarchy as an institution. It was a case of Elizabeth II putting the reputation and preservation of the monarchy above all else,” says Nicol.

It also deeply upset Diana’s family and those closest to her – including Prince William. “It was one of the few times she had a fight with William,” says Nichol. In 2021, Prince William made a public statement about the interview, saying it “was a major contributor to the deterioration of my parents’ relationship and has since hurt countless others”. He asked that it never be broadcast again.

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Walter Bashir used “deceptive methods” to get an interview

The interview was conducted in the utmost secrecy, with equipment smuggled into Kensington Palace and the BBC’s Board of Governors strategically kept in the dark about its planning and execution. In 2020, the BBC hired Judge Lord Dyson to conduct an inquiry into claims that Bashir misled Diana into getting the interview. Dyson’s report found that Bashir used “deceptive methods” to gain Diana’s trust, including falsifying bank statements, which fueled her paranoia that she was under surveillance: “Diana was encouraged to believe that the palace was closely monitoring conversations and her movements,” says Harris.

In 2021, Prince William condemned the way the interview was received, saying: “The BBC’s failings contributed greatly to her fear, paranoia and isolation which I remember from those final years with her.”

“Although she has always wanted to talk, the manner in which Bashir booked the interview is so discredited that his actions must be taken into account,” says Nicole. “We don’t know how much the fears he instilled in her drove her to do the interview or whether she would have gotten as far as she did if she hadn’t been tricked — that’s the big question.”

Diana died in a car crash just two years after the BBC interview, making her words even more important in public commemorations of the “people’s princess”.

“Diana was able to connect with the public because of the combination of glamor and vulnerability,” says Harris. “One of the reasons a lot of people felt they could relate to Diana was that they felt like they knew her because she was quite open about the challenges she faced.”