Princess Diana Tricked Into Giving Controversial Interview, ‘Off The Record’ Promise Fake

Princess Diana gave a controversial interview to Martin Bashir in 1995 for Panorama. After her interview was released, Queen Elizabeth was so furious that she urged the late royal and Prince Charles to finalize their divorce.

During Princess Diana’s conversation with the interviewer, she was told that the things that she will say about her ex-husband and the royal family would be kept off the record. But this wasn’t the case.

According to Sarah Ferguson, her royal best friend was tricked into giving that particular interview.

“She never would have said all the things she said if it hadn’t been for the way he tricked her. He lulled her into a comfort zone by being this wonderful magnanimous man and by saying ‘I’m a family man as well’ and got her to talk that way,” Fergie told “The View.”

But the Princess of Wales’ good friend, Simone Simmons said in the documentary “Diana: The Woman Inside,” that it was actually the Duchess of York who encouraged the mom of two to give the interview.

Simmons claimed that she asked Princess Diana personally who encouraged her to talk to Bashir, and she said that it was Ferguson. Simmons called Prince Andrew’s ex-wife as the “brains of Britain.”

But Simmons agreed with Ferguson’s claim that Bashir tricked Princess Diana. After the interview was released on television, the two women had a conversation on the phone. Prince William and Prince Harry’s mom asked Simmons what she thought of her interview.

“I said, you made a real prat out of yourself. She was horrified. I said, ‘why on earth did this happen? Martin Bashir was supposed to be doing a program about your charities. What happened? He duped her into it because he got her at a weak spot when she was a bit down,” Simmons said.

At that time, Princess Diana was feeling vulnerable because she was dealing with her separation from Prince Charles.