BBC agrees ‘substantial damages’ to ex-royal nanny over Diana interview
LONDON (Reuters) – The BBC stated on Thursday it had agreed to pay “substantial damages” to the previous nanny of Britain’s Prince William and Prince Harry over the broadcaster’s now much-criticised 1995 interview with their mom, the late Princess Diana.
The payout to Tiggy Legge-Bourke, now Alexandra Pettifer, was over false claims made about her by BBC journalist Martin Bashir with a purpose to receive the interview, by which Diana admitted to an affair and disclosed intimate particulars of her failed marriage to the inheritor to the throne, Prince Charles.
Final yr, a report concluded Bashir had tricked Diana’s brother into arranging a gathering together with her by producing faux financial institution statements suggesting Diana was being bugged by the safety providers and that two senior aides had been being paid to offer details about her. The report discovered that the broadcaster had coated up the deception.
“The BBC has agreed to pay substantial damages to Mrs Pettifer,” BBC Director-Common Tim Davie stated in an announcement.
“I want to take this chance to apologise publicly to her, to the Prince of Wales, and to the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex, for the best way by which Princess Diana was deceived.”
Native media reported the BBC’s lawyer informed a London court docket the broadcaster accepted the allegations made in opposition to the nanny had been “wholly baseless”.
Davie stated the BBC regretted that it didn’t get to the info within the rapid aftermath of the programme when “there have been warning indicators that the interview may need been obtained improperly”.
He stated the BBC had determined it will by no means present the programme once more, or license it to different broadcasters.
Earlier this yr, the BBC additionally agreed to make a considerable payout to Diana’s former personal secretary Patrick Jephson in relation to the interview.
Bashir has apologised for the faux statements, however stated he stood by his proof 1 / 4 century in the past and he didn’t imagine that they had prompted Diana to present the interview.
(Reporting by Farouq Suleiman; Enhancing by Mark Heinrich)
