Martin Bashir, the journalist who manipulated Lady Diana and Michael Jackson

It was in 1995, when the BBC journalist Martin Bashir achieved the “interview of the century.” The reporter the princess Diana of Wales trusted to speak, for the first time, before 23 million viewers.

“There were three of us in this marriage,” revealed Lady Di in that interview, recalling the romance between Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles, the journalist who from that day gained world fame and the Bafta for the best talk show.

His salary also began to rise progressively since then until reaching 115,000 euros per year. But as fast as it ascended, it fell.

It all started in the wake of a letter, published at the end of 2020, addressed to Tim Davie, director general of the BBC. Lady Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, accused Martin Bashir of manipulating him to obtain the princess’s interview in the 1990s.

The journalist had paid some of Diana’s relatives to release information to the secret service. The message spread like wildfire and the BBC did not hesitate to launch an investigation to find out how the interview was “prepared”.

After six months of investigation, the verdict is that the reporter did use “deceptive methods” to obtain Diana Spencer’s interview, as confirmed by Judge John Dyson. The revelations have sparked such an uproar that even Prince William has posted a video targeting the “pitiful incompetence” of the BBC leaders:

“From my point of view, the misleading way in which the interview was obtained influenced what my mother said,” continues the Duke of Cambridge. He also claims that this interview “poisoned” the relationship between his parents.

“It is an indescribable sadness that the BBC has contributed significantly to feeding my mother’s fear, loneliness and paranoia during the last years of her life,” he lamented.

Prince Harry also denounced Martin Bashir’s behavior. “Our mother lost her life as a result of these methods and nothing has changed,” the Duke of Sussex said publicly. Anger that resounds even in the House of Commons.

Conservative MP Julian Knight thus announced, on Monday, May 24, the next organization of an official meeting, dedicated to the issues raised by the BBC investigation. The British channel intends, for its part, to investigate how Martin Bashir returned to its ranks in 2016.

The reporter has also intoned his MEA culpa . “This is the second time that I have fully cooperated in an investigation into the events that occurred 25 years ago,” he said in a statement. I apologized at the time, I reiterate them today. It was stupid, and I deeply regret it. ”

In the Sunday Times, the 58-year-old journalist says he “never wanted to hurt” Lady Diana and that it would be “unreasonable and unfair” to hold him solely responsible for “the difficult relationship between the royal family and the media.”