The BBC announced on Friday September 2 that it had donated 1.42 million pounds (1.64 million euros) to charities linked to Princess Diana. According to the British audiovisual group, this is the equivalent of the revenue generated by the very controversial interview carried out in 1995 with Lady Di.
“A sum of 1.42 million pounds has been divided equally between seven associations linked to the princess”, says the BBC. Among them, associations for the homeless, children, patients with AIDS or leprosy, so many humanitarian causes dear to the princess who died twenty-five years ago.
Deceptive methods
These donations are a new episode in the saga around deceptive methods – with lies and false documents – employed to organize this shocking interview which set the BBC audience records in 1995. The BBC has reiterated his apologies for the circumstances in which the interview was conducted.
“We were three in this marriage”, had notably declared the princess of Wales in this interview, in reference to the mistress of Charles, Camilla. Diana also recognizes, in front of 23 million viewers, an extramarital relationship. In an independent report published in May 2021, former Supreme Court Justice John Dyson shed light on journalist Martin Bashir’s deceptive methods to land the interview and slammed the BBC for his handling of the case.
The BBC has already compensated Lady Di’s former private secretary and reached a financial settlement with a graphic designer who was dismissed after exposing the journalist’s misleading methods. The group also agreed in July to pay “significant” damages to the former nanny of princes William and Harry, targeted by false allegations to win the interview-event.