Last year, there was a lot of energy around the fact that it was the 25-year anniversary of Princess Diana’s iconic Panorama interview, the one where she spilled the tea about Charles and Camilla, admitted she loved James Hewitt, said that she didn’t think Charles should be king and a lot more. There was even a documentary made about the interview and its lasting impact. Alongside all of that was the Earl Spencer – Diana’s brother Charles – demanding an investigation into how Martin Bashir used shady methods, manipulation and forged documents to convince Diana to speak to him. While I’ve always believed Bashir is slimy and that he likely did all of that and more, it also felt like a group of men were trying to wrest Diana’s agency away from her even in death. She wanted to speak, and it was inevitable that she would give an interview. In any case, an investigation was conducted, with the Earl Spencer’s approval and the approval of Prince Harry and William. The results from the investigation were released this week:
Journalist Martin Bashir used “deceitful methods” to secure his controversial interview with Princess Diana in 1995, an official BBC inquiry found on Thursday. The report, which was compiled by former High Court judge Lord John Dyson, states that Bashir, 58, breached the BBC’s editorial guidelines by creating two false bank statements to improperly manipulate Diana into giving the interview, according to a report in The Daily Telegraph. The six-month inquiry blasts senior BBC executives over allegations of a cover-up, adds The Daily Telegraph.
“The use of deceit in making factual programs would have been permissible only in the case of investigating serious crime… and where prima facie evidence of the guilt of that person being investigated had already been obtained,” Richard Ayre, the BBC’s controller of editorial policy in 1995, told The Daily Telegraph Thursday. “Those circumstances clearly don’t apply to an interview with the Princess of Wales. It would not have been acceptable to use significant deceit in this case.”
Following his investigation, Lord Dyson says he is “satisfied” that Bashir commissioned fake bank statements and showed them to Spencer. “Bashir also flourished statements of Princess Diana’s private secretary Patrick Jephson and Prince Charles’s private secretary Richard Aylard, which contained information that had “probably been fabricated by Mr. Bashir.” He did this to “deceive and induce” Diana’s brother Charles Spencer to gain his trust and arrange a meeting with the princess,” he continues. “In doing so, he was able to convince Diana to do the notorious interview.”
By this “deceitful behavior, therefore, Mr. Bashir succeeded in engineering the meeting that led to the interview,” Dyson says. But he adds, Diana would probably have agreed to an interview, with current royal correspondent Mr. Nick Witchell, or a “BBC journalist of similar experience and reputation,” as she was, he says, “keen on the idea.” Dyson adds, “I have found Earl Spencer to be a credible and truthful witness. On the other hand, Mr Bashir has demonstrably lied in certain important respects.” He also called Spencer a “credible and convincing witness.”
This caught my eye: “Diana would probably have agreed to an interview, with current royal correspondent Mr. Nick Witchell, or a “BBC journalist of similar experience and reputation,” as she was, he says, “keen on the idea.”” While some of this is true – again, Diana wanted to speak and Diana was basically trying to figure out who she should give her exclusive to – it doesn’t follow that she would have chosen a more establishment (white) media figure had Bashir not forged documents and manipulated her. Especially at that point, Diana knew better than to trust establishment figures. She chose men like Andrew Morton, Anthony Julius (her divorce lawyer) and Martin Bashir for a particular reason: they were all outsiders to the establishment.
Anyway, Diana’s sons issued statements about the Dyson report’s findings. Their separate statements were coordinated to come out one right after the other at 5 pm EST (10 pm GMT). You can read the full statements here. I’m including a copy of the release Harry sent out, and a video William made. I’m of two minds on these statements. One, Diana’s sons can say whatever they want about their mom. Two, holy crap, William’s statement is revisionist history garbage.
A statement on today’s report of The Dyson Investigation pic.twitter.com/uS62CNwiI8
— The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (@KensingtonRoyal) May 20, 2021
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Backgrid.
Williams statement…… lol trapped indeed.
Cain went full Joffrey last night. He stood there and called his mother paranoid. All to secure the crown and get favourable press. I wonder exactly what the press has on him. It has to be more than the alleged rose bush trimming. It will all come out one day. No one can scrub history books clean.
This times 1000! Full Joffrey indeed!
Im in no way williams fan but i got the impression last night that he was reading something that was written for him. Do i think the palace machinery had more effect on him than harry? absolutely. But it makes absolutely no sense for him to spend years blaming the tabloids (much like harry) from him then to make a 180 and only blame the bbc.
The firm has spent years trying to wash the stench of Diana of of them. And with the Meghan & Harry that mission has become more urgent. No doubt was william protecting the institution and thus himself (as he will be head one day). But i don’t think he actually believes his mother was “paranoid”.
Cecilia
You assume William knows how to play the long game because he will one day be the head of the Firm. This is wrong. He plays the short and impulsive game at every turn. History backs this up.
He’s also a weak man. His thoughts and opinions when he speaks freely show this. Mocking others and openly discriminating. I can give examples.
He’s a tool easily manipulated by his in-laws more than his family. And he’s been aggressive towards his mother back when she was alive.
I believe he thinks she is whatever is negative. Because she was an enemy of the monarchy.
William and Harry had very different relationships with their mother. Diana used William as her confidant and I think that clouds his memory of her because he saw more of the bad.
Mac
William was said to always had a bad disposition. And That was never to be addressed because he was the heir leaving it to grow out of control. Yes, Diana shouldn’t have said some things to him and yes, to see your mother break down can leave lasting scars, but the man William is today cannot be blamed on Diana at times confiding one her son.
William has his family and press feeding him what he needs to say to save himself. And even if he does believe what he said about his mother. Why say that publicly? I thought he was an elegant man?
It seems to me that the “overconfiding of William” comes from Charles’ camp. Penny Junor talks about it. The thing is the two were not living together 24/7 where Diana talked incessantly to William. He was away at school for much of the time, she did many appearances and royal work sometimes overseas, Harry, Diana said, was too young for instance to be told about an upcoming headline in the paper about the family. She went to see William in Eton after the headlines about Charles never loving her. The thing is the Wales’ were the most focused on family on the planet. And naturally there would be news about them, whether fake or true. Tom Parker Bowles also experienced this after the taped conversations of C and C and was teased in school. Laura Parker Bowles was said to be angry and resentful about the Prince.It was not boiled down to Diana talking to William. There are a lot of nuances to this. William is an adult now and should not have thrown his mother under a bus. Diana thought the sun rose and set on her sons. She was a loving mother to them. Harry saw some of the bad also because of the iciness between his parents or perhaps hearing arguments.
They’re going to be so proud of him for calling her paranoid! Next he’ll be saying she had Borderline Personality Disorder. She must be smiling down from Heaven at this.
@Mac, let’s not go back to the same old tired excuses and passes given to socialpaths. Oh he/she’s a serial killer because s/he was treated this or that way as a child…bull…s/he is a serial killer or rapist because he is that kind of person. Lots of people have their parents confide in them more than they should but they don’t always turn out to be socialpaths. William has shown these tendencies from when he was just a little boy. Hey, he pulled a towel off of his mother and exposed and humiliated her in front of staff because he was mad at her for certain reasons. So, no, William is the way he is because he is that kind of person, a psychopath.
The crisis managers are a crisis. That statement was so disrespectful, and even more so when placed alongside his brother’s.
@ Amy T, isn’t it!! I can’t believe that Baldimort spoke so much about her how horribly she was treated by the RF and Charles. Baldimort is supporting their narrative of her and never mentions that it was their mother, only MY mother!! Whereas, we see Harry’s statement as their mother and that the reporting and lying that the publications were putting out are still happening today, just as they were when their mother was alive. What a tremendous difference between the two of them. Baldimort should be ashamed for having publicly lied to the world of her paranoia and her fear. I am certain that she was fearful and took great lengths to protect her boys. It seems that Baldimort doesn’t have a spine and is willing to continue bashing his mother, just as the RF and Charles did.
William’s statement was dismissive, disgusting, and gaslighting. He really chose the monarchy over his own mother. He really wants this interview to go away so people forget what his father and that institution did?!?!
No matter how the interview was obtained, it was still his mother’s truth. She had the right to make her voice heard (and she said the same thing in the Morton tapes) This didn’t hurt D&C’s marriage, his father’s cheating and petty jealousy did.
I hope Diana’s spirit is granted a day pass so she can come snatch the last 3 cm of his hairline.
His statement was lauded by the right wing who are clinging on to the idea of the monarchy for dear life. Kate should be very very scared. If he can do this to his own mother and only brother he will (or may already allegedly have) do worse to her. I look forward to Keen’s tell all some day soon.
100% this! William is setting a dangerous precedent for any woman in the public eye (or RF) who wants to speak out about their struggles in the future. What if Kate does eventually find her voice in the end? What if Charlotte grows up, breaks free and speaks out about how restrictive her life has been? Are they all paranoid women too? William is doing what William does best by playing the short-game instead of the long. By doing this, he’s dismissing any future issues that will arise with his wife and children in particular. He’s truly dim.
His statement is also being praised by many of the RRs and tabloids, who see this as completely exonerating them from any role in Diana’s life or death. so therefore William can cooperate fully with the RRs and tabloids bc they dont have blood on their hands, according to him.
I’m confused by why the right wing wants a monarchy (e.g. freeloading off of tax payers). It seems to go against their values, minus the racism. That must be why they like it so much.
Kate will never do a tell all *because* of this horrific statement from her husband. If he can so callously dismiss and manipulate his own mother’s experiences, then Kate doesn’t have a shot in hell. She will continue to keep quiet and suffer silently, as we’ve seen with her increasingly frail figure.
Kate knew all about the restrictive royal bubble and she still signed up. I don’t think she is miserable, I think she has exactly the life she wants. If she writes a tell all it will be about how awesome the courtiers are.
It’s almost as if William were speaking as Charles’ mouthpiece. Not a single word made sense coming from a person who was a mere teenager when he lost his mother.
He is doing this for Charles. What a disgrace.
Maybe his DNA is speaking. Henry VIII is a relative afterall .
The royal family has many skeletons. Does anyone remember when Marina Ogilvy daughter of Princess Alexandra tried to speak out? At one point she was on the breadline in social housing but it then came out that Charles came to her rescue and provided her with accommodation in Windsor and she has been silent ever since. I still feel that there is a big story there.
100% gaslighting. He’s using this moment to rewrite the narrative in favor of Charles and essentially take away Diana’s voice. He also slipped in that he hopes the interview won’t be aired again, which is extra shady as Netflix just announced they are to air the unaired parts of the interview. I wonder if they’ll pull it? I hope they still air it but with a disclaimer. It’s history, period.
I believe the unaired parts that will be the focus of the new Netflix documentary are from her interview with Andrew Morton, not the Bashir interview.
Yeah, there are tapes left from Andrew Morton& possibly from her conversations with that public speaking coach which never aired.
You are so right, and it’s appalling seeing him trying to deny her agency by calling for her interview to be permanently shelved!
Diana spoke her truth in that interview. I agree with KAISER that Diana wanted to speak and if not Bashir, it would have been someone else. I think his actions in obtaining the interview were reprehensible; however, that doesn’t mean what she said should be silenced or forgotten. William stating the interview should never be seen or what she said referenced again, is — in my opinion — the Firm still trying all these years later to silence Diana and rewrite her story. Shame on you William. Harry’s statement — on the other hand — is inclusive (our, not my mother) and rightly states that this press behavior was and is bigger than just one organization and is still ongoing. Harry takes the stronger, broader view and doesn’t trash his mother along the way.
I think William encourages the bot talk that Harry should keep quiet about Diana. Because Will wants to get HIS side out only.
@Tessa good thing that Harry ain’t about that life, not anymore. He will never stay silent again.
“I hope Diana’s spirit is granted a day pass so she can come snatch the last 3 cm of his hairline.” = she snatched my spirit along with it because I am deceased at this. 🤣☠
Also ITA with the rest of your comment.
dupe
Did anyone notice how William said ‘my mother’ but Harry said ‘our mother’ . That shows the difference between the two. Harry will always be much more big hearted than William.
William’s entire source of self and influence is the Firm. He doesn’t care about anyone or anything else.
I want to know more about what’s behind the deleted tweet by the Sunday Times Culture editor Jonathan Dean. What are they hiding about William? Why can’t anyone speak freely about him. Who is protecting William?
I think most of those editors and reporters are secretly fed up with kissing the Cambridge’s behinds, while the true superstars and money makers have cut them off and ignore them. The Sussexes are the ones that got away and the papers are literally sitting on so much dirt about William and Kate that all that ass kissing is getting boring and not making them any money. They all know the truth about William and it’s only a matter of time before someone leaks more of it. Because, it seems to getting to that point.
He’s chugging the royal kool-aid. Feels like a nightmare that Diana’s oldest is publicly discounting his dead mother’s truth. I am so very sad that W has been warped to the point of rewriting history in his own mind.
It’s so interesting to me because its clear that whatever is being hidden, the entire British press is complicit in it, which means it can’t be THAT big a secret, you know? They all know about it. How has it not come out now?
I know people on here keep speculating about a child which I never fully bought into before, but if you think about it, it’s kind of the only thing that makes sense – the press would agree to protect the privacy of a child.
It could be a secret child, or a lot of stories of William being racist and rude. Or maybe it’s Epstein or Weinstein level bad where it’s an open secret but everyone just exists with it until they don’t? The BRF is emotionally really dark seeing how they treated Meghan. And Charles speaks up for and protects pedophiles and the Queen looks away while Andrew is friends with a pedophile sex-trafficker … where is the bottom for these people?
I think this is even bigger than Wiliam. All this proves that there is some serious ish going down. The lengths they are going to in order to discredit Diana and Harry is pretty scary. What are they hiding?
Whatever is hidden is probably the reason why they need Harry so badly and why they know William isn’t fit to be king.
Even conspiracy theorists are starting to question if the monarchy had a hand in Diana’s death. Harry’s alluding to the the fact that he believes they played an indirect role in her death (at the very least) and drawing comparisons to his existing situation with Meghan.
@JT can you expand on that? What’s your suspicion?
I saw that tweet and figured it was affairs (yes multiple) + bad behaviour. William cheating and not being a nice person in general as been hinted and discussed but not so in depth so it feels like an open secret
PLEASE tell me more about this tweet.
It was very brief, it just said something like “I can’t wait until the press can freely report on William” or something and then got deleted very quickly. He knew what he was doing with that tweet though.
The tweet was copied and can still be seen.
One day more truths will all come tumbling out. William is really digging a big hole for himself. Who has been advising the royals over these past years???
This is the second time I’ve seen gossip from a London Times source alluding to holding back the truth on William. Makes me believe that The Times actually has some very damning info and in return, William is coming to them first with more exclusives–the bullying claim against Meghan was a Times story; the “I can’t put my arm around my brother anymore” was a Times story. That’s all I can think of now, but the Times has turned very tabloid-y in the fight against H&M and its reporters are dying to spill the real tea.
I agree and I think its more than “William had an affair.” By this point all the reporters have that story. I think the Times has something more serious and they are being forced to sit on it. If you are a real journalist, that’s got to be maddening. Hell even if you’re a RR, who knows you need clicks and retweets etc that’s got to be maddening because you could make a name for yourself.
Wasn’t there a body that turned up in a pond near their residence?
Someone had speculated here that William had been compromised in a national security level way because he slept with women who were linked to Russia. And implied there was a bad drug habit too.
Of course it’s just speculation but it does seem that all this effort to keep quiet on William has to be more than just an affair, which is not really a surprise at this point.
What was the deleted tweet, or the gist of it??? Do tell!
ETA: Just saw above. That is some piping hot-ass tea.
The British people deserve to know what they’re getting when William becomes king.
Bess…I’ve seen a few people pointing out that William has the psychological makings of quite the autocrat. His statement seems to have caught the eye of quite a few on the British Left who understand the nexus of Murdoch, Trump, and Johnson. Is the British Monarchy really so powerless or has Betty just been “restrained” all these years.
Williams statement is the definition of gaslighting. My God the way he speaks of her being paranoid and all.
Harry on the other hand criticised the media but held up his mother’s honor.
“Harry on the other hand criticised the media but held up his mother’s honor.”
10000% this. So well-put.
Honestly, I sometimes feel W believes Diana brought this all on herself. It’s as though he doesn’t respect her at all or even like her.
I actually feel sorry for him.
I don’t think he likes her at all. He may ‘love’ her but no he has bought into the Windsor narrative. Very sad.
I have actually thought this many times as well. I don’t doubt that William loved his mother, but I get the distinct feeling that as the years pass and he gets older, he finds Diana more and more “flighty”, “ridiculous”, “whiney”, and that perhaps yeah, that what happened to her was all brought on by her own actions. He clearly does not respect his mother at all. He has 100% morphed into Charles.
ETA: @ElizabethRegina, you summed it up perfectly! He loved her but he doesn’t like her at all.
He absolutely does not like her and it’s why I always laugh when people say had Diana lived he would be different. Based on what? He was cruel to her before she died and he straight up despises her in her death. I think he would be worse had she lived.
And this is the man who is supposed to be dedicating a statue to her soon. A man who has been trying so hard to “honor” her with his stupid granny Diana cards and other shenanigans. It’s all performative. He doesn’t “get” her. How can he truly honor her at the memorial when he doesn’t even believe her?
I’ve felt that way for a while that William didn’t like Diana. I read an interview with a woman who was friends with William when they were younger who claimed he told her his mother “embarrassed him but his father never did”. I read this before the Meghan era. And that whole shoving Diana against a wall thing when he was a teen, where did he get the idea of doing that? Maybe something he saw happen as a child? I think this gives some insight on the House of Cambridge too…..
So, Charles who wanted to be a tampon never embarrassed old Will?
@MsIam – nah, I think rageaholics can come up with angry abusive actions like that all on their own.
Which raises the question what he’s willing to do to Kate when he’s in a rage. And when he’s home (which doesn’t sound like is all that common).
Ditto on the feeling that William has long held bitterness towards Diana. I think his relationship with her would be strained if she were still alive today, maybe even more than his relationship with Charles.
There was many stories of how William behaved toward his mother, going way back to childhood. Plus William is on record saying he resented the fact that his parents were away a lot.
William has some serious deep seated issues that were never ever address back in his childhood – abusing a parent is NOT a sign of a stable personality. I always got the sense that William didn’t like that Diana tried to treat her sons equally which plays into how Cain always tried to demean Harry.
I get the feeling that he’s treating Kate in exactly the same ways that Charles treated Diana and he’s enjoying the fact that Kate is acting in the ways Diana “should have.” As in, keeping silent, not fighting back, accepting the mistresses and bad behavior. I think he’s replaying the past so that he can change the outcome this time. Rather than it ending with Charles and Diana’s marriage imploding, Diana dying, and William left sad/angry, this time Charles (played by William) will do all the same things and treat Diana (played by Kate) like dirt, and it will end with no sadness or anger for William (also played by William). The “happy family” front will remain intact. The children will continue to have their mother. The monarchy will not be rocked by the scandal of cheating and divorce and tell-all interviews. He’s repeating it all. The gaslighting, the cheating, the total disregard for his wife’s happiness, mental health, physical health, and self-respect, and he’s getting away with it this time. He gets to do whatever he wants and treat the women in his life however he wants and there are no consequences this time. I think this might also be why he feels so superior to Charles. His wife is putting up with it, he chose well, he played it all right and intimidated her enough and strung her along enough to “teach her” to accept this behavior. “If Kate can do it properly, why couldn’t my mother just deal with it?” And “if I can pick the right woman and train her to deal with this and respect my authority and privilege as a Prince, why couldn’t my dad?” And everyone year that Kate sticks around, every scandal that she ignores, every mistress she plays nice with feeds the storyline that it CAN be done but his mother just wasn’t strong enough or didn’t care enough (about him as her child, about the monarchy, about protecting the heir, about protecting the Princess narrative).
Again, ➕💯 PAPERCLIP. Excellent comment, NONS : “ Harry on the other hand criticised the media but held up his mother’s honor.” And, AMY TOO….that’s a scary hypothesis, but a strong possibility too.
L84tea, you must be in my head. I’ve also felt for many many years, due to a hunch based on the vibes and certain comments in his interviews, that he saw his mother as “flighty” and just a whole “problem” that needed to be dealt with. ITA with other about him not actually liking her. He is a full on company man and has been since he was a kid. A Windsor through and through. I think he’s always seen her as some kind of crazy usurper who tried to ruin what wasn’t hers. I also think he’s simply a bad seed and that even if Diana had lived, he’d still be on tv calling her a paranoid lying troublemaker.
In all the ways Harry was traumatized by his mother’s life and death, Will CERTAINLY needs some therapy about it all too. I’m sure his feelings about her are very complicated. She was a complex woman, leading an extraordinary life, who desperately needed help she never really got. And William was in the center of much of it.
@Amy Too spot on. I think he is living in the past, trying to rewrite what happened, but it’s a losing battle in my opinion. The past always comes back to bite. Diana did put up with the behavior for a time, until she didn’t. Now I don’t think Kate will rock the boat, but could the same be said for the press. What happens when they blow up his spot? How do you move forward when you’ve rested your entire image on “the family man?” What happens when the truth comes out? He has nothing else to fall back on.
The press is said to be holding onto what they have until after Elizabeth dies. After that, they seem more than willing to rock the boat. They don’t want to be directly responsible for sending Betty to her grave. Will’s reckoning is coming.
Like Kaiser has been saying for ages: Diana was ready to talk. She had been wanting to talk for ages, she was just looking for someone to talk to. I’m severely disgusted by William painting his mother as a paranoid, easily manipulated woman who did this interview under duress, taking away her agency. This is the son that is going to be unveiling a statue in her memory. I saw some grumbling from a few journalists about how they wish they can start spilling the beans on him, so he is going to have to offer something new to appease the beast.
“ I saw some grumbling from a few journalists about how they wish they can start spilling the beans on him”
This. One of them is going to break and start spilling the beans on him, then the floodgates will open. I hope it’s someone he can’t touch. Like Dylan Farrow. Just do a brutal expose on him.
William has sold his soul to the devil and it shows. That’s why he’s shriveling right before our eyes.
Ronan Farrow?
W’s statement was awful. He’s gaslighting his mother even in death.
Methinks he is also gaslighting Meghan and Harry about their interactions with the press and subsequent interviews. Awful thing he is.
William is a straight up puppet and the tabloids have him by the string. That man needs to let his affair come out and free himself because, good lord. There is nothing happy or authentic about this man or his wife and the sad part about all of this is that the tabloids will eventually spill all the dirt. In truth, They’re not on his side at all and everything he does seem to be in desperation to keep them or to eventually break free. I can see why he envious of Harry. True Freedom and Happiness.
And correct.
The part in William’s written statement
that mentions the interview being damaging to Charles and Diana’s already rotten relationship is interesting to me, coming from a man who is also rumored to be having affairs and has been incandescent with gaslighting over his brother. The truth telling makes it worse, Will? There was manipulation here, but Diana wanted to get her truth out there regardless.
I guess he missed the interview where his father said he never once loved his mother.
Or the “whatever in love means” engagement interview.
I almost feel sorry for Kate. That’s her future King.
That tells of everything we need to know about Charles and how he treated his marriage and raised his sons. Who says something like that in an engagement interview? My gosh
Bryn, I sometimes wonder if Charles even really loves his children. Can you love the children that came from a woman you completely despised and disrespected? Does he ever think “I wish these kids were Camilla’s sons instead of Diana’s”? Does he see too much of Diana in Harry and that’s why he’s fine with throwing Harry to the wolves, not protecting him and his family, and treating him like an emotionally “crazy” man who’s being manipulated and is paranoid?
I have been saying for years that William is repeating his fathers mistakes – right down to marrying someone he never really loved/loves. The Cambridge marriage will implode the same way the Wales marriage did but less messy.
It’s so true. I imagine there was pressure on Harry to marry their choice as well. I’m so glad he waited until he was older and truly met and fell in love with someone. He wouldn’t have had this healing 10 years ago.
That moment when William begins to gaslight his dead mother – just like the rest of them. Harry’s statement, on the other hand…..”Let’s remember who she was and what she stood for.” Yes, Harry. Yes.
William is gaslighting his late mother because he is spineless and disrespectful. He doesn’t have the work ethic of Harry so he could never make it on his own. What a disgrace he is.
This is exactly it. He’s doing whatever he can to save the monarchy (and therefore, save his future job) because he knows he could never make it in the real world.
Harry and Meghan are able to make their own money, but Will + Keen wouldn’t know where to start without taxpayers’ dollars.
Thing is, they will NEVER have to “make it” in the “real” world. They will have all of their multi-millions to cushion their fall. Let’s not forget, TQ’s PRIVATE income/monies are in the HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of £££££s (real estate, jewels, art, investments). When she’s gone, (and Charles), even with taxes (if the monarchy crumbles), they ALL will be well set.
In a way, I almost believe it’s WilliWONT’s wet dream: to have all the money and NONE of the responsibilities, so he can prune any garden he wants to, with NO ONE to account to (because we KNOW he DIScounts KeenCant).
Something quick. I was watching W&K YouTube Chanel and on the first video they posted, somebody commented “Love William little sniff at the end….don’t know why “ That sniff was very telling.
William’s statement told me that he has a lot of unresolved issues about his mother that he has to deal with, that he will do anything to protect the Royal Family even rewriting history and he’s willing to be used as a tool of the right wing press. Diana wanted to talk and had been talking years prior to the interview so if people want to discount the interview fine but what she said in the interview was consistent with what she told Andrew Morton. The attempt by the press and Royal Family to take away Diana’s agency is despicable.
He will do anything to protect the royals because the crown is all he has. They are protecting him and covering up for him. Why we would he say anything to disparage his livelihood? HE would be nothing without the monarchy or the press for that matter. So he chooses the path of least resistance to keep himself above water, even if it means gaslighting his own mother. F*cking shameful.
Charles doesn’t want to be the one to drop the succession ball. Both Charles and the Queen have to put the throne first, and William is following suit. I believe that the Palace prepared the statement for him to read of course.
Just as Harry said they are all trapped by the media. Harry has broken free and is no longer going to play ball with the media that the Queen, Charles and William know are keeping them safe.
The scandals and intrigue swirling around the Windsors are only surpassed by Henry V111 in my opinion.
This just reminds me of the story in Robert Lacey’s book Battle of the Brothers. William watched this interview alone at Eton. He was embarrassed by his mother and was bullied the next day. When his housemaster called Diana to come to the school he lashed out at her verbally and physically.
He still believe that Diana was wrong and that she wronged him and the family.
Yet William said not one word of Complaint against his father, when he outed Camilla in an interview heard round the world. And in the book Dimbleby wrote, Charles authorized biography, Charles said he never loved Diana. Not one word of complaint by william.
Because he’s just as much of a narcissist as his Dad. He believes anything done is done TO him. He’s the one who matters. Over his wife, his mom, his brother.
She was a grown-ass adult in her thirties who wanted an opportunity to take some well-deserved swipes at her ex and his mistress.
Claiming she had to be deceived into doing it just infantilises her.
If we’ve seen one thing it’s that women who marry in are NOT allowed agency. All the PR pushes against that even when it’s ‘flattering’ (‘Kate picks her own clothes!!!!’).
It sounds more like her brother was deceived but now he gets a free pass for not asking questions or attempting to authenticate documents?
I’m with equality on some of this. Her brother seems to have dodged a level of responsibility, albeit the deceit was not his. C Spencer is not particularly saintly – see how he treated his first wife and her ED. And I’ve always wondered how good he made his promise that he would look after her boys. He went to South Africa. I’m not aware that he played a significant role in their development as children/young men, and I’ve never heard W or H discuss it. As per, I stand to be corrected.
The issue is not so much that she was deceived into talking – as you say, she wanted to talk. The issue was that the deceptions led directly to her cutting herself off from people who could have protected her. Bashir told no less than 32 separate lies to get her to do the interview – including stories of telephones being bugged, trackers on cars, staff betraying her etc. As her brother said, there is a direct line from the isolation those lies caused and her death in a Paris tunnel.
William is all Charles.
We only need to look at the current Duchess of Cornwall and the Firm’s treatment of Meghan (oh, and Fergie too) to know that Diana was telling the truth.
Edit – meant to post above, sorry Haylie!
I totally agree with you too though.
I disagree. I don’t think William is like Charles at all, he is much more cold hearted. If it wasn’t for the fact that Charles doesn’t want to drop the ball when it comes to succession he would have a much closer relationship with Harry like he used to. Charles is a much more emotional than William.
William’s pattern of speech sounds quite dictator-ish. Last night I was upset about the way he spoke of Diana, but now it’s whatever – he is part of the establishment, he can say whatever he wants to say about her.
On to King Harry, that’s how statesmen speak. He honours Diana’s legacy, recognises her agency to speak her truth and seeks accountability from the industry as a whole. He understands that what happened was a symptom of a much more widespread problem in the media industry.
I think this is a really good example of two things being true at once:
1) Diana was manipulated into giving the interview to Bashir.
2) Diana said what she said in that interview and meant every word.
so we can condemn the former while respecting Diana’s own words in the latter.
I was shocked at William’s statement. SHOCKED. Gaslighting his mother 24 years after her death. Saying the interview contained a “false narrative” and should never be aired again. Blaming the interview for the deterioration of his parents relationship – sure it played a part, by all accounts it was that interview that made the Queen say “divorce,” but maybe, just maybe, the emotional abuse from the royal family along with Charles’ affairs also played a part? I don’t want to go out too far on a limb here though.
Yes the interview was obtained through shady means and we should condemn that fully. But Diana wanted to give an interview. She wanted to tell her story. I know some are directly connecting this interview to her death – that Bashir is the reason she rejected royal protection bc she thought they were spying on her…..but I think she probably thought that for more reasons than just Bashir.
So he was manipulative and shady, but I don’t think that should take away from Diana’s truth. The fact that it’s being used to diminish everything she said, by her own son, is appalling.
Exactly. How it was obtained was shady, but what it contained was her reality.
William’s statement gives a lot away about his mental state. His quickness to demand that the Panorama interview never be aired again is echoing the Queen’s reaction to that behind-the-scenes documentary about her own family that the BBC aired once and then she refused to let ever see the light of day. William’s statement makes me think that all those folksy teas he had with the Queen at Windsor consisted of Granny gently referring to Diana as troubled and paranoid until Will believed that to be true. It’s gut-wrenching to hear him call Diana’s truth a false narrative. I believe that’s why Kate is smiling and guffawing through her life while getting thinner and thinner–because Diana’s rebellion against the firm was all made up. See, look at Kate? She’s smiling and happy and doing it right.
I have no doubt that the Windsors worked him over every moment they could during his future king training. I guess Harry should be thankful he was the spare because they probably didn’t bother with him.
100% agree with both of you. Part of William’s “training” for future king was to completely rewrite history re: Diana.
I’ve felt disgusted at William so many times that I’ve lost count, but this one might take the absolute cake.
Came here to say exactly this. 100%
Saying her words should never be aired again made me sick to my stomach. The way the interview happened was less than honorable but it was really important that she was able to speak for herself. To say it should never be aired again is really sick to me. Especially when she isn’t here to defend herself. Stripping her of her voice, her truth, even now. Just completely disgusting to me.
The monarchy tried to change Diana. Manipulate. Then silence. And now erase. William shows here he wants his mother erased. Unless, it’s to create pity for himself.
How can a son love his mother and say these things?
When I heard him say that I just thought “omg he’s full Windsor now.”
I think Wills always wanted that Panorama interview locked up and confirmation of Bashir’s treachery gave him an out to start demanding it. How far will he go now? Will we get a Wooten article next week saying the same? Will he call on YouTube to take it down? We’ve seen for the past few years how ruthless Will can be in controlling the press through legal threats and denying access to his family.
It’s very revealing that the TOB doesn’t have the same energy for taking down Charles’ interviews. After all, the same media hacked Charles’ phone calls with Camilla and blared the lurid contents on every news show and newspaper in the world. That entire circus caused Charles to feel as if he needed to speak openly on his marriage to Jonathon Dimbleby. Whatever the motivation, each of his parents had their shot at telling the truth, but now he wan’ts Diana’s words taken down and locked away. I just can’t with Wills, he is such a hypocrite.
He even went as far as to say people shouldn’t write about it anymore, and anyone who does or who already has should make sure that they clarify this new narrative that he’s come up with: that she was paranoid and manipulated into it and that she basically lied and made stuff up in the interview. He wants that interview completely cancelled from history.
Yes, l was shocked when he said that it should never be aired again. I am sure Charles and Camilla have been wishing that for years.
➕💯, BECKS1. Well said. And, HARPER, I agree with your thinking. No one’s talking about taking down Charle’s interview (certainly not William) because his is the narrative they want history to remember. News Flash to Royal Family: No one controls the web and it’s memory…certainly not you. History is not just written by the powerful anymore.
Sorry for this question here, but does anybody remember Will’s photos with girl’s leg on his neck? It was in university, I think. Girl looks like Kate but I’m sure it was not she.
Can’t Google it. Maybe someone have a link.
Diana’s brother also described his 34 year old sister as a “child” who had been manipulated. There is inherent misogyny, as well as white supremacy, behind this institution.
Her brother was not always nice to her. DIana was no child, she grew up fast when she got into that toxic place after she married Charles.
Her brother was not always nice to her. DIana was no child, she grew up fast when she got into that toxic place after she married Charles.
Maybe I’m not understanding this story, but wasn’t it her brother who was manipulated by Bashir? – and then he introduced her to Bashir. If she hadn’t talked to Bashir she would have talked to someone else. So the manipulation was for the BBC to get the scoop.
Her brother refused to let her move home to the 13,000 acre family estate after her divorce. Between that and his role in setting up the interview… I can see why he’d choose to focus on the media’s guilt and not his own. He was deceived and manipulated by Bashir first. Diana trusted her brother and his decisions led to so much pain. He’s probably built up some incredible psychological defenses to avoid thinking about that.
Her brother is an ass. He also said at her funeral he would step in to make sure Diana’s boys were raised with her light and heart. Listen to Harry and see if you think Charles Spencer bothered to do anything at all.
Well Charles Spencer’s personal life has been a right mess so he had his hands very full. I have lost count of the number of wives he has had. It seems that people have huge sympathy for his first wife and mother of his grown up kids. She always looks as though she has suffered a nervous breakdown. There could be parallels on how his own father treated his mother.
Lizzie. I said exactly this upthread. He buggered off to South Africa when the boys were young. He is unpleasant and troubled himself. I recall his first wife had a severe ED and he said something along the lines of “We were meant to be together through thick and thin…Well, she was both thick and thin.” How nice. And this after his sister commented on her battles with EDs.
William is using the same playbook with his dead mother that he uses with his brother. Lie, but if lying doesn’t work, gaslight, take away their agency and dismiss their voice. Rewrite history and then lie some more. William is truly a sociopath, he has no feelings except rage and arrogance. God help those children of his.
Harry’s statement was such a contrast! He again honored his mother and protected her reputation and her voice. He laid into the press, but he defended his mother’s right to tell her story.
Regardless of the fact that we’re not talking about a crime, there was prima facie evidence of what Diana was talking about: Charles was on tape telling his mistress that he wanted to be her tampon. So by their own argument, they’ve just supported the use of Bashir’s tactics.
Bashir used slimy, underhanded, deceitful tactics. Diana told the world what was happening to her and that she didn’t trust The Firm. These things are not mutually exclusive.
Just because she was paranoid, doesn’t mean people weren’t out to get her. As we’ve seen in recent years, she had very good reason to be paranoid.
Like thinking that her son William’s watch was a listening device… which is what Bashir also told her? The deceit was much deeper than just obtaining the interview, if you read the account of Diana’s friend Rosa Monckton, Bashir fed her all kinds of lies and poisoned her mind. I don’t think we’ll ever know how much of “her truth” was in fact the result of these lies.
No, I don’t think those things were true. But I don’t doubt for a second that there was an organized campaign against her by the palace, and she wasn’t lying about her marriage basically being a sham.
She wasn’t a paranoid schizophrenic I don’t believe she was that unstable as those people make her be and I don’t trust friends’ accounts either.. How do you explain that she travelled with the red cross to Angola for the landmines project few months before she died? and she carried that trip successfully.. a very paranoid person& unstable person won’t be able to achieve that
So basically, Diana was crazy, don’t listen to her? They are trying to do the same to Harry as well, hence that article by Camel-toe or Sewer, I can’t remember which, that America is “exploiting” Harry. These people are dangerous, Harry and Meghan should never go back there.
Fragile, easlly led – just like they say about Harry.
William is disgusting and the Monarchy’s Puppet.
Diana wanted to talk and didn’t want the interview given to anyone that was close with the Firm.
The interview was her and trusted friend alone in her private residence.
It was literally her own words recalling her life experiences and her feelings” on those matters.
It doesn’t get more authentic.
William is trash calling his mother a liar. He’s all in with the monarchy that helped manipulate, silence and destroy his mother.
Basically, what William is saying is that Diana lied. She was so paranoid and crazy that the BBC faked documents pushed her over the edge and she made up a “false narrative”. Does he really think that it’s the interview that caused the divorce – how do you ignore the Camilla in the room? I love that Harry’s statement says Diana was “unquestionably honest.”
William apparently did not care how Diana felt. He is throwing her under the bus for the sake of his DESTINY as King. I hope there is no throne for him, I really do. He is doing a gaslighting of his own mother.
Yet he will continue to play the Diana card. what a fake, with the PR about his children writing to “granny” and showing the cards. Shame on him.
Was Charles manipulated into giving his interview too? Was he gullible and easily manipulated?
Also Diana had already made the tapes for Morton.
I thought it was heart-breaking that William went all in against his mother’s truths. I really didn’t think he would go that far. I guess it comes down to protecting himself, which is neither kingly nor even decent.
Both sons got their say about this interview, but only one them acknowledged it was Diana’s truth about the mental anguish she suffered during her marriage. Only one son honored her. I have nothing to say about William. God help his wife and children because all that matters to him is the monarchy. They are all expendable to keeping the monarchy going. Thank God Harry got Meghan & Archie away from that toxic mess.
I think it really demonstrates to me that Kate would be just as dispensable to William if he fell in love with someone else and wanted to put Kate aside. He has I think a lot of anger issues. He will probably also be less protective of the spares, Charlotte and Louis.
I think William won’t acknowledge the mental anguish she suffered because that involves blaming his father, and he and his father are a team now, and I think William at this point probably does think “well why was she such a problem? Why wasn’t she like Kate who just looks the other way when I have affairs? Why was Camilla such an issue for my mother? Why was it such a problem for her that she was told to stop overshadowing my father, the FUTURE KING?”
Like we have all said that the royals didn’t want another Diana and Kate is far from that, and I wonder if William has internalized that to such an extent that he does blame his mother for the issues and drama etc. If she had just “understood her place” and behaved accordingly, everything would have been fine.
Harry’s perspective on this is obviously different and probably always has been, but certainly marrying a woman he actually loved and respected really reinforced that.
@Tessa – this is ALL a big warning shot to Kate, if she’s smart enough to see it. William is accusing his own mother of being paranoid, manipulated, and putting out a “false narrative” and trying to silence her own words. He will no less to Kate if he decides he wants to.
Well, William has always had an issue with Diana & this interview. Wasn’t he angry with her at the time and pushed her away when she tried to visit him at school?
William has been raised to believe the monarchy and the heir above all others. It’s been ingrained in him from a very young age. That’s why he’s unsympathetic to Diana’s pain. That’s why it was so easy for him to abuse and torment Harry & Meghan. He’s the heir, and therefore, everything done for him to others is the way of things. Same with Charles.
Chuck and William are 2 peas in a pod in every way – both are narcissistic sociopaths, this statement from William about his mother proves it. William is treating his wife the same way he treated his mother – he was embarrassed by his mother, just like he is of his wife.
Diana wanted to be heard, she wanted to tell the world what its really like to be married into the BRF – she wanted everyone to know her truth.
The best description I read re TOB’s speech on twitter:
Crownsplaining.
Love it.
The way Bashir lied to and manipulated Diana and her brother led to her death. She was convinced she was being spied on because of those forged documents and refused Royal security after her divorce. She died because her security did not protect her. It has been said many times that Royal protection officers would have prevented her from getting into a car with a drunk driver. Even her brother admits that is true.
That’s the only point I agree with. She was always going to talk but I think it’s plausible what Bashir did caused her to reject royal security and left her open to what happened.
Leaving out the conspiracy theories, heart specialists like Barnard always believed Diana would have survived if she had gotten to the hospital ASAP. In this case the “stablizing” did not work, she was bleeding to death and apparently the full extent of her injuries were not known. It is like the case of Ronald Reagan after the assassination attempt, his injuries were not apparent (and they were life threatening) until he was taken to the hospital. He was whisked to the hospital in the limo. If they had chugged along Stabilizing it was said he would have been a goner. I think the system over there was a HUGE contributing cause of her death.
Years ago Harry said he would always wonder what happened in that tunnel. He has his suspicions. So many things, the cameras going off that night, the very slow trip to the hospital of the ambulance, which bypassed another hospital a short distance away. And the only survivor has amnesia and can’t remember the details. Obviously the survivor/guard allowed the “drunk” driver to take the wheel. What was with that?
if you haven’t listened already I really, really recommend the episode of You’re Wrong About on Diana’s death. it methodically debunks a lot of the seemingly ‘suspicious’ aspects of her death (like the ‘very slow trip to the hospital’, which is due to French paramedic protocol being to stabilise the patient at the scene vs. rushing them to the hospital a la British/US practice).
I think it would be a tremendous feat for anyone to have deliberately orchestrated Diana’s death, and to have kept everyone involved schtum all these years. particularly given the number of photogs following her at that time.
I’m listening to the podcast now, and its interesting because it puts a lot into context, but its far from the be-all and end-all that many people claim it to be about Diana’s life. He’s basically just comparing notes. Many people here know way more about Diana than that podcast.
Diana’s death was tragic, but not some crazy conspiracy. The BRF can’t go 2 days without changing narratives entirely.
And Diana was right to not trust her Firm security. They were spies. This is known. But bad choices were made. And no one has said they kept Diana from wearing a seatbelt.
what bothers me about Diana’s death is that some blame HER because she did not buckle up. Even her two sisters spoke up and wondered why she did not buckle up because she did so ‘religiously”. Her security people said the same. The bodyguard who has amnesia can’t explain why he did not check the seatbelts and why he was the ONLY one who wore one. That either seems sloppy on his part OR the seatbelts “worked” but could not stretch so Diana could not secure them. Also why did not the guard monitor the situation, instead of rushing into a car that was NEWly deployed (and it had been stolen), did not check out the car. It is not necessarily conspiracy theory but it shows a certain lack of care taken of those in the car.
Tessa
Yes there were a million things in motion. I am not blaming Diana for her own death. I’m saying the conspiracy doesn’t hold water. And I’m using the example that it’s widely believed she would have survived had she put on her seatbelt.
I have also heard how she baited the press into chasing her as she told them directly that she would going to give them something big. Which is playing with fire, but also not her fault.
Bashir is disgusting, the BBC deserves the condemnation it is getting & Diana’s family have every right to be furious and hurt at their actions. However it is simplistic to put all the blame on the panorama interview for the events that led to her death. I don’t think those statements alone is why she was paranoid & found it hard to trust people. Charles’ camp was briefing against her and her inquest found she was being trailed by foreign security services. She wanted to get her side across after Charles’ interview the year before so likely would have done an interview with anyone she felt she could trust & doubt the content of such interview would have been vastly different.
I was shocked by William’s authoritarian demands for the interview never to air again & suggesting the interview is a false narrative. I mean what she said about the affairs or her mental health being used against her is true. Seems like a warning shot to Netflix & others who will document that stage of Diana’s life.
Bill seems to have joined the right wing campaign to bring down the BBC-an org people like Murdoch hate – the Beeb wasn’t the only one being unethical re Diana & his statement like Harry’s could have reflected that. Awkward then that he’s got the earth shot prize & doc with the BBC. Interesting times.
It is on record that Charles pals leaked stories and even spoke outright against her. Nicholas Soames said she was in the “final stages” of paranoia. Talk about gaslighting. It also started in the eighties when stories were leaked about Diana “getting rid of” Harvey the dog because she was “jealous” of the dog. In reality, the dog was incontinent and it would have been putting the family in danger of disease, if Harvey stayed, so he was moved to a kennel (a royal kennel).I don’t blame Diana for being suspicious. Camilla was giving her side of the story for ten years according to Sun Editor Stuart Higgins. Higgins himself confirmed this. Charles did a very damaging interview in 1994, which forced the Parker Bowles to divorce. And his book, The Prince of Wales by Dimbleby was based on extensive interviews with the prince, and he complained about his parents and said he never loved Diana. Where is William’s outrage?
The interview seems to have been scrubbed from youtube
That may be so (I guess no one will ever know) but the really sad thing is that she’d have been far more likely to have survived if she’d been wearing a seatbelt.
At the same time, we have to admit that she was spied by press and that in the past staffers had acted disrespectfully. I mean Bashir should never have falsified documents and her brother shouldn’t have been greedy. That said, there were hidden cameras in her gym taking pictures of her without her consent (spying). And her phone had been taped (spying). And the staff / aides back then also loved leaking to the press.
Yes, Royal protection would have saved her because she wouldn’t have gotten into a car with a drunk driver. At the same time, I can absolutely understand how she ended up believing Bashir.
Sounds to me like william is calling his mother wrong for speaking out at all. However that’s just my take. Harry I like better.
so he did not complain about Charles publicly outing Camilla?
Nah, daddy is the heir, must protect the heir at all cost. Hence why they did and continue to do to Harry what they are
As others have said above, Diana was going to give an interview to someone Bashir just made it him + maybe sped up the timeline slightly by forging documents – which he was a fool to do.
I do have a lot of mixed feelings about William’s statement but I also understand that this is a very emotional issue for him therefore his anger comes through in the words and phrases he used. However I will say that the line of the interview never being aired again is… not a good road to go down on.
Reading William’s statement that called his mother’s words “a false narrative” was horrifying, like a pit in your stomach horrifying. After yesterday’s story about netflix, immediately wondered if they were trying to prevent the crown from using anything to do with the panorama interview. But I mean there’s so much else they can use? So then it’s like well it’s weakening the bbc. It’s really rich to hear the tabloids talk about the bbc’s corruption while acting morally superior. And then finally, he’s trying to discount all of Harry’s interviews as paranoia. So many birds with one stone and truly horrifying.
Thank god Meghan has all those emails and such and that she told other people what was going on. No wonder the “Firm” hates her. They can try and gaslight Harry if they want to but they may end up blowing up their own shit in the process.
@MsIam, this. William’s claim of ‘false narrative’ sounds like a version of ‘recollections may vary’. It seems like he’s giving his okay to royal rota’s/BM to keep going after Harry & Meghan. William, it’s only paranoia until you find out it’s the truth. Shame on you for your cold hearted words about your mother. If the crisis managers were involved in this statement they’re succeeding at making him look worse, which I didn’t think was possible.
So glad Meghan & Harry have their receipts.
He was actually doing gaslighting re: his mother! How does he know what is “true.” What a sell out.
The wisp of hair blowing on William’s head was quite unsettling. For God sakes, William shave it all off. Bravo to Harry, to always present the unvarnished truth, it is not easy to bare ones soul
Watching them trying strip Diana of her truth, even in death is really really sickening. Was the interview obtained in shady ways? ABSOLUTELY. He played on feelings she already had! But it takes away NOTHING from what she said and experienced. That interview was gonna happen whether or not that reporter obtained access ethically. If it wasn’t him, it would’ve been someone else. Diana wanted to talk. She WANTED her words out there.
William went on about how HER interview caused bad feelings between his parents. William leaves out Charles’ interview over a year before Diana’s and his revelations in his authorized bio by Dimbleby. Charles outed Camilla and also told his biographer he did not love William and Harry’s mother. How bad is that? William is a sell out. Also the general way Charles treated Diana from the start.
This! CHARLES opened this door first!! William repulses me.
Of course, he’s a sellout, Charles holds the purse strings. Once Will is over the Duchy of Cornwall and its income, I wonder if his views will change?
He was always mad about this interview because he was in school and embarrassed she said she had an affair. Now he can say it should never be aired again.
William is a huge disappointment. How could he do that to his own mother! He doesn’t respect her truth. He effectively confirmed what the British media and the monarchy had been saying about Diana long before she died— that she was mad and unhinged. What an ungrateful son.
Is the Morton book going to be suppressed next? I wonder.
I see a lot of people excusing Bashir’s deception on the grounds that Diana wanted to give an interview. It’s not acceptable to lie someone into giving you the interview. It wasn’t Bashir or no one, she would have found another outlet. Deception is deception and it doesn’t erase her agency that she wanted to talk to say that was deceived.
I don’t know about elsewhere but if you read through the replies here you will clearly see that people are calling out Bashir for his unscrupulous methods of obtaining the interview. I don’t see anyone approving his deception. What people are mostly saying is that despite how the interview was obtained, those were Diana’s words and she said what she said and what she said is consistent with what she’s said in other areas – the tapes and conversations with people she trusted.
I feel like the fact remains that even though the interview was secured in a terrible way, what she said was still 100% true. Harry knows this, and Will is unwilling to accept this.
I’m actually shocked by what Willie said. He is legit trying to re-write history and take his mothers words away from her. Bashir is a snake, but we always knew that, it’s not exactly new information.
Diana said what she said and meant every word of it. Those who want to doubt her, look at the Morton book released 3 years earlier, or are they going to attack that next? What about the Diana tapes? Every royal expert can speak for Diana, but those few times she went on record are being taken from her.
Gawd William is well and truly on the dark side for him to throw his mothers entire legacy under the bus. Whatever dirt the media has on him goes well beyond rose or any cheating he may have done. I’m starting to think there’s something much much worse going on with him. And don’t get me started on Diana’s brother, he’s just as shady as the rest of them.
Atleast Diana has one loyal son.
I think what’s going on with Willie is so terrible that it could legit remove him from the line of succession. I think this and this alone is the reason the firm and the BM is so desperate to get Harry back and without Meghan and family because it’s like they think he is the real future of that stupid monarchy. What have you done Willileaks? What’s so terrible that you would throw your own beloved mother under the bus after spending multiple years sabotaging and gaslighting your only brother and his family. It must be really terrible indeed and I hope I get to live to see it revealed, because make no mistake, it will come to light one day. Now that the world’s suspicion has been awakened that revelation will be sooner rather than later. It will be interesting to see how far further afoot Willileaks is willing to go to protect his terrible secrets.
That’s what I’m thinking. We already know he’s a cheater. I’m wondering if the bbc were planning on dropping some tea on William and this was an oppo dump to get ahead. So if they drop anything on William now, they can just say it was because he called them out for what they did to Diana.
I think it would be beneficial to take a step back and allow William to say what he wants to say about his mother. It’s not a binary concept. Diana was treated horribly AND she also suffered mental health issues that included paranoia at the end of her life. I am in no way defending William or the royal family, but they did not have Diana killed. He is entitled to speak about his private relationship with his mother that the public was not privy to. And I fear we are falling back into the Saint Diana narrative, which robs her of agency, infantilizes her, and quite honestly reduces a fascinating, complex human being to a martyr of the royal family. F*ck the monarchy and she deserves better than that.
She did have agency, that’s the whole point many of us are making. William is the one infantilizing her and acting like she only gave that interview (which was a “false narrative” according to him) because of Bashir’s deception. But she had agency and choices and she wanted to give an interview.
Diana was not treated well by that family. She was ousted. She did not have “paranoia”. She reacted to bad treatment by that clan. Diana was human not a saint. even many of her fans did not say she was a saint, I have never heard her called a saint.
Girl, please. You gave your royalist self away with that “Saint Diana” nonsense. Only people who hate her call her that.
Bashir deserves to be called out for his deception, but dismissing Diana’s experiences as a “false narrative” and “paranoia” is beyond the pale. I don’t believe William is simply parroting the RF’s party line either; it’s been obvious that he has mixed feelings towards his mother. It’s appalling that he is attempting to discredit her AND dictate what should/shouldn’t be shown in the media. This is the full weight of the monarchy’s power at play here. It doesn’t necessarily feel that way because we have social media able to fact check and call people out in real time. But imagine if this had happened in 2000 or 2005.
This kind of gaslighting and deception is exactly why Harry and Meghan are better off in the US. The techniques used against them now are what’s been used against Diana. Calling Harry paranoid and claiming media outlets are manipulating/exploiting him, imposing a “she’s making it all up, she’s attention seeking” narrative on Meghan’s experiences (“recollections may vary”)…it’s all been done before. I can’t imagine how Harry must feel reading/seeing his brother’s statement. It’s a slap in the face to all the experiences they’ve shared as Diana’s sons. He’s previously indicated that his relationship with William is basically done, but this latest event might really sharpen that reality.
Also…Kate is well and truly screwed. William easily tossed Diana under the bus with a few pointed statements. He can and will do the same to her without a second thought if she dares to step out of line. This is a warning to stay cooperative and quiet regardless of how their marriage pans out. If he ever divorces her, she’d better take whatever settlement he gives her and keep her mouth shut. If she ever feels like airing out her grievances, she’d better think again. I still don’t pity her as she knew exactly who he was before marrying him, but it’s clear that she’s in over her head.
It’s troubling when I see the same kind of framing around Harry, and especially his interview with Oprah. Remember how they actually tried to say that Oprah was “using” the Sussexes? How they label Harry as “troubled” and imply that he’s being melodramatic about the threats to his family and wellbeing? They would love to silence him, too, if they only could.
Charles and his sons all have “mommy issues” and this affects their life choices until today. William and Harry have “mommy” issues because their mother died when they were both in their formative years, Harry is working through his issues with therapy and choosing to step a way from a toxic family. William has decided to adopt his father’s way of thinking and used his mother’s memory to manipulate people. Charles has mommy issues because his mother was distant when he was a child and because she is still alive and prevents him from fulfilling is destiny as king.
i think she would still be alive if not for that interview. i think his lies, which he backed up with documents, contributed to her isolating herself. I think that since he worked for the BBC and falsified documents, she really believed all of it. If she’d had proper protection, they would have never allowed her to be chauffered by a drunk person. She deserved better.
The thing is Diana did place trust in the Fayed family. Apparently. Her stepmother worked for Harrod’s and was hired by Muhammed Al Fayed, who was a long time friend of Diana’s father. So it was not as if she never knew the family. Dodi Al Fayed was slipshod in his handling of that final night. His father tried to stop him and had he been present, Diana and Dodi Fayed would have stayed the night at the Ritz. I don’t know why the now amnesiac security guard let the alleged “drunk” take the wheel.
“Fake news”… um, reminds me of someone. Anyways, William is as always more concerned about the reputation of his family than the truth, just cuz Bashir lied to obtain the interview doesn’t mean Diana did. The interview didn’t make anything worse than it already was, it just made her more bold and speak the truth; nor was it what caused her death, but Willy is behaving like it was instead of addressing the real culprits. Like, get your priority straight.
William threw Diana under the bus. The Firm taught him well.
Love that Harry used his royal cypher on his released his statement AND stood up for his mom.
Diana would have found someone regardless to tell her story to. If not Bashir, it would have been someone else. But Bashir doesn’t get a pass for using deceitful means to gain access to Diana and for using forged checks to convince her certain people around her were being paid to talk to the press and leaking info about her. I’m sure plenty of people were around her but Bashir didn’t need to add fuel to Diana’s fear. That is manipulation and influence, no matter how you slice it. I doubt Diana needed to be convinced to do the interview but Bashir clearly falsified information to give her that extra push in case she had reservations. So yes, he did lie to her and he was dishonest in order to get the interview of the century. If Diana were alive today, she might have regretted choosing Bashir to get her message out but I don’t think she’d regret the interview itself.
Why do we care about this? Gossip columnists/reporters lie to get people to spill their guts all the time. Literally part of their job. This is 25 year old recycled gossip that they’re using to obfuscate the point that the palace engages and instigate racist and sexist smear campaigns. If the palace wanted the gossip columnists to go away or stop, they would make them go away or stop. This is embarrassing and incompetent comms.
I noted that William’s crazy statement was all about “my mum” whereas Harry’s used “our mum.”
Yes, l noted that too.
It’s interesting to me how a lot of British media and public are calling Williams statement straight up gaslighting and whitewashing history,and that he has dictatorial tendencies. Also, people are calling out the hypocrisy of tabloids attacking the BBC, while they were all up in Diana’s face during those years and continue to smear and attack Meghan today. Even one of his tabloid press minions Jobson is saying that Diana would have spoken to another journalist if it wasn’t Bashir. What the BBC did to get the interview was reprehensible, but the whole British press was and is so dishonest, the way they set up stings with wealthy” sheiks”, or tap people’s phones, or stage fake photos. That whole system was, and is rotten.
“Dear Granny Diana… Papa misses you very much.”
My ass.
What an awful thing to say.
Its true tho.
Learned it from William?
Williams use of “fake news” along with all the other gaslighting, “false narratives,” demands that the interview not be shown again and that those who write about or have written about must clarify that it was a “false narrative” that she was manipulated into because she was paranoid, all makes me very very uncomfortable. He is leaning hard into fascism, hard right wing, little England, brexit, trumpian, maga, Boris Johnson territory and it’s gross. He is gross.
It’s a bit of a leap to blame the BBC for Diana’s death. There were many circumstances that led to her being in Paris that night, all of them tragic. That’s all I’ll say.
There was a report at the time, that william told diana he would never forgive her. Looks like he hasn’t.
Makes me wonder how sincere the statue unveiling is going to be?.
This is my speculation about William’s trash statement-
Yes, it is gaslighting and blatant revisionist history with regards to the timeline of the dissolution of his parents’ marriage, and it’s very easy to criticize him for it, but on the other hand, I feel like William has probably always HATED that interview, and I’m not surprised he’s grasping at straws to try to banish it to oblivion. I don’t think it’s about protecting the institution or him turning into Charles 2.0; maybe it’s that a little, but I don’t think it’s the main motivation.
All the melodrama surrounding the breakup of Charles and Diana played out so publicly, and Harry was still a young child at the time and so was probably shielded from a lot of it, but William was a young teenager when all this shit was going down. We all know what young teenagers are like. When I was around 13, if I was out to dinner with my parents and they so much as flagged down a waiter to ask for something or to get the bill, it was the most humiliating thing that has ever happened to anyone in the history of human civilization and I’d want to fall through the floor and die at their shameless behavior. I can’t even imagine how traumatizing all the shit that happened with his parents playing out on a global stage like it did would have been for William at the age he was at when it was happening. Everyone talks about Harry at 12 years old walking behind his mothers coffin, but William was there too, a fifteen year old, and he was literally looking down, or had his eyes closed, or was covering his face with his arm trying to disappear. I believe in the years since his mother’s death, he has genuinely clung onto this notion that Diana must have been mentally ill to go public and so personal with the press in the way she did. It’s probably an idea he clings to so that he can forgive her for the pain it caused him.
Also, I can easily believe he was bullied mercilessly about his parents airing their dirty laundry in the tabloids as well. Kids at that age are particularly monstrous. He can probably ignore his father’s interview because no one cares about it, and he probably got over tampon gate even though it literally is the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to anyone because his father’s phone was hacked and it wasn’t his fault. But the panorama interview harkens back to a super painful period of his life, and it is played ALL THE TIME. I totally get that he hates it and hates the things his mother says while Harry hates the circumstances under which she gave it but respects what she said. He has more emotional distance and a more objective perspective about his parents’ marriage and divorce than I think William does, just because he was much younger when everything was going down.
Jesus. So much projection. So much excusing for the demonstrably problematic would-be king.
hey now, this website’s stock in trade is projection. I’m just taking a moment to play devil’s advocate with it.
I don’t know if I can buy all of this, but I will say that if Harry suffers from generationial trauma, there’s no reason to think that William hasn’t been affected as well. That doesn’t necessarily make him a good person, but he has a lot common background with Harry.
William and Harry both endured trauma because of their mother’s death. The main difference is that Harry has sought therapy for it and is getting attacked by the British media for it. William has not and just acts out like a very angry middle aged man but they pretend there is nothing wrong with him.
I agree that Diana’s interview & all the gossip about their affairs must have been so embarrassing to young William & Harry. And even though Charles went first and his bio said he had never loved Diana, our misogynistic society probably made Diana’s reveal seem worse in William’s eyes. Plus it was what made the queen order the divorce so was obviously seem as more damaging to the institution William is set to head up one day.
I can see why it is traumatic for William & why he wants to scrub it from record. I think it’s fair BBC can’t show it again although dot think the supposedly apolitical royal family should be essentially calling for censorship for this interview.
However saying it was a false narrative when some of the things she said were also said in the Morton book or in her recorded tapes seems a step too far. And Diana had good reason to be paranoid due to the palace’s briefings against her & because she was actually being bugged etc by the press & security services.
I am recently divorced from a narcissist who still attempts to gaslight and control me every day. My therapist recently told me, “ it’s not paranoia if these things are actually happening.”
To call Diana paranoid is shameful.
I’m long-time divorced from a narcissistic gas-lighter. He would say “I’m sorry you’re so unhappy, I feel so bad that I can’t help you, maybe you should see someone about that.” Yeah, you rat, I’m unhappy because you’re a lying cheater who’s been sleeping with your grad students for the past several semesters. Dumped the rat, got some therapy, moved on. He’s on wife #3 now.
OH SH**! Yesterday I saw a quick quote attributed to William that said something like “BBC deceitful practices contributed to my mother’s death,” and I was like “yeah, can’t disagree, why’s everyone upset about that?” Maybe it was misattributed and it’s Harry who said it?
Regardless, I’m just appalled that William seems to think or hope that the means of obtaining the interview INVALIDATES everything she said. She would have said the same thing, you a-hole, possibly to a different interviewer on a different network but she would have said the same thing and how dare you try to silence her now. Good God this is so bad.
He did not say that it invalidates everything she said, it is just not possible to know what was authentically her and what the result of the lies that Bashir told her. Furthermore, it is wrong for BBC to continue to profit from something that was obtained through lies and deceit.
Good heavens. William said Bashir’s deception made Diana “paranoid” and influenced what she said in the interview, as if her story was nothing but fabrication. As if she suddenly became a raving lunatic due to confirmation bias. As if she hadn’t deliberately given 7 hours of interviews contextualizing the same information for a BOOK three years prior. Knowing what we know now, should the BBC continue to profit from this interview? I think no. That’s fair. The deceit is indefensible and I don’t blame William (or Harry) for being incensed about that. Should we accept the continued insinuation that a long-deceased woman, who sure sounded mentally intact at the time, was in fact insane? And therefore erase her contemporary description of life within palace walls from the historical record? No, we should not,
Make no mistake, the last is what William (or more likely his courtier staff) is advocating for. This is how history is written, folks. We’re witnessing it in real time.
Diana just confirmed what she said to Morton
I find it very interesting that this bbc/bashir report came out just before Harry & Oprah’s “The Me You Cant See” dropped. Everyone has known for a while now that the docu wd drop on the 21st. But the public knew nothing abt the release of the bbc report.
No one can persuade me to think otherwise than that the Palaces conspired with the bbc to release the report on the eve of the docu, thinking the docu wd be derailed/buried by the onslaught of responses to the report and Will-di-Amin’s response (youll notice that theyve all tried to downplay Harry’s statement. Even Omid, obviously quoting from a Palace release, referred to H’s response as “Harry’s comment” but: “William’s statement” which, by the way, he delivered in a well-prepared media event.)
But, as usual, the well-laid but poorly thought-thru plans by the fossilized courtiers, not only backfired, but had the opposite effect. With the juxtaposition of both events (i:e the docu and the report & statements) EVERYONE can not only connect the dots from Diana to Meghan, with Harry right there to help you with the connection if youre still too blind to see; but young and old, monarchists and republicans, those who knew nothing abt the BRF before M and those who used to follow their every move, are now ALL seeing the naked, pathetic but DANGEROUS, and highly-choreographed farce that is the BRF.
As H said, never before had he felt his mother’s presence as he has done this past year. Diana’s spirit is definitely playing a decisive role.
You could be right. William actually thanked the BBC investigation.
The investigation was not conducted by BBC. It was by ITV, a rival.
Diana’s presence. That must be so comforting to him.
They can say what they want about their mother…. but actually not because I’m going to criticise one of them for it. I think William knows more about the impact the interview had on the final years of his mother’s life than you do.
William seemed to give his father more leeway than his mother. Does he realize that his father’s interview outing Camilla caused quite the fallout with the Parker Bowleses divorcing because of it?
Also can we all take a moment to acknowledge how incredibly AVERAGE William is at public speaking?! That was a 2 minute clip, they chose to do a video and they had the chance to do multiple takes and post whatever they’re happy with and that’s what they picked?! Seriously, the guy can’t memorise more than 4 words at once?! The constant up and down of his eyes is distracting and it just highlights that these probably aren’t even his own words. He’s also shifty on his feet and you actually see the top of the paper in his hands. Public speaking isn’t easy for a lot of people but it can be learned. Why does he refuse to put in the work?!
It takes two to tango. His wife is pretty much the same.
The rest of the British media are just as guilty as the BBC. They all contributed to Diana’s death. Piers Morgan you are like the traitor Judas— washing your bloody hands in front of the public. The world knows that Diana died and it’s on you and your ilk. Now you lot want to do the same to Prince Harry and Meghan with the help and approval of jealous William. The karma bus always arrives on time.
I do wonder about Charles Spencer’s role in all this and how his nephews feel about him.
He clearly failed to support his sister when she asked to live at Althorp and was involved in setting up this interview.
I understand it was his determination to walk behind the coffin that eventually led to the boys having to walk ‘to protect’ Prince Charles.
He clearly wasn’t invited to Archie’s christening, whilst his sisters were front and centre in the pictures, showing Harry’s relationship with them
LET THIS WOMAN REST IN PEACE
Diana….in life and death is still problematic for the RF. People forget HRH Prince of Wales was recorded on a private call telling Camilla he wanted to be her Tampax, so he could live in her vagina. Again, he was recorded on a private call! I am not making this up. So…all this and Bashir/BBC/BM was able to snow Lady Di with lies to get her to fess up.
But ppl wonder why Meghan found this sort of treatment detrimental to her health? I mean…go figure!
https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/a34736481/tampongate-scandal-the-crown/
Just for the giggles