Princess Diana’s ex-partner, consultant surgeon Hasnat Khan, has claimed that the Duke of Cambridge “hated” her famous Panorama interview with Martin Bashir in 1995.
Mr Khan is thought to have dated Princess Diana for two years prior to her death in August 1997.
Now, in a rare interview, Mr Khan has opened up about his relationship with the princess and claimed that Mr Bashir “preyed on" her “vulnerability" in order to secure the BBC interview in which she famously said “there were three of us in this marriage” in reference to Prince Charles’ then-lover, Camilla Parker-Bowles.
"[Bashir] filled her head with rubbish," Mr Khan told the Daily Mail.
"Of course I am not naive. I knew that there was a part of Diana that wanted to give an interview but my question is if Martin Bashir had not been there persuading her, would she ever have done it?"
The surgeon added that Princess Diana’s son, Prince William, was strongly against the interview.
“[William] hated the Panorama interview and told her she had made a mistake, which had upset her,” Mr Khan said.
"But he was very direct and said ‘Mummy, he’s not a good person,’" he added in reference to Mr Bashir.
Mr Khan also said that he watched the interview alone and told Princess Diana it was a “mistake” afterwards.
In October, it was reported that Mr Bashir was “seriously unwell” with complications from Covid-19.
Princess Diana’s interview with Mr Bashir marked the first-ever solo TV interview for her. Broadcast on 20 November 1995, the interview was watched by 23 million people on the night of its release. Such was the demand for the interview, the BBC made a reported $1m from a sale of the programme to ABC, one of America’s major networks.
