BBC to Pay 'Substantial Damages' to Former Royal Nanny Over Martin Bashir's 'Improperly Obtained' Interview

BBC has agreed to pay substantial damages to former royal nanny Alexandra Pettifer, formerly known as Tiggy Legge-Bourke, after airing “false and malicious” allegations that she had an affair with Prince Charles and terminated a pregnancy.

The claims came from journalist Martin Bashir in order to obtain his 1995 Panorama interview with Princess Diana.

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Last year, the BBC launched an inquiry into the infamous interview, in which Diana made some shocking revelations at the time about the inner workings of royal life and her relationships with other members of the Royal Family, including her husband at the time, Prince Charles.

Martin was found “guilty of deceit,” as he had persuaded Diana’s brother Earl Spencer with false claims in order to secure the interview.

Alexandra‘s lawyer Louise Prince told the High Court that “the allegations were fabricated” and that Princess Diana became “upset with (Pettifer) without apparent justification” because of the lies.

In addition, Alexandra was “extremely upset and confused” over the awkward situation and felt as though “she had to prove to others that the allegations were untrue by revealing highly sensitive matters, including private medical information,” Prince said.

The lawyer added that the story caused Alexandra “great distress” that has followed her “over the intervening 25 years.”

BBC representatives apologized to Alexandra in court and agreed to pay damages.

“The BBC accepts that the allegations made against the claimant were wholly baseless, should never have been made, and that the BBC did not, at the time, adequately investigate serious concerns over the circumstance in which the BBC secured the Panorama interview with Diana, the Princess of Wales,” they said.

BBC director-general Tim Davie also said, “The BBC has agreed to pay substantial damages to Mrs. Pettifer and I would like to take this opportunity to apologize publicly to her, to the Prince of Wales, and to the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex, for the way in which Princess Diana was deceived and the subsequent impact on all their lives.”

He went on to say it was a “matter of great regret” that the “BBC did not get to the facts in the immediate aftermath of the program.”

“There were warning signs that the interview might have been obtained improperly,” he continued. “Instead, as the Duke of Cambridge himself put it, the BBC failed to ask the tough questions.”

“Had we done our job properly, Princess Diana would have known the truth during her lifetime. We let her, the Royal Family and our audiences down,” Davie added. “Now we know about the shocking way that the interview was obtained, I have decided that the BBC will never show the program again; nor will we license it in whole or part to other broadcasters.”

He also noted that the interview “does, of course, remain part of the historical record and there may be occasions in the future when it will be justified for the BBC to use short extracts for journalistic purposes, but these will be few and far between and will need to be agreed at executive-committee level and set in the full context of what we now know about the way the interview was obtained.”

In a statement after the Thursday settlement, Alexandra said: “I am disappointed that it needed legal action for the BBC to recognize the serious harm I have been subjected to. Sadly, I am one of many people whose lives have been scarred by the deceitful way in which the BBC Panorama was made and the BBC’s subsequent failure to properly investigate the making of the program.”

She continued, “The distress caused to the Royal Family is a source of great upset to me. I know first-hand how much they were affected at the time, and how the program and the false narrative it created have haunted the family in the years since.”

Prince Harry and Prince William spoke out about the interview last year as well. Find out what they said here.