LONDON — The extraordinarily candid interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1995 — in which she spoke of her “crowded” marriage to Prince Charles, admitted an affair of her own and told how in her despair she suffered from “rampant bulimia” — rocked England. Hailed by British journalists at the time as “the scoop of the century,” it was viewed by an estimated 23 million people and catapulted her BBC interviewer, Martin Bashir, to an international profile. But this week, old questions about how Mr. Bashir secured the interview have resurfaced in a two-part documentary that aired on the British network ITV on Monday and Tuesday, including allegations that Mr. Bashir used dishonest tactics to earn Diana’s trust and persuade her into the interview. Specifically, the documentary claims that doctored bank statements — purportedly proving that royal employees close to the princess were being paid for spying on her — were used to gain Diana’s trust.

Source: International New York Times November 11, 2020 09:21 UTC