Podcast 84 – Prince Harry is afraid of History Repeating itself as Nothing has Changed

What a week in terms of Royal Family news. A pregnancy announcement;  a wedding anniversary;  a Royal Tour; TV interviews,  and then the scandal of the week showing that almost 24 years after her death, Princess Diana still has the capacity to generate world-wide news headlines.

The big story of the week was undoubtedly the revelation that the BBC journalist Martin Bashir had, back in 1995, used dodgy tactics to secure the exclusive tell all interview with Princess Diana. 

The 1995 interview was watched by 20 million viewers back in 1995 and it was huge news, not least of which because of all the jaw-dropping revelations that Diana made about her marriage and about her life in the Royal Family. The interview came 3 years after Diana and Charles had separated. Immediately after its airing,   the Queen wrote to both Diana and Charles and recommended that they immediately divorce. When we think of how huge Meghan and Harry’s interview with Oprah was, Diana’s was bigger still.

So, what is the current scandal all about? In a nutshell, Martin Bashir, a relatively new journalist back in 1995, faked some bank statements. The bank statements falsely showed that Rupert Murdoch’s News International was paying a few of Diana’s aides for gossip about her. Bashir also alleged that Diana was being spied upon by Palace staff and people working for Prince Charles. The false statements were not shown to Diana but to her Brother Earl Spencer. Earl Spencer was duped by Bashir and believed what he was told. Earl Spencer in turn made the introduction of Bashir to Diana, and encouraged her to be interviewed by Bashir.

Role forward to 2020 and Earl Spencer and journalists from the UK Times and Daily Mail newspapers revisited the story which eventually led to the BBC appointing retired Judge Lord Dyson to properly investigate. Lord Dyson’s findings were the ones released in the news this week, and which concluded that the journalist, Bashir, deceived Earl Spencer with fake bank statements to gain access to the Princess Diana and then lied about it before finally telling the truth. Lord Dyson panned the executives at the BBC for doing a poor investigation back in 1996 and basically covering up what had happened.

The more complicated question is what part did this interview play, in anything, in Diana’s ultimate death. A very tricky question to answer.

None of what Diana said in the interview back in 1995 has been discredited as being untrue. Take a look at comments on social media and you will see many many of her supporters are saying that no matter how the interview was procured, Diana spoke her truth, including about her depression and self harming, and nothing about the current scandal should undermine that.

I printed off the transcript of the Bashir / Diana interview and there are a few statements that Diana made about press coverage of her then, that are just as relevant today, 24 years later.

The crux of the issue in terms of press coverage of the Royals, is that the Royals want the press to cover them as they go about their work and bring attention to all of their good causes, but don’t want the press covering their private lives. The press really really want to cover the private lives of the Royals and the dirt as this sells more,  and the press suck up having to cover the work that the Royals are doing.

Keep listening for future podcasts on all things Meghan, Harry and Archie. And check out other stories or reach out to me through my blog at https://www.kindthoughtsformegha

Show written and produced by Jeanette Songolo.

Please keep listening for future podcasts on all things Meghan, Harry, Archie and Lili and in the meantime watch out for other posts on all things Sussex on my blog at https://www.kindthoughtsformeghanmarkle.com/