Diana and Prince Charles never had a fairytale marriage but her kids, Prince William and Prince Harry meant the world to her.
Princess Diana is known to be the one person in the royal family who broke the traditional norms and spoke out openly about everything since the beginning. We could say that she was a rebel who refused to stay bound by the leash of customs and expectations.
Her personality and individuality became more prominent after her infamous BBC Panorama interview with Martin Bashir in 1995 where she candidly spoke about her crumbling marriage with Prince Charles and his affair with Camilla Parker Bowles, now the Duchess of Cornwall. She said, “There were three of us in this marriage . . . so it was a bit crowded,” and that she didn't think Prince Charles would be the right choice for king.
"There was always conflict on that subject with him when we discussed it, and I understood that conflict, because it's a very demanding role, being Prince of Wales, but it's an equally more demanding role being King," she said, according to BBC. She added, "And because I know the character I would think that the top job, as I call it, would bring enormous limitations to him, and I don't know whether he could adapt to that."
But three months before the bombshell interview, she bared her soul to a newspaper editor where she said that her marriage to Prince Charles was "hell from the start" and that she believed that there was someone else who was more deserving of being the king, her oldest son, Prince William.
In Channel 4's new documentary, Diana: The Truth Behind the Interview, Sir Max Hastings, former newspaper editor of Daily Telegraph gave more details. “She said [she] was 'terribly anxious for my side of this to come out.' And I spent as part of a couple of hours with Diana and she put on a wonderful show. I mean, absolutely gripping stuff, ” according to People.
He added, “It became clear, first of all. How much she hated Charles. Yes, she did hate Charles. And when I said 'were there ever happy times?' she said 'no, the marriage was hell from day one.'”
The Sun revealed that the four-part documentary will explore the problems brewing inside the royal family that led to the infamous interview 25 years ago.
“The documentary intends to look at the years leading up to the controversial interview, and the aftermath of discussing her relationship to the heir to the throne," disclosed a TV insider.
Hastings also revealed that Diana had bright future ideas for Prince William. Explaining further, he said, “She said that all she cared about was William's succession to the throne. She said to me quite explicitly — 'I don't think Charles can do it.'"
“The outcome she wanted to see was for Charles to stand aside as heir to the throne and for William to occupy the throne. This was pretty dynamic stuff,” he added. He further disclosed that he didn't publish these controversial statements by the queen of people's heart at that time because he wanted to "keep a lid on the worst of this.” He also thought that what Diana said “on several occasions” was “for the fairies,” as per People.
Recalling the time the Princess asked his opinion about the conspiracy behind the danger to her life, he said, “She asked me what I knew about a conspiracy to have her put down. I said well, ‘it sounded absolutely crazy to me.’ But she, I think, did believe this sort of stuff." He added that he felt “so desperately sorry her” in her “vulnerability.”
The documentary also questions how Bashir got the support of Diana's brother Charles, the 9th Earl Spencer, echoing the claims of a recent article in Sunday Times where they revealed that the journalist misled the Earl into securing the interview through forged documents that played on Spencer and Diana's fear of being under the radar of the secret services.
BBC, responding to Sunday Times, said that Bashir was "seriously ill" to comment and instead issued a statement saying, “Questions surrounding Panorama’s interview with the Princess of Wales and in particular the ‘mocking-up’ of bank statements, were covered in the press at the time."
The statement continued, "BBC records from the period indicate that Martin had explained to the BBC that the documents had been shown to Earl Spencer, and that they were not shown to the Princess of Wales. The BBC’s internal records from the time indicate that Martin had met the Princess of Wales before the mocked-up documentation existed."
In conclusion, it read, "These accounts also say that the Princess of Wales confirmed in writing that these documents played no part in her decision to give [the interview].”
References:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/politics97/diana/panorama.html
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/12058139/channel-4-royals-princess-diana-panorama-interview/
