69
knowledge, but Prince Charles’s admission was too much for him, especially since the day after the
interview had been broadcast, the Prince’s private secretary admitted in a press conference that
the woman Prince Charles had had an affair with was in fact Camilla. They divorced in January 1995.
Diana feigned indifference to the interview, and while she was angry under the surface, she also
had a certain admiration for Prince Charles’s courage and honesty in revealing what he did (pp. 262-
264).
During the autumn of 1994, Dimbleby’s book was first serialized in the Sunday Times and then
published (Bradford, 2007, p. 273). However, Prince Charles had already told Diana what to expect
in the book (Smith, 2007, p. 269). It was well known that Prince Charles had confirmed all the facts
for accuracy (Brown, 2008, p. 391), and although the book was well written and authoritative, it was
also one-sided: its main point was that everything that had gone wrong in Prince Charles’s life was
somebody else’s fault, and only Camilla emerged with any credit (Bradford, 2007, p. 273). Dimbleby
described Diana’s troubles as a reason why the marriage did not succeed, but Prince Charles himself
did not offer any negative judgements of his wife, either directly or indirectly, and one rigid ground
rule for the project had been Dimbleby’s pledge to exclude anything that was critical of Diana (Smith,
2007, p. 269). Nevertheless, the general opinion among the royal circles was that Prince Charles
should not have taken part in the making of the book (Bradford, 2007, pp. 273-274).
According to Bradford (2007), in October, Diana made a five-day visit to the United States, which
was an unqualified success. However, Diana was still searching for the right way to focus her energy,
but after the visit and a year of less public appearances, Diana continued her charity work again with
enthusiasm (pp. 270-272). During 1994, Diana had sharply reduced her official duties and made an
appearance at only ten royal events compared with 198 in 1993, but in 1995, she was back on the
royal calendar, and appeared at 127 official engagements (Smith, 2007, p. 275). In addition, she
made ten overseas trips (Bradford, 2007, p. 281).
During the beginning of 1995, Diana had already started to seriously think about doing her own
television interview in response to Prince Charles’s interview with Dimbleby (Smith, 2007, p. 279).
70
In the end, it was Martin Bashir who persuaded Diana to let him interview her on the BBC’s
Panorama (Bradford, 2007, p. 291). Toward the end of October, Diana and Martin Bashir had agreed
on an interview plan and they agreed to tape the interview on November 5, Guy Fawkes Day, when
her staff would be away from Kensington Palace (Smith, 2007, p. 283). This time, Diana was
determined to tell her story without any interpretation but hers (Brown, 2008, p. 400). On Diana’s
specific instruction the BBC released their press announcement on 14 November, Prince Charles’s
47
th
birthday: that same morning Diana called the Palace to inform them of the interview, and the
Royal Family was appalled at what they regarded as Diana’s second betrayal, first being the Morton
book (Bradford, 2007, p. 293). The Royal Family was stunned that Diana would conduct a television
interview without telling the Queen first and since they still did not know the full extent of Diana’s
cooperation with Andrew Morton, this was her first overt breach of trust, and they viewed her
actions as unforgivable (Smith, 2007, p. 284). However, Diana refused to reveal the content of what
she intended to say to anyone (Bradford, 2007, p. 295). Although, on November 19, a day before
the interview was to be broadcast, Diana visited Prince William at Eton College to warn him of the
interview (Brown, 2008, pp. 393-394). On November 20, the thirty-five-minute interview was
broadcast on BBC’s Panorama (Bradford, 2007, p. 293).
The interview was more devastating than anyone had imagined: Diana discussed the misery of her
marriage and Prince Charles’s infidelity with Camilla, details of her bulimia, her doubts about Prince
Charles’s fitness to be king, and her adultery with James Hewitt (Smith, 2007, p. 285). In addition,
she admitted to helping with the Morton book, because she had wanted the true story of her
unhappy marriage to be made public (Bradford, 2007, p. 294). She also specified that she did not
want a divorce and emphasized her wish to be “a queen of people’s hearts” and an ambassador for
Britain who would “give affection” and “help other people in distress” (Smith, 2007, p. 285). Diana’s
friends were horrified and the Palace and her advisors were in a state of shock (Bradford, 2007, pp.
294-295). However, the public loved the interview (Brown, 2008, p. 402), and Diana remained
resolutely convinced she had done the right thing (Bradford, 2007, p. 295), even though her
comments about Prince Charles did him significant damage (Smith, 2007, p. 286). In addition, the
interview was devastating for her sons and it was rumoured that Prince William did not speak to her
for several days (Bradford, 2007, p. 296).
71
Retrospectively, the most important single factor that had shaped the latter years of the marriage
of Prince Charles and Diana was their decision to involve the media in their lives: had it not been for
Morton’s book, Prince Charles would not have spoken to Dimbleby, and had it not been for
Dimbleby, Diana would not have agreed to her Panorama interview, and together all of these factors
drove the couple to a point which they could not return from (Brown, 2008, p. 378). However, by
that time, the media warfare between Diana and Prince Charles was immensely damaging to the
monarchy and it could not be allowed to continue (Morton, 2010, p. 251).
Consequently, four weeks after Diana’s Panorama interview, the Queen, having already consulted
the Prime Minister, John Major, and Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote personal letters to both Diana
and Prince Charles requesting that they divorce (Morton, 2010, p. 251). Diana received the Queen’s
letter on December 18 (Smith, 2007, p. 292). According to Bradford (2007), the letter was addressed
to “Dearest Diana” and ended “With love from Mama” and informed Diana that having consulted
both the Prime Minister and the Archbishop of Canterbury, she had come to the conclusion that it
would be in the best interests of the country to end the uncertainty and for Prince Charles and Diana
to take steps to divorce. The same day Diana also received a letter from Prince Charles, in which he
wrote to Diana that he thought that their marriage was beyond repair and, since by now divorce
was inevitable, they should do it quickly to resolve the situation (pp. 299-300). However, the
Queen’s intervention showed that it was in fact the Queen’s, and not Prince Charles’s decision to
end the marriage (Brown, 2008, p. 407). Diana replied to both of them by simply writing that she
would consider her options (Smith, 2007, p. 292). However, as a gesture of goodwill, the Queen
invited Diana to spend Christmas at Sandringham with the Royal Family, but she refused (Bradford,
2007, pp. 299-300).
In the beginning of 1996, Diana turned her attention to achieving the best possible divorce
settlement (Smith, 2007, p. 292), even though she had not yet agreed to the divorce (Brown, 2008,
p. 409). On 15 February 1996, Diana and the Queen had a meeting at Buckingham Palace to discuss
the divorce and Diana’s future (Bradford, 2007, p. 303). During the meeting, Diana and the Queen
discussed the issues that had to be decided upon before any money settlement: whether Diana
could continue to live at Kensington Palace, the arrangement for the boys, and if she would still be
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