Legge-Bourke’s lawyer, Louise Prince, told the high court the allegations had caused “serious personal consequences for all concerned”. In addition to the allegation in the case, the court was told that Legge-Bourke was falsely accused of becoming pregnant with Charles’ baby and having an abortion. Prince said Legge-Bourke, now known as Alexandra Pettifer, had not known the source of the allegations for the past 25 years, but that it was now possible the “false and malicious allegations arose as a result of and as part of BBC Panorama’s efforts to procure an exclusive interview with Diana, Princess of Wales.” Bashir allegedly spread the false accusations in his successful attempt to gain Diana’s trust and convince her to sit for the Panorama interview. In an attempt to gain access to the princess, the journalist also produced fake bank statements and suggested that people close to Diana were selling stories to newspapers. Originally hailed as one of the great journalistic scoops of all time – with Diana sharing the details of her failed relationship with Prince Charles in front of tens of millions of people – the Panorama interview is now seen as so toxic that BBC director-general Tim Davie, has vowed never to show it again. Davey apologized again on Thursday to the royal family for the “misleading tactics” used by the BBC during his interview and “for the way Princess Diana was deceived and the subsequent impact on all their lives”. He said it was regrettable that the BBC did not properly follow up on the allegations about the interview when they were first made in the 1990s. “If we had done our job correctly, Princess Diana would have known the truth while she was alive. We have let her down, the royal family and our public. “Now we know the shocking way in which the interview was received, I have decided that the BBC will never show the program again. nor will we give it out in whole or in part to other broadcasters. “It remains, of course, part of the historical record and there may be cases in the future where it will be justified for the BBC to use short extracts for journalistic purposes, but these will be few and far between and should be agreed at executive committee level and put in the full context of of what we now know about how to get the interview. I would urge others to exercise similar restraint.” The settlement with Pettyfer was announced in the high court on Thursday. She became a public figure in the 1990s while looking after the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex as children during their parents’ divorce. In a statement, Pettifer said: “I am disappointed that it took legal action for the BBC to acknowledge the serious harm I have suffered. Unfortunately, I am one of the many people whose lives have been affected by the fraudulent way BBC Panorama was made and the subsequent failure of the BBC to properly investigate the creation of the programme. “The distress caused to the royal family is a source of great distress to me. I know firsthand how much they were affected at the time and how the program and the false narrative it created has haunted the family in recent years. Especially since, even today, so much about the creation of the program has yet to be adequately explained.” Her settlement is the latest in a series of payments related to the interview, which have collectively cost the BBC millions of pounds in damages and legal fees. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every morning at 7am. BST Matt Wiessler, a graphic designer who was blacklisted by the industry after creating false bank statements on Bashir’s orders, was awarded hundreds of thousands of pounds. Diana’s former private secretary, Patrick Jephson, received a substantial sum which he has donated to charity, while the BBC has also made a donation to charity as an apology to the royal family. Negotiations with another person affected by the interview are believed to be ongoing. Bashir used his interview with Diana to become a global star, later interviewing the likes of Michael Jackson and then working in the US, where he joined the television news networks. Persistent questions about his journalistic ethics were ignored when he returned to the BBC as religious affairs correspondent in 2016. However, the 25th anniversary of the Panorama interview in 2020 has led to a reappraisal of the programme, with Diana’s brother Earl Spencer pushing for a full inquiry into how it was obtained. Journalists used freedom of information requests to obtain internal BBC documents showing the corporation was aware of allegations of wrongdoing by Bashir shortly after the broadcast. Bashir resigned from the BBC in 2021, citing ill health, before the publication of a damning independent report by Lord Dyson.
