Scobie: Prince William is muzzling Diana & allowing her life to be rewritten

We’ve talked so much about Princess Diana’s Panorama interview lately because the BBC has promised to bury the interview entirely and never air it again. The BBC decided to do that about a year following the completion of the Dyson investigation, which found that Martin Bashir used “significant deceit” to convince Diana to speak on-camera with him. Prince William’s argument, since the Dyson investigation, is that Bashir and the BBC manipulated a fragile, paranoid, unwell woman (his mother) and somehow everything Diana said in the interview is fruit of the poisonous tree. Meaning, William has argued that the interview needs to be buried. Significantly, Prince Charles has always wanted Diana’s narrative deleted from history too, so William and Charles are united in this. The people who actually helped Diana tell her story find this whole thing puzzling, and Andrew Morton recently had strong words about William’s desire to posthumously muzzle Diana. All of which brings me to Omid Scobie’s Yahoo UK column this week. Some highlights:

Diana’s story: She is one of the most written-about women in history, but Princess Diana rarely got the chance to tell her own story. No matter how damaging the tabloid lies or hideous the harassment, the Princess of Wales was always advised by those within the family and institution of the monarchy that dignified silence and a stiff upper lip was best for everyone. It contributed to a tortured existence for Diana – one she only built up the courage to speak about towards the end of her life behind palace walls.

The Panorama interview: Three years later – and as it became clear that the marriage was virtually finished – Diana chose to speak out herself, finally opening up to BBC’s Panorama. It was raw, real and the most watched interview of all time in UK history. Diana’s decision to do a televised sit-down was rooted in a deep desire to be heard and finally dispel many of the false narratives told in the press. But despite requests from the likes of Oprah, it was TV presenter Martin Bashir who landed the exclusive.

The BBC buried the interview: Last week it was announced that, after demands from the Duke of Cambridge – and paying damages to a number of affected individuals including William and Harry’s childhood nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke – the BBC will never again air the interview or license footage from it. The network’s punishment was necessary and deserved. But given Diana personally wrote to Bashir after the broadcast to say she had “no regrets”, it’s puzzling why anyone would think it’s appropriate to remove one of the few first-person accounts of her life from the public domain.

William’s incandescence: Most surprising is the role her own son has played in the [BBC’s] decision. While Harry has called out the “culture of exploitation and unethical practices” that his mother fell victim to, it was William who took it a step further and claimed the interview now has “no legitimacy” and “established a false narrative” about Diana’s life. It’s a bold statement, and one I don’t agree with given that the majority of Diana’s Panorama revelations were already in Morton’s book years earlier. But our differences in opinion are exactly why it’s important for the public to have access to such a historically important interview.

Diana, rewritten: Without being able to hear Diana’s own words again, I fear we may be about to enter what could potentially lead to the slow rewriting of her life. After all, with stories of her suffering at the hands of the Royal Family and why she felt Charles was unfit to become the king, there are many aspects of this interview that the institution would love to be forgotten. Unlicensed snippets will continue to have life online (until they are no doubt deleted for copyright infringement) but the full feature, in all its context, now only exists within the dusty archives of a BBC vault.

The Firm hasn’t changed: It’s been 25 years since Diana’s death, and although the world is a vastly different place, ‘The Firm’ is largely not. Just last year we heard echoes of Diana’s own painful experiences in some of the stories shared by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex when they opened up to Oprah….Diana fought for much of her royal life to share her side of the story and be better understood. She put everything on the line, and her braveness has inspired millions around the world. Sadly now, her voice has been silenced once again.

[From Yahoo UK]

“I fear we may be about to enter what could potentially lead to the slow rewriting of her life…” Honestly though, we’ve already been there for years. The royal establishment has been rewriting Diana and tangling and misusing her narrative for years, if not decades. I remember all of those old-guard royalists invoking Diana’s name and memory when Prince Harry got his wife and child the hell out of that dusty place. They cried that Diana would be “so disappointed” in Harry and Diana “always wanted Harry to look out for William,” and Harry was supposed to be William’s doormat, “just like Diana wanted.” They’ve turned the iconoclastic Diana into a traditionalist and cautionary fairytale. Recently, when the Duchess of Cornwall made a huge deal about her 75th birthday, it was like Diana was being utterly and completely written OUT of every royal narrative too.

Anyway, yeah, Scobie is right – it’s shameful that William has thrown around his weight and demanded that the Panorama interview be shelved forever. It says something very profound about how he sees his own mother’s life and how he refuses to acknowledge her fight to survive.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Instar.

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57 Responses to “Scobie: Prince William is muzzling Diana & allowing her life to be rewritten”

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  1. BlackFemmeBot says:

    That’s why Egghead looks the way he does, his mother has snatched those blessed Spencer genes away from him and sprinkled them on H and his bubbas (the ones who deserve them)

    • Snuffles says:

      Snatched the hairs off his head and is slowly turning him into a pre-maturely aging old man too. William is rotting from the inside out.

      • Elizabeth Regina says:

        At least Kate knows exactly what would happen to her if she dares to open her mouth.

    • Geegee says:

      Erasing her voice is like killing her a second time…..and from her own son. She did not deserve this.

      • MeganC says:

        William was angry with Diana for doing the interview then and is still angry now. He really needs therapy to work out these issues.

      • Maxine Branch says:

        So agree with your comment @Geegee. William is one deplorable piece of filth. To try to silence his own mother’s voice and words is this despicable beings way of also trying to negate the Sussexes truth with Oprah. While we laugh about how old this man looks, this is just the beginning of a very painful existence for him. He loss the only person who cared about him when he betrayed his only brother. Those surrounding now him now are in this for themselves, their future and income. Pretty sure he knows he is not very well liked and does not have the respect of many. May his reign be short and his life miserable.

      • Hopey says:

        @MeganC
        Spot on! He’s been angry with his mother his entire life. So this is his payback. To his mother. A sod like Bulliam will NOT know peace.

      • SuzieQ says:

        I could not agree more, Geegee.
        William is a contemptible, selfish and faithless son.

      • Mary S says:

        It would be glorious if Harry bought the rights to the Panorama interview from BBC. Then, Diana would be silenced no more!

  2. C says:

    We all can see the parallels between her and Harry, and between the content of the Panorama and Oprah interviews. William knows this and it eats at him so he’s doing whatever he can to delegitimize both.
    People have said this is about Kate but I don’t think so. “Meghan” is now a byword for an extremely explosive chapter in the history of the British monarchy. Kate won’t be remembered in much detail, but this whole situation will. William wants to do what he can to shape that discussion.

    • Tara says:

      That is what I am thinking too. And if I remember it right, Diana basically said during the BBC interview that both,
      Charles and William are unfit to be king, by saying Harry’s character is better suited. And now look who is thriving. And look who gets compared to Diana. By erasing Dianas BBC interview from history, but leaving the claims that Diana was mentally unstable out there, all comments that refer to Harry as fulfilling Diana’s legacy will get reframed. Just as I read about the try to turn a certain twitter hashtag into mentioning prince Harry. As fascinating as witnessing this practice might be – I truely think it is criminal.
      It makes me lose my trust in every history book I have ever read!

  3. Tessa says:

    Maybe William will join penny and Ingrid school of thought that Camilla had nothing to do with the marriage breakup

    • Geegee says:

      When she was the cause….and the cause her Diana’s death in the end. If she had not been striped of her protection in the divorce she would still be alive today. They treated her as little more than a royal broodmare to get the heir and spare from and then discard like trash. She was just a child when he singled her out for this purpose. She was never a person to them. Camilla is trash.

  4. Kokiri says:

    He reminds me of that awful boy king from GOT (Joffrey?)
    Petulant, & always “ I’m king I do what I want”.

    Diana suffered, died & still she can’t rest is peace, & now he wants to take away her power too.

    Thank goodness Harry is aware & not allowing it.

    These are truly terrible people, but no surprise: absolute power & all that.

  5. Snuffles says:

    This might work somewhat in the UK, but the rest of the world will never forget. The internet is forever.

    I hope Harry writes a ton about Diana in his memoir.

    • BeanieBean says:

      As of today, you can still watch it on Amazon Prime. They’ll never be able to get rid of this. And I bet lots of folks videotaped it at the time & still have those VHS tapes gathering dust somewhere. It was probably also released on DVD at some point.

  6. Laura D says:

    Of course William wants the interview buried and to rewrite what happened to his mother because he’s still using the play book. It’s very difficult to say it’s all in Meghan and/or Harry’s head when we’ve already heard the exact same accusations aimed at Diana. I would also add Fergie went on Oprah and told the world about the “men in grey”. It wasn’t in anyone’s head then and it’s most definitely isn’t now.

    The “men in grey” haven’t gone away just because William says it’s so. The suits are still there and William has been using them to try and discredit H&M for a long time. Unfortunately for William this is the age of social media so it’s very difficult to silence and discredit H&M. Far too many of us have heard it all before and this time we won’t stand by and just let it happen. William may try to silence his mother, brother and his brother’s family but, their supporters will push back whenever they get the opportunity to do so.

    William plays far too much on his own importance. Yes, he will be king but, that’s all he got! Harry is his mother’s son and has inherited her “it” factor, and with it a love from complete strangers William can only dream of. The events on twitter have shown that being a FFK is no longer enough. I would suggest to William he takes a long hard look at himself. Nothing can stop William being king but, whether he will be a king who is loved is in his hands. He should stop attacking Harry and look at why his mother, brother and his wife are still VERY popular.

  7. ThatsNotOkay says:

    William, TOB, the POP, keeps showing himself unfit to be king. This is one of those times.

  8. Mslove says:

    Bill is a very cold hearted individual. From his business arrangement marriage, the deplorable actions towards Harry & Meghan and now silencing his mother for his own personal benefit. And I could list many more instances of his unnatural behavior.

  9. C-Shell says:

    It’s going to be a full time job to police the internet for snippets of Diana’s interview and quash them all for (BBC’s) copyright infringement, but I’ve no doubt Bulliam will have someone on staff to do just that and have BBC lawyers on speed dial. I don’t think his betrayal is so much about joining forces with Charles, he just wants the monarchy to be protected from this recent, damning history and the inevitable comparisons to Harry (and Meghan). It’s just fortuitous that Charles’ anxiety about Camilla and Willie’s need to retain the monarchy align on this one.

    They can bury the video and fight the copyright skirmishes, but there are transcripts, books, documentaries, and The Crown, to remind the world of Diana’s truth.

    • TheOriginalMia says:

      Yep! William can try, but the internet will find a way to keep that interview alive. In fact, I look forward to the TikTok generation doing what they do best. Shame on William.

    • Saucy&Sassy says:

      C-Shell, there are indeed transcripts. I’m looking forward to the Crown using the transcript to recreate the interview. That won’t be Diana, but if that’s all people have in order to hear her own words the Crown will fill the void.

  10. Pork Chops and Applesauce says:

    Will has been groomed to be future king and there’s no going back for him. He’s been conditioned for so many years, he now chooses the rank and file of The Firm, and to that end, Diana’s legacy must go. He drank the Kool-Aid, whereas “spare” Prince Harry was left alone and was able to hold on to and process everything about his mother and see the truth.

    • Saucy&Sassy says:

      Pork Chops and Applesauce, I keep wondering if Won’t will just get in his helicopter and fly off for a simpler life than a future as King. I’m still not convinced that he’s resigned himself to doing “his duty”.

  11. Puppetgirl says:

    This pretty much breaks my heart, how can that other brother be so cold hearted to his own mother? He wants to erase the truth and I very much doubt he can try to erase everything Diana has said which I believe 100 percent the truth

    I was just a preschooler when Diana died, so I’m one of those people who found out about her humanitarian causes and her life from stuff, I watched some Royal documentaries a while back about Diana on YouTube this is a shame of what The Other Brother is doing

  12. Amy Bee says:

    The royalists may not want to admit it but Diana’s history is being rewritten and William’s demand that the BBC should never air the interview again is part of that rewriting process.

  13. Harper says:

    Burger King is still a thirteen-year-old boy who never wanted Diana to go on television and speak about her private life. Now that he’s an adult with power, he is foolishly fulfilling that teenage desire. The BBC is being manipulated and publicly shamed by that little teenaged fart who still hasn’t grown up. How embarrassing for them.

  14. Digital Unicorn says:

    Its very sad that he’s tarnishing his mother like this but Peggy has always been his father’s son – however he has always shown disdain towards his mother, even as a boy his behavior toward her was problematic.

    There is also some sort of weird obsession with him about ‘owning’ and ‘controlling’ Diana’s image and legacy – he does not want his brother to have any part in it. I think that on some level part of this silencing of her is some warped way to get at Harry.

    Also, Diana also said that Harry was more suited to be King than Peggy. That gotta burn.

    • BuzzKell says:

      strap on, strap off: The Pegster!!!!

    • JRenee says:

      Digital Unicorn, I agree. He’s self absorbed and thinks himself above criticism. I don’t think his motives are anything more than a petulant manchild who wants to punish his mother, , even after death.. sad and pathetic. .
      Glad he can’t exercise his privilege on Harry’s interviews.

  15. Eurydice says:

    Well, it’s not like William has anything better to do. All he has to look forward to is endless pomposity and processions, festooned with medals and draped in dead animals, with an overdressed hyena by his side. So, he bites and snaps at anyone near his cage.

    Harry loves Meghan, Meghan must be destroyed. Harry got away, Harry must be destroyed. Harry is “Diana’s son,” Diana must be destroyed. Grrr, snarl, snap.

  16. WiththeAmerican says:

    I really hope Harry has a full copy. And that someone with a legal interest sues the BBC for it.

  17. CC says:

    William has always believed Diana didn’t belong with the Windsors. She was too different and he knows you can’t fit a square peg in a round hole.

  18. Plums says:

    It’s not surprising. William was a teen at boarding school when his parents’ absolute goddamn mess of a separation and divorce was playing out on front pages globally. Didn’t he freak out on Diana and scream at her when the interview aired? He’s probably always thought it was humiliating and is very eager to erase it from history while turning his mother into a mentally ill woman who was taken advantage of so he can forgive her in his mind for how much it hurt him at the time. Whereas Harry was a child and more personally insulated from the fallout, so he’s been able to appreciate the things his mother was actually saying from that distance.

    • C says:

      I don’t buy that Harry was more insulated. He was still boarding at Ludgrove when the Panorama interview hit. It’s that he was always overlooked and the press and family painted William, the heir to the heir, as the golden child and tied him to Diana. So his reactions got more attention. He never screamed at his father for the Dimbleby interview in 1994, it seems like it didn’t even register. Diana was concerned about how William was turning out and wanted to oversee that, but Charles’s paid PR shills wrote a bunch of dreck about how she was completely inappropriate as a mother and treated William like a surrogate husband.

    • Hopey says:

      Except that theyre both fully formed adults now and whatever their childhood perception was at the time, they can now process the same via the lens of adulthood.

      The fact that Harry can do that (i:e see his mother equally for her faults as well as her goodness and accept her without the need to sanitize or obliterate her) and Bulliam can only continue to see her thru the lens of his petulant adolescence, says a lot about his arrested development…………..which we can all see, anyway.

    • SuzieQ says:

      @Plums: You’re giving William too much credit. He’s not trying to find a way to forgive his mother by viewing her as mentally ill. He’s trying to bury her again because she told truths that undermine his whole exalted existence and to him, that’s unforgivable.

      Likewise, Harry’s characterization of his brother as trapped undoubtedly burned, because it’s true. William threw away the key to his own gilded cage because he truly sees himself as God’s gift to England. Where will he be if he admits his mother and brother were right about the RF? That way lies painful self-knowledge, and he’ll do anything to avoid that.

  19. Slippers4life says:

    If you go to the Yahoo Twitter link for this article and read the comments, PW has absolutely opened up the bridge and called every single troll to troll the article. If you look at the comments on Scobie’s personal Twitter link, the commes are far more balanced. They are going AFTER Scobie.

    • Laura D says:

      @Slippers4life
      Of course they’re going to go after Scobie, he’s telling it how it is/was, and not how William and his rottweillers believe it should be. William would have been better off ignoring the article. He had every right to go after Bashir but, to silence his mother is a step too far. William has overplayed his hand and obviously not thought it through. He’s going to the US where a lot of people still love Diana. How is he going to explain muzzling her to people who to this day believe she had a right to tell her story? On top of which there will be Harry’s book (which is bound to mention his mother) and the HBO documentary will also have been released. Most damning of all is Harry’s belief that “they” won’t be happy until Meghan is dead – just like his mother (The Me You Can’t See).

      So, I would say to William and his trolls to go ahead and keep trying to silence those who believe Diana should still have a voice. All it’s doing is highlighting the similarities between the treatment of Meghan and Diana. Both, beautiful women who only wanted to help others but, had to fight tooth and nail to be heard over the noise coming from the suits.

    • Nic919 says:

      The trolls have been personally attacking him for a while. Because he’s not lily white they try to accuse him of bleaching his skin and getting plastic surgery etc. But yes this article got them triggered even more.

  20. TIFFANY says:

    He is doing this to get his ducks in a row for when he dumps his wife. He has more than enough ammunition to destroy her credibility anyway, but this is just extra because he is awful.

    He really is his father’s son.

    It is a warning shot for her to never open her mouth, source, Carole or otherwise.

  21. Jaded says:

    Interesting that Willnot seems to be leading the charge to rewrite/cover up his mother’s history, making her look mentally/emotionally unstable and blaming Bashir for goading her into telling a bunch of paranoid lies. All this in advance of Harry’s book coming out in a few months and the Boston Earthshit trip. We see what you’re doing Willy boy….

    • booboocita says:

      I’m convinced that this is the reason Baldy is doing all this ish: to get ahead of Harry’s book. Harry won’t hang the BRF out to dry in an obvious way, but he’ll refer to specific events that had an effect or an impact on how he matured, and his parents’ divorce is bound to be one of those events. He won’t trash his father or Betty, but he’ll make reference to his mother’s unhappiness and her treatment by courtiers and the media. What better way for Baldy to reframe the narrative than to silence his mother directly?

  22. Over it says:

    The baldy of peggbridge sold his soul to the devil for the crown and he lost his hair and looks and humanity as a side effect.

  23. Christine says:

    This was all so sad and tragic back then and continues to be so now. The trauma of Diana’s life in the palace and her death has not been close to being healed for anyone involved. It’s really just so terrible and nothing will make it right. Charles has never acknowledged his part in the disaster. Just sad.

  24. Erin says:

    I’d suspect this has less to do with Prince William requesting it, and more to do with the BBC having to admit that Bashir falsified documents to get the interview, lied to get reactions, and they’ve had to pay out money to the former nanny. It’s a good legal decision to pull it and not air it anymore. My guess would be that they want to shut the door on this as much as anyone.

    • Tessa says:

      Diana wanted to do the interview and should not be censored

      • Erin says:

        Whether or not she wanted to do the interview or not, and whether she was honest in it or not isn’t really the issue. The BBC has had to apologize and admit their controls were not good. They’ve paid out sizable (if undisclosed) amounts to a couple of people now. Regardless of Diana’s wishes the lasting damage to others can’t be ignored. And the lasting damage is (legally) at the feet of the BBC. It’s a better legal decision to scrap the interview.

        BBC would probably want to do that even if PW was saying sure, keep showing it. I just doubt this is PW flexing and attempting to silence his mother, as much as everyone involved agrees that it’s bad form to keep showing it.

      • Nic919 says:

        There is a limitation period on claims for damages about this interview and they have long since passed.
        The interview is part of the historic record and this was just an attack on a racialized journalist when trash like Piers Morgan who hacked phones and should be jailed still have a career.

        The BBC should be ashamed of caving in to William and Charles Spencer for trying to silence Diana after her death.

    • Agreatreckoning says:

      Well, @Erin, you must not be aware that Diana, in a Dec. 1995 note, wrote she was not shown any documents or was told anything she may not have already known/heard. The investigation in 1996 uncovered the false documents by Bashir. That was acknowledged back then. Diana had her say. Interesting thing, the BM back then, implied Tiggy was filing/filed a lawsuit against Diana. She didn’t. Tiggy’s lawyers back then threated the BM for their reporting of the stories. The BM were reporting on the closeness of Charles’ & Tiggy’s relationship long before Diana did the interview.There has never been confirmation that Diana confronted Tiggy at a party by a named source. If it truly happened-a name should have been attached. There was a story last summer-that now seems to have been scrubbed. Tiggy didn’t want anything to do with the new nonsense. She was living her own life.

      Lied to get reactions? How so? There was nothing in the interview that had anything to do with Tiggy. nothing Whoever leaked the information that the Tiggy/Charles stuff had an effect on Diana to do the interview and leaked it to the BM is the guilty one. Hey Charles Spencer!

      Agree @Nic919. BBC is caving in. I’ll say to William & Charles with the helpful liar named Charles Spencer, founder of Dianaland. The man who literally used his sister to make money after her death. MFER

      • Agreatreckoning says:

        Diana’s popularity going up after that interview really ground some gears. Would love it if some serious journalist did a deep dive into Charles Spencer’s finances the last few years.

  25. L4 Frimaire says:

    Someone on Twitter described William as repugnant and I’m inclined to agree. He is also immature and dishonest, with himself and about what his mother went through. Why is he so hell-bent on this erasure? Just a disappointment all around.

  26. Klapton says:

    I just loved how he hugged the lionesses, not like ‘the hug’ he got from Ms Keen, after his last polo match

  27. Robin Samuels says:

    William is a lost soul. He’s been angry for a very long time. He had adorned the imaginary Crown long before Diana died, and now he believes that he is King despite The Queen and her heir being alive. He recently turned forty, yet he looks fifty. His perpetual scowl perhaps scares his wife and some staff. It’s a facade.
    Most people within a cult such as the British monarchy probably suffer from mental deficiency. However, few are willing or able to seek therapy. William needed treatment as much as Harry, but he wanted to be the stronger one. Perhaps the elders put it in his head to not be like Harry. We are witnessing the slow but sure meltdown of Prince William.

  28. Roxane says:

    Could that not be a reason that the brothers have fallen out? Sure, blame Meghan has a misdirect but it comes down to William choosing The Firm over Family and agreeing to promote the narrative his (their mum was unstable and shutting down her voice.
    That’s a pretty good reason to fall out.