I read a whole bunch about this last night because I wanted to understand what happened. The Panorama interview is so famous. My interest was piqued when William made a statement. Until then, it seemed like background noise, but William speaking out made me realize that this is a serious scandal.
I was horrified by what I read. It's complicated, but here's an attempted short version. Took me ages to piece all this together:
By the time Bashir interviewed Diana, she was in a state of fear and paranoia, brought on by him and the fake "evidence" he produced that there was all this spying and plotting against her from her security, her closest friends, close employees, and that Charles's camp was behind much of it. That's why she said such devastating things.
Not only did Bashir's deceit cost her her peace of mind, it hastened the end of her marriage and worsened relations between her and Charles (according to William), cost her two close female friends, and it was ultimately responsible for her dismissing her police protection. Had it not been for that, her own security would have been driving her that night in Paris, and they would have advised it safer to stay in the Ritz that night, anyway. She would never have been in the hands of sub-standard security and a man who turned up to drive while knowing he had been drinking, and who then engaged in a macho car chase.
As William said in his statement, it's extremely sad that Diana never knew that she was deceived, and that his last two years with her were marred by her fear, paranoia, and isolation that took hold after Bashir dripped all his poison into her ear, with his impeccable BBC credentials and fake evidence.
William also thinks that there's much more to the story. What happened between that introductory meeting between Spencer, Bashir, and Diana, and the interview, a period of two months? Spencer suspects that Diana may even have been blackmailed.
The graphics artist raised the alarm back at the BBC after the interview was broadcast in late 1995. There was a desultory enquiry that ignored all the facts and made him the fall guy. His career was ruined.
The whole story has now come out because of an independent enquiry, the Dyson report, due to fresh questions about the interview stirred up by its 25th anniversary.
So many people hurt by this rogue journalist. What a story. It's very likely that without all Bashir's deceit, Diana would be alive today, because he made her mistrust all her experienced top-level UK security, and she therefore dismissed them. It really made me see how people in her position are a magnet for all kinds of malevolent people like Bashir. For all royalty's glorious lifestyle, it makes me glad to be ordinary. William and Harry have suffered so much due to their mother's tragic life, and still fresh suffering comes.
I feel that now we have the whole story of her death, starting in September 1995: how Bashir gained her trust, convinced her that her security were spying on her, she dismissed them, and the worst happened.
It's just really, really sad.
I was horrified by what I read. It's complicated, but here's an attempted short version. Took me ages to piece all this together:
- Bashir got access to Diana via her brother, Earl Spencer.
- He started the process by calling Spencer twice and asking for a chat. He intimated that he had knowledge of people spying on him/Diana that Spencer should know. Bashir appeared respectable, being from the flagship BBC show, Panorama. Spencer agreed to a quick drink.
- Bashir asked a BBC graphics artist to mock up some bank statements. The artist thought they were props for a show, like he made all the time.
- Bashir showed the statements to Spencer. They purported to show payments to royal staff from some kind of spy agency.
- Spencer called the head of the BBC and asked if Bashir was on the level. They said that Bashir was one of their best. (Very reassuring, you'd think.)
- Those statements and the BBC's endorsement of Bashir prompted Spencer to introduce him to Diana, so that Bashir could share his "concerns" with her directly.
- The introductory meeting took place in September 1995. Bashir, Diana, and Spencer were present.
- Spencer took notes. In the meeting, Bashir told 32 lies, filling Diana's head with stories about her car and apt. being bugged, about many people in her employ being paid to feed information about her to spies and to her husband's camp, that her security was spying on her, as were some of her friends and her closest staff.
- Subsequently, Bashir went so far as to have her apt swept for bugs and to produce a fake bug.
- After that initial meeting (Sep. '95), Spencer realized something was up, thought Bashir sounded crazy, and apologized to his sister. She said words to the effect of, "Oh, don't worry! It was lovely to see you!" Spencer assumed that that was the end of the Bashir episode.
- Two months later, in Nov 1995, the interview was broadcast.
By the time Bashir interviewed Diana, she was in a state of fear and paranoia, brought on by him and the fake "evidence" he produced that there was all this spying and plotting against her from her security, her closest friends, close employees, and that Charles's camp was behind much of it. That's why she said such devastating things.
Not only did Bashir's deceit cost her her peace of mind, it hastened the end of her marriage and worsened relations between her and Charles (according to William), cost her two close female friends, and it was ultimately responsible for her dismissing her police protection. Had it not been for that, her own security would have been driving her that night in Paris, and they would have advised it safer to stay in the Ritz that night, anyway. She would never have been in the hands of sub-standard security and a man who turned up to drive while knowing he had been drinking, and who then engaged in a macho car chase.
As William said in his statement, it's extremely sad that Diana never knew that she was deceived, and that his last two years with her were marred by her fear, paranoia, and isolation that took hold after Bashir dripped all his poison into her ear, with his impeccable BBC credentials and fake evidence.
William also thinks that there's much more to the story. What happened between that introductory meeting between Spencer, Bashir, and Diana, and the interview, a period of two months? Spencer suspects that Diana may even have been blackmailed.
The graphics artist raised the alarm back at the BBC after the interview was broadcast in late 1995. There was a desultory enquiry that ignored all the facts and made him the fall guy. His career was ruined.
The whole story has now come out because of an independent enquiry, the Dyson report, due to fresh questions about the interview stirred up by its 25th anniversary.
So many people hurt by this rogue journalist. What a story. It's very likely that without all Bashir's deceit, Diana would be alive today, because he made her mistrust all her experienced top-level UK security, and she therefore dismissed them. It really made me see how people in her position are a magnet for all kinds of malevolent people like Bashir. For all royalty's glorious lifestyle, it makes me glad to be ordinary. William and Harry have suffered so much due to their mother's tragic life, and still fresh suffering comes.
I feel that now we have the whole story of her death, starting in September 1995: how Bashir gained her trust, convinced her that her security were spying on her, she dismissed them, and the worst happened.
It's just really, really sad.
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