On Thursday (July 21), the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) tendered an apology and assured to compensate a former nanny of the British Royal family for falsely claiming that she had aborted her child after an affair with Prince Charles.
The nanny, identified as Alexandra “Tiggy” Pettifer, had served as the personal assistant to the Prince of Wales’ family between 1993 and 1999. She looked after Prince William and Prince Harry after Prince Charles had separated from Princess Diana in 1992.
Reportedly, false allegations about an ‘affair’ between Prince Charles and his personal assistant were made by BBC journalist Martin Bashir to land an interview with Princess Diana in 1995. Pettifer had sued the national broadcaster of the UK for the harm caused by the scandalous portrayal of her life.
It was in that explosive interview that the late Princess Diana disclosed intimate details of her failed marriage to Prince Charles.
In May 2021, an inquiry committee set up by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) to look into the allegations made by Charles Spencer, brother of former British Princess Diana, ruled that BBC journalist Martin Bashir had used deceit to secure an interview with the former Princess in 1995. Charles Spencer said the BBC reporter linked these events to Diana’s death.
The statement issued by the BBC
Following a hearing at the High Court in London on July 21, BBC Director-General Tim Davie issued an apology and assured to not telecast the said interview on BBC’s channel ever again.
“The BBC has agreed to pay substantial damages to Mrs Pettifer and I would like to take this opportunity to apologise 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 stated.
“It is a matter of great regret that the BBC did not get to the facts in the immediate aftermath of the programme when there were warning signs that the interview might have been obtained improperly. Instead, as the Duke of Cambridge himself put it, the BBC failed to ask the tough questions,” he added.
Tim Davie apologised for letting the audience and the Royal Family down. “Had we done our job properly Princess Diana would have known the truth during her lifetime,” he emphasised.
The BBC Director General further said, “It 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 the executive committee level and set in the full context of what we now know about the way the interview was obtained. I would urge others to exercise similar restraint.”
Statement by the former nanny of the British Royal Family
Alexandra “Tiggy” Pettifer was successful in settling her claim against the BBC after a long legal battle. In a statement, she said, “I am disappointed that it needed legal action for the BBC to recognise the serious harm I have been subjected to.”
The former nanny added, “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 programme.”
She has expressed grief over the distress caused to the British Royal family. “I know first-hand how much they were affected at the time, and how the programme and the false narrative it created have haunted the family in the years since. “Especially because, still today, so much about the making of the programme is yet to be adequately explained.”
