Princess Diana's Lover Calls Martin Bashir's Bombshell BBC Interview "Unforgivable"

"It did affect me."

Princess Diana's BBC Panorama interview with Martin Bashir has since gone down in infamy because of the journalists unethical reporting and interview methods. Now, the princess's former royal lover, James Hewitt, is reflecting on the controversial interview and how it impacted his life, calling Bashir's tactics to get Diana to talk "unforgivable."

“I think the chap needs to seriously search his conscience," Hewitt told The Sun. "To do it by deception is unforgivable and there is very little road back from that."

During the 1995 special, Bashir asked Diana about her five year affair with Hewitt, to which she admitted, “Yes, I was in love with him, but I was very let down."

Hewitt added that the interview had greatly negatively affected him and sparked outlandish rumors, including one that suggested the former British Army officer was Prince Harry's real father (though Diana and Hewitt did not meet until two years after Harry's birth).

“I don’t know him personally, but I think any underhandedness—and particularly if it’s taking advantage of someone’s weakness and being a toad—is wrong," he said. "It did affect me and it had a huge effect.”

In 2021, Diana's brother Charles Spencer called out Bashir for coaxing Diana to do the interview, leading to an independent investigation which found that the journalist had used "deceitful behavior," forged documents, and shared misinformation with Diana and Charles in order to convince her to participate.

“I hope people realise that the whole of the programme should be seen for what it was—and that was to deceive somebody into saying things and doing things that they may not necessarily have been willing to say had all the facts been known," Hewitt continued. “It was not good for anybody except BBC figures and Martin Bashir’s career. It wasn’t exposing anything, it was just using lies and half-truths.”