In a video statement, Prince William said that the corporation had “failed my mother”.
The BBC and journalist Martin Bashir, who conducted the tell-all interview in 1995 where Diana famously said there were “three of us in this marriage”, were investigated into how they managed to secure the time with Diana.
Lord Dyson, the former master of the rolls and head of civil justice, was appointed to look into the circumstances and his inquiry published on Thursday has now concluded that Mr Bashir deployed “deceitful behaviour” to secure the interview, in a “serious breach” of BBC editorial rules.
In a statement, Prince William thanked Lord Dyson for conducting the investigation and that it was “welcome” that the BBC had accepted the findings in full.
However, the Duke of Cambridge said he found it “extremely concerning” that BBC employees had: “lied and used fake documents to obtain the interview with my mother; made lurid and false claims about the Royal Family which played on her fears and fuelled paranoia; displayed woeful incompetence when investigating complaints and concerns about the programme; and were evasive in their reporting to the media and covered up what they knew from their internal investigation.”
He added that it was his view that the “deceitful way” that the interview had been conducted had influenced what Princess Diana had said and ultimately “was a major contribution to making my parents’ relationship worse.”
“It brings indescribable sadness to know that the BBC’s failures contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia and isolation that I remember from those final years with her,” he said.
He finished by saying: “In an era of fake news, public service broadcasting and a free press have never been more important. These failings, identified by investigative journalists, not only let my mother down, and my family down; they let the public down too.”
Prince Harry also released his own statement and started by paying tribute to his late mother. “Our mother was an incredible woman who dedicated her life to service,” he wrote.
“She was resilient, brave, and unquestionably honest. The ripple effect of a culture of exploitation and unethical practices ultimately took her life.”
The Duke of Sussex thanked those who had “taken some form of accountability” over the interview, but said he was “deeply” concerned that similar practices were still “widespread today”.
“Then, and now, it’s bigger than one outlet, one network, or one publication,” he said.
The Prince finished his statement with another tribute to his mother, saying: “Our mother lost her life because of this, and nothing has changed. By protecting her legacy, we protect everyone and uphold the dignity with which she lived her life. Let’s remember who she was and what she stood for.”
Earlier on Thursday, Princess Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, also reacted to the outcome of the investigation. In a post on Twitter, he said: “I’d like to thank the TV journalist Andy Webb for his tireless professionalism in bringing the Bashir-Panorama-BBC scandal to light. If he hadn’t have pursued this story for well over a decade and shared his findings with me last October, today’s findings wouldn’t have surfaced.”
The investigation was launched last year after Earl Spencer alleged Mr Bashir showed him fake financial documents relating to Diana’s former private secretary Patrick Jephson and another former royal household member to gain access to the Princess.
The investigation was carried out to decide whether the steps taken by the BBC and Mr Bashir were appropriate, and to what extent those actions influenced Diana’s decision to give an interview.
