BBC used ‘deceitful behavior’ to land bombshell Princess Diana interview

Former BBC journalist Martin Bashir allegedly used “deceitful behavior” to get Princess Diana to agree to their bombshell 1995 interview — and the late royal’s brother linked the dishonest tactics to his sister’s tragic death two years later.

Charles Spencer said that Bashir’s strategy of making “everyone untrustworthy” to get close to him and his sister caused the beloved princess to lose faith in those around her and left her “without any form of real protection,” according to the Sun.

“The irony is I met Martin Bashir on the 31st August 1995 because exactly two years later she died and I do draw a line between the two events,” Spencer will say to the BBC in a Panorama special set to air Thursday night, the Sun reported.

“I think Diana did lose trust in really key people… And in the end when she died two years later, she was without any form of real protection.”

A probe into the interview — about cheating in Diana’s marriage to Prince Charles — was ordered by the BBC in November following a formal complaint by Spencer, that he had been tricked into introducing her to Bashir.

“Bashir was very good at amplifying people’s anxieties,” Spencer will say in the TV special.  “He was very good at making you feel as though he was your friend who was going to save you in a difficult and dangerous world.”

Spencer said Bashir — who quit the BBC last week — used fake bank documents and lied about Lady Di being bugged by security services to get the 1995 interview that was watched by more than 23 million people.

“Mr. Bashir deceived and induced him to arrange a meeting with Princess Diana,” the investigation, headed by former senior judge John Dyson, concluded.

“Mr. Bashir acted inappropriately and in serious breach of the 1993 edition of the Producers’ Guidelines on straight dealing.”

Martin Bashir interviews Princess Diana in Kensington Palace for the television program Panorama.

The interview proved to be the biggest blow to the monarchy in years as Diana discussed how “there were three of us in this marriage,” referring to husband Prince Charles and his now-wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles.

After the episode was aired, Bashir repeatedly lied to his bosses about how the interview was obtained, the report said. As questions continued, BBC managers covered up facts about how the interview was secured.

“Without justification, the BBC fell short of the high standards of integrity and transparency which are its hallmark,” the report said.

The BBC’s chairman, Richard Sharp, said the corporation accepts the investigation’s findings, adding “there were unacceptable failures.”

John Birt, director-general of the BBC at the time of the interview, which was aired on the “Panorama” news program, apologized to Charles Spencer in a statement.

“We now know that the BBC harbored a rogue reporter on Panorama who fabricated an elaborate, detailed but wholly false account of his dealings with Earl Spencer and Princess Diana,” he said.

“This is a shocking blot on the BBC’s enduring commitment to honest journalism; and it is a matter of the greatest regret that it has taken 25 years for the full truth to emerge.”

Diana’s former private secretary, Patrick Jephson, praised Earl Spencer and “the tenacious journalists who brought the story to light” in first exposing the trickery.

“After so many years it is a relief to know more of the truth behind events which had so many unhappy and even tragic consequences,” he said in a statement.

“I also acknowledge the BBC’s full apology which I received from the Director General this afternoon,” he said.

Diana divorced Charles in 1996 and died in a Paris car crash in 1997. Charles married Camilla, now the Duchess of Cornwall, in 2005.

Diana’s sons with Charles, Prince Harry and Prince William, were said to be united in supporting the inquiry into the interview despite their now-famous feud.

The interview made a star of Bashir, who went on to other high-profile assignments, including a special with Michael Jackson watched around the world.

He left the corporation last week, citing health reasons — just hours before the investigation report was handed in to his long-term employer.