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TL;DR: 

  • Prince William called Princess Diana’s 1995 BBC interview “deceitful.”
  • He called for it to never appear on TV again.
  • According to Andrew Morton, the author of Princess Diana’s 1992 biography, it’s an “important, historic interview that should be part of the public record.” 

Andrew Morton, author of the bombshell 1992 Princess Diana biography, Diana: Her True Story, doesn’t see eye-to-eye with Prince William on Diana’s famous 1995 BBC interview. The journalist feels it’s “supreme irony” Diana’s son wishes to “silence” her.

Prince William slammed the BBC, called Princess Diana interview ‘deceitful’ 

William didn’t hold back when the BBC released the findings of an internal investigation into Diana’s interview in 2021. He touched on the “deceitful” way journalist Martin Bashir faked documents to secure the interview.

“It is my view that the deceitful way the interview was obtained substantially influenced what my mother said. The interview was a major contribution to making my parents’ relationship worse and has since hurt countless others,” William said. 

Additionally, he discussed memories of the interview’s aftermath in the last years of his mother’s life. 

“It brings indescribable sadness to know that the BBC’s failures contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia, and isolation that I remember from those final years with her,” he continued. 

In conclusion, William, now 40, stated he felt the program shouldn’t air again. It “holds no legitimacy” and created a “false narrative,” he said.

Andrew Morton believes Princess Diana’s son shouldn’t try to ‘silence’ her

Morton’s opinion of the fate of Diana’s BBC interview differs from William’s. Rather than never air it again, the royal biographer feels William shouldn’t try to “posthumously muzzle” his mother.

“It is a supreme irony that it is her son who has led the calls to posthumously muzzle Diana, to silence her, to prevent her from being heard, from saying what she spent her life trying to articulate,” Morton told The Daily Beast.

He went on, referring to Diana’s interview as “important” and “historic.” Furthermore, that it “should be part of the public record” and available for reference to make any “accurate history or documentary.”

The royal biographer believes Martin Bashir didn’t ‘twist’ Princess Diana’s ‘arm to say anything’

Princess Diana, whose BBC interview Andrew Morton believes should be 'part of the public record,' smiles and looks on wearing a white dress
Princess Diana | Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images
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Morton also argued that although how Bashir secured the interview was “underhand,” what Diana said on camera weren’t “aberrations.” 

“What she said was not an aberration,” he added, noting many of the same topics were in his book. “For the BBC to lock it away in a vault is wrong,” he said.

“The methods Martin Bashir used to get Diana to sit down and talk to him were underhand and deceptive,” he said. “But the truth is that once the cameras were rolling, he didn’t twist her arm to say anything.” 

“Many of the things she said, such as discussing her bulimia, her suicide attempts, her husband’s relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, and the fact that she didn’t consider him fit to be king, were not aberrations.” 

“She was well known for saying these things to those in her circle, to the extent that they had become a kind of schtick,” he added. 

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