Princess Diana Did Not Regret Panorama Interview, Says Biographer; Piers Morgan Agrees

Despite there being reports to the contrary, Princess Diana did not regret her infamous 1995 interview with Martin Bashir on BBC’s “Panorama” program, according to her biographer Tina Brown.

Veteran journalist Brown, who wrote the biography, “The Diana Chronicles,” in 2007, has a new book titled “The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor, the Truth and the Turmoil” releasing imminently.

In an excerpt from the book, published in Vanity Fair, Brown describes a meeting with British entrepreneur Gulu Lalvani who had dated Diana shortly before her death.

“I am told by Lalvani that Diana said she had no regrets about the interview and made clear that she had said exactly what she wanted to say on camera. (She even co-opted lines such as “There were three of us in this marriage” from her writer friend Clive James.) “She was pleased about it [the interview],” Lalvani confirmed to me. “She didn’t have a bad word to say about Martin Bashir. She realized it served her purpose.” She was right. Her “purpose” was to frame herself to the British public as a betrayed woman before the increasingly inevitable divorce from Charles. Opinion polls in the wake of the interview showed support for the princess at 92 percent. She had the public in the palm of her hand,” writes Brown.

“I don’t subscribe to the now pervasive narrative that Diana was a vulnerable victim of media manipulation, a mere marionette tossed about by malign forces beyond her control. While strongly sympathetic to her sons’ pain, I find it offensive to present the canny, resourceful Diana as a woman of no agency, as either a foolish, duped child or the hapless casualty of malevolent muckrakers,” Brown adds.

Popular on Variety

U.K. media personality Piers Morgan, who is also quoted in Brown’s book, corroborated Brown’s view on Wednesday.

“True. Diana told me that over lunch 6 months after the interview aired. ‘Do you regret doing Panorama?’ I asked. ‘No,’ she replied. ‘I have no regrets. I wanted to do it, to put my side over. There’s been so much rubbish said and written that it was time people knew the truth,’ Morgan tweeted.

True. Diana told me that over lunch 6 months after the interview aired.
‘Do you regret doing Panorama?’ I asked.
‘No,’ she replied. ‘I have no regrets. I wanted to do it, to put my side over. There’s been so much rubbish said and written that it was time people knew the truth.’ https://t.co/Yv16Uzk9iU

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) April 6, 2022

Must Read

Film
COVER | Sebastian Stan Tells All: Becoming Donald Trump and Starring in 2024’s Most Controversial Movie
By Andrew Wallenstein 2 weeks

Sign Up for Variety Newsletters

By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

ncG1vNJzZmiukae2psDYZ5qopV9nfXN%2Bjq2taJ%2BcpK%2BiuI6pqaKmk5rAtHnDopinmV2nsqi%2BxK1kqZmepL%2BiucBmoKeslafDqrHWZqeinaKoeq670aCYp2VhZ4B2fpFvbGtsXw%3D%3D

Martina Birk

Update: 2024-09-22

JadeSync