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Princess Diana's brother Charles Spencer tells PEOPLE that "appalling deception" inside the BBC helped create the conditions that left the princess vulnerable in Paris the night she died
New reporting from investigative journalist Andy Webb — whose work prompted the 2021 Dyson inquiry — uncovers how BBC leaders concealed key facts about Martin Bashir's tactics for decades
Webb says Diana's life could have followed a very different path had she been warned about the forged documents and lies Bashir used to win her trust
Charles Spenceris speaking up for his late sisterPrincess Diana— drawing an unmistakable line between the BBC's actions in 1995 and the dangerous circumstances surrounding her death two years later.
The 9th Earl Spencer tells PEOPLE that Diana was the victim of "deception" by the BBC as it produced its infamousPanoramainterview — a scandal that has taken nearly 30 years to fully unravel.
Spencer spoke to PEOPLE for thisweek's cover story, which reexamines the betrayal that stemmed from Diana's sit-down with journalist Martin Bashir. The broadcast, which aired on Nov. 20, 1995, became one of the most-watched and dissected interviews in royal history.
Three decades on, investigative journalist Andy Webb has pieced together the complete picture in his new bookDianarama: Deception, Entrapment, Cover-Up—The Betrayal of Princess Diana(out Nov. 25). Webb — whose reporting first prompted renewed scrutiny and ultimately led to the 2021 Dyson inquiry — lays out fresh revelations about how BBC executives knew more than they admitted at the time, and how their failure to act shaped what followed.
"There are high-ranking people in the BBC who participated in securing this interview, through appalling deception," Spencer tells PEOPLE. "I am sure that this led directly to Diana being left vulnerable in Paris on the night she died - and Andy Webb is right to hold them to account."
At the time of thePanoramataping, Diana was already wary of royal officials and shaken by earlier invasions of her privacy — including "Squidgygate," a secretly recorded phone call that became public in 1992. Feeling watched and increasingly isolated, she was deeply susceptible to claims that people inside her own circle were betraying her. Through his lies and manipulations, Bashir convinced Diana thatPanoramawas the only way to control her own narrative and speak her truth.
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Patrick Jephson, her former private secretary, tells PEOPLE that "Bashir picked a very opportune moment" to show forged bank statements to Spencer and convince him that Diana's closest aides — including Jephson and a senior adviser to Prince Charles — were accepting money to spy on her. "She was in a state of justified anxiety," he says. "It is not paranoia if you have reasonable grounds to believe that they are out to get you."
Webb adds: "Her life became untethered. It was frenzied between the interview and her death. There's so much that's new that I wanted to put down in this book — a first draft of history."
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Webb believes that had the BBC executives who learned of Bashir's forged documents in late 1995 sounded the alarm, Diana's life may have taken a very different trajectory.
"She might plausibly still be alive today — a grandmother at 64, enjoying her five grandchildren," he says. "The consequences were lethal."
The BBC tells PEOPLE, "The BBC appointed Lord Dyson to investigate how Martin Bashir obtained the 1995 Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales. The Dyson Report was published in 2021, the BBC accepted its findings in full and publicly apologized for its part in the report's conclusions."
Spencer believes the deception had devastating practical consequences for his sister's safety. Convinced that people inside her own orbit were betraying her, Diana distanced herself from the seasoned, professional advisers who had long ensured her security.
Diana died in Paris in 1997 in a high-speed car crash. The Mercedes she was traveling in with then-boyfriend Dodi Fayed was driven by a driver under the influence and speeding through the city while being pursued by paparazzi.
The 2021 independent inquiry led by senior judge Lord Dyson concluded that Bashir used forged documents to manipulate Diana — and that some of the BBC's internal investigations were "woefully ineffective."
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When the results were published, Diana's eldest sonPrince Williamresponded with one of the most personal statements of his life: "What saddens me most is that if the BBC had properly investigated the complaints and concerns first raised in 1995, my mother would have known that she had been deceived."
:She was failed not just by a rogue reporter but by leaders at the BBC who looked the other way rather than asking the tough questions. These failings . . . not only let my mother down and my family down; they let the public down too," he continued.
Read the original article onPeople