The Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry's former nanny has received a payout from the BBC over "false and malicious" allegations used to obtain Martin Bashir's 1995 Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales.
Alexandra Pettifer, better known as Tiggy Legge-Bourke, appeared at the High Court in London for a public apology from the broadcaster over "fabricated" allegations she had an affair with the Prince of Wales.
The broadcaster had claimed the dalliance had taken place while Mrs Pettifer was working as Prince Charles' personal assistant, in 1995.
Her solicitor Louise Prince told the court that the allegations caused "serious personal consequences for all concerned".
In a statement issued on Tuesday morning, Mrs Pettifer herself said she was "disappointed that it needed legal action" for the BBC to recognise the harm she was subjected to, adding that there was still "so much" about the making of the programme that was yet to be explained.
The claim that Bashir faked a receipt for an abortion to exploit Diana’s unfounded suspicions about the nanny and Prince Charles is among “evidence” reportedly given to an inquiry into the Panorama reporter’s methods.
Bashir has also been accused of lying to Diana and her brother Charles Spencer to land his sensational 1995 interview.
In it, she famously admitted cheating on Prince Charles while also proclaiming “there were three of us in this marriage”, referring to her husband’s affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles.
Vulnerable Diana was said to have been obsessed with the bizarre idea that Charles wanted her murdered in order to marry Ms Legge-Bourke. The princess was convinced Ms Legge-Bourke had become pregnant by Charles.
BBC director-general Tim Davie said: "Following publication of the Dyson Report last year we have been working with those who suffered as a result of the deceitful tactics used by the BBC in pursuit of its interview with Diana, Princess of Wales for the Panorama programme in 1995, including the matters that were mentioned in court today in respect of Miss Tiggy Legge-Bourke, now Mrs Alexandra Pettifer.
"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.
"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.
"Had we done our job properly Princess Diana would have known the truth during her lifetime. We let her, the royal family and our audiences down.
"Now we know about the shocking way that the interview was obtained I have decided that the BBC will never show the programme again; nor will we licence it in whole or part to other broadcasters.
"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 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."
Mrs Pettifer said: "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.
"The distress caused to the royal family is a source of great upset to me.
"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."
