Princess Diana expressed a private regret days before her death – and it had to do with her two sons.
Rosa Monckton, Diana’s close friend and confidant, has revealed that the late royal regretted sitting for her now-infamous “Panorama” interview because she was worried that it had hurt Prince William and Prince Harry.
“She told me she regretted doing it because of the harm she thought it had done to her boys,” Monckton, 72, told People in a story published Monday.
Diana reportedly made the admission during a summer holiday with Monckton in Greece just 10 days before she tragically died at 36 following a high-speed car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris, France, on August 31, 1997.
The “Panorama” interview, meanwhile, took place in 1995 when William was 15 years old and Harry was 12. It marked a landmark moment for the then-Princess of Wales.
Diana spoke openly about her struggles with bulimia, the difficulties in her marriage to then-Prince Charles and the loneliness she felt within the royal family during the televised sit-down.
Millions of people around the world watched, and it became one of the most famous royal interviews in history.
But in her private conversation with Monckton, Diana was focused less on the public reaction and more on the possible emotional toll on her children.
Elsewhere during her chat with People, Monckton claimed that Diana had been emotionally vulnerable when she agreed to the interview. Although Diana and Charles had separated in 1992, they wouldn’t divorce until 1996.
Monckton described Diana as “frail” and suggested that this made her more likely to trust Martin Bashir, the BBC journalist who conducted the sit-down.
Then, after the interview, Diana was said to have become more guarded with friends and family.
“She kept it all in,” Monckton told the outlet. “[Bashir] told her she couldn’t talk about it. She cut people out because of that.”
Years later, a formal investigation known as the Dyson report revealed that Bashir had used forged documents and other deceptive methods to gain Diana’s trust and secure the 1995 “Panorama” interview.
The report, which was released in May 2021, concluded that Bashir’s conduct was a serious breach of BBC editorial standards and that the organization failed to properly investigate concerns at the time.
Although Diana died long before learning the full truth about how she had been manipulated, both of her sons have since spoken about the impact of the interview and the surrounding circumstances.
Prince William said the deception behind the interview contributed to his mother’s “fear, paranoia and isolation,” adding that it was not just Bashir but also BBC leaders who had let her down.
“She was failed not just by a rogue reporter but by leaders at the BBC who looked the other way rather than asking the tough questions,” the Prince of Wales, 43, said in a video following the Dyson Report’s release.
“These failings not only let my mother down and my family down,” he added, “they let the public down too.”
Prince Harry, 41, was even more direct. He argued that the events surrounding the “Panorama” interview contributed to the circumstances that ultimately led to Diana’s death.
“Our mother lost her life because of this, and nothing has changed,” the Duke of Sussex said in a statement in 2021.
“By protecting her legacy, we protect everyone, and uphold the dignity with which she lived her life,” he added. “Let’s remember who she was and what she stood for.”
As for Bashir, he later apologized to William, Harry and the royal family for his role in the “Panorama” interview and the events that unfolded after.
“I never wanted to harm Diana in any way and I don’t believe we did,” he told The Sunday Times in May 2021.
“Everything we did in terms of the interview was as she wanted, from when she wanted to alert the palace, to when it was broadcast, to its contents,” he added. “My family and I loved her.”
Bashir, however, denied that he tricked Diana into sitting for the interview by misleading her.
