On November 5, 1995, a van was waved through the security gates of Kensington Palace. The men unloading boxes claimed to be hi-fi salesmen, but they were lying. Inside the equipment cases were cameras and lighting rigs, and the "salesmen" were actually a BBC crew led by an unknown reporter named Martin Bashir.
What they recorded in the next hour—the infamous Panorama interview—would do more than just rock the monarchy. It would trigger a specific, tragic chain of events ending in the crumpled wreckage of a Mercedes in the Pont D’Alma tunnel two years later. For decades, the interview was viewed as a journalistic coup. Now, investigative journalist Andy Webb’s forensic new book, Dianarama, exposes it for what it truly was: a calculated heist involving forged documents, intelligence service lies, and psychological warfare that entrapped the Princess of Wales.
By the summer of 1995, Diana was vulnerable. Separated from Charles and isolated within the palace, she feared her secrets were being leaked and suspected her phones were tapped. Enter Martin Bashir. According to the 2021 Dyson inquiry, Bashir didn't just request an interview; he cooked up a fraudulent scheme to get it. His first target was Diana’s brother, Earl Spencer. Bashir allegedly commissioned a freelance graphic designer to mock up fake bank statements which purported to show that Spencer’s own head of security was selling information to "dark forces" within the security services and the tabloids.
Bashir drove to the Earl’s family seat at Althorp to present these lies, even providing a device to record telephone conversations—a tool designed solely to induce paranoia. It was a classic confidence trick. Bashir groomed the Earl with tales of espionage and betrayal, eventually securing what he really wanted: an introduction to Diana.
In a secret meeting at a Knightsbridge flat, Bashir went to work on the Princess. Earl Spencer, who was present, took detailed notes of the wild claims Bashir used to hook his sister. The journalist spun a web of thirty-eight extraordinary fabrications. He claimed that Prince Edward was being treated for AIDS, that Diana’s mail was being intercepted, and that MI6 possessed recordings of Prince Charles plotting the end of the marriage. Most damaging of all, Bashir produced a fabricated receipt for an abortion, claiming the royal nanny, Tiggy Legge-Bourke, had become pregnant by Prince Charles. Diana, already fearful, was terrified by the suggestion that Charles wanted to cast her aside to marry Tiggy. As Earl Spencer later stated, this appalling deception was the hook that reeled her in.
Convinced she was the target of a conspiracy to kill her, Diana sat down with Bashir. When the interview aired on November 20, 200 million people watched her admit to adultery, discuss self-harm, and question Charles’s fitness to be King. The fallout was immediate. The Queen, having seen enough, ordered a divorce. This decision, driven by the interview, stripped Diana of her HRH title and, crucially, her official police protection.
Patrick Jephson, Diana’s private secretary, described the interview as suicidal. By severing ties with the establishment, Diana was cast out into the cold, forced to rely on private security. This loss of Scotland Yard protection is the "smoking gun" connecting the interview to her death. Former Met Police Commissioner Lord Condon testified in 2008 that if she had retained police protection in Paris, he was absolutely convinced those three lives would not have been lost.
Instead, in the summer of 1997, a paranoid and unprotected Diana accepted the hospitality of Mohamed Al Fayed. She relied on his security team, which included Henri Paul—the drunk driver behind the wheel that night in Paris.
It took over twenty years for the truth to come out. The 2021 Dyson inquiry confirmed Bashir used deceitful tactics, and the BBC covered it up. Following the inquiry, Prince William issued a blistering statement noting that the BBC’s failures contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia, and isolation. Prince Harry was even more blunt, stating that his mother lost her life because of this.
In Dianarama, Andy Webb draws a direct line from the forged documents in 1995 to the crash in 1997. As Diana’s close friend Simone Simmons told Webb, she holds Bashir fully responsible for Diana’s death. If it wasn’t for him, she believes the Princess would still be alive.
To read the full forensic account of the cover-ups, the secret meetings, and the deception that changed history, you can pick up a copy of Dianarama by Andy Webb here.
0 Comments