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Princess Diana's brother says BBC interview probe is limited
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This file photo taken on June 17, 1997 shows Britain's Diana, Princess of Wales, at a ceremony at Red Cross headquarters in Washington, to call for a global ban on anti-personnel landmines. (AFP/Jamal A. Wilson)
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rincess Diana's brother has criticized as limited a BBC probe into claims his sister was tricked into an explosive interview in which she spoke about her crumbling marriage.
Prince William, Diana's eldest son, had welcomed the investigation into the 1995 interview, saying it "should help establish the truth behind the actions that led to the Panorama interview and subsequent decisions taken by those in the BBC at the time."
But Diana's brother Charles Spencer tweeted late Friday that he was "not at all satisfied with the parameters" of the probe into the interview by BBC journalist Martin Bashir for the "Panorama" program.
As I’ve told the BBC this evening, I’m not at all satisfied with the parameters they’ve set around their enquiry into the @BBCPanorama interview with Diana of 25 years ago tonight. Lord Dyson must be free to examine every aspect of this matter, from 1995 to today, as he sees fit.
— Charles Spencer (@cspencer1508) November 20, 2020
Spencer has alleged Bashir showed him faked documents about how Diana's staff were betraying her, how her husband was cheating and how she was being spied upon, to convince his sister to grant the interview.
The BBC announced Wednesday the immediate start of an investigation led by Lord Dyson, a former senior British judge, into the events surrounding the interview.
Spencer questioned the scope of the enquiry, saying Dyson should "be free to examine every aspect of this matter, from 1995 to today, as he sees fit".
Prince Harry, William's younger brother who is currently in California, has not publicly commented on the investigation.
The probe will focus on Bashir, who has been accused of using underhand means of convincing Diana to speak to him.
Read also: Prince William welcomes probe into 1995 Diana interview
It will also consider mocked-up bank statements detailing purported payments from the one of Spencer's former employees to members of the royal staff.
Bashir, 57, who is now the BBC's religious affairs editor, has not responded to the latest claims.
The BBC has said he was seriously unwell after contracting the coronavirus and is also recovering from heart surgery.
The interview between Bashir and the British princess, broadcast 25 years ago, was watched by 22.8 million people.
Diana, who would divorce Prince Charles the heir to the British throne in 1996, detailed the pair's collapsing marriage in the BBC program.
She famously said "there were three people" in her marriage -- her, Charles and his long-time lover Camilla Parker-Bowles -- and also revealed she had been unfaithful.
Diana died in Paris car crash in 1997. Charles and Camilla were married in 2005.
