Diana went down in history following her tell-all interview with the BBC’s Martin Bashir in 1995 on Panorama. Broadcast to an estimated 23 million people around the world, Diana openly talked about Prince Charles’ infidelities, famously remarking that there were “three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded”. The move was the ultimate prelude to their divorce in 1996.
It also tarnished her image in the view of the Royal Family – many of whom refused to forgive her for going public with her story, despite many of the comments appearing to be correct.
Princess Margaret is one royal who is said to have held a long-standing grudge against Diana due to the interview.
The only sibling of Queen Elizabeth, Margaret was an inner member of the family, tightly connected to the Firm.
She is said to have been the first members of the family to formally welcome Diana into the Windsor fold.
Yet this warmth didn’t last for long.
According to YouTube channel TheTalko: “She had a dislike for Princess Diana that she took to the grave.
“While it was Margaret who was one of the first royals to welcome Diana to the family, in the end she became really cold towards her.
“It all went down after the ex-royal gave a candid interview to the press, shedding light on her marriage to Prince Charles.
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Despite this, Diana’s actions later on appeared too much for her to consolidate.
As the broadcast explained: “She felt that Diana turned her back on the Royal Family.
“That’s because Diana made a stir talking about Charles’s infidelities.
“Even though the story was true, Margaret could never forgive Diana for making the family look bad.
“From that day forward she wouldn’t let her children talk to Diana, and she couldn’t even be around magazines with her image on them.”
The Queen was widely reported as having been devastated by the interview and the subsequent image it left on the family.
She famously described 1992 as her “annus horribilis” – her “horrible year”.
It was the year that saw Charles and Diana separate, the Duke of York split from Sarah Ferguson, a fire break out at Windsor Castle, and the publication of Andrew Morton’s explosive biography on the Princess of Wales.
Others have also suggested that the Queen was upset by Diana’s interview.
Sir Richard Eyre, ex-director of the National Theatre, told a Channel 5 documentary, Diana: The Interview That Shocked The World in 2020, that he had lunch with the Queen in 1995 and she was upset by the interview.
He claimed: “I had lunch with the Queen not long after and she said to me unprompted, ‘How are things at the BBC?’ and I said, ‘Oh well, fine’. And she said, ‘Frightful thing to do, frightful thing that my daughter-in-law did’.”
In June 1996, the Queen ordered Charles and Diana to divorce, something which was finally realised two months later.
Princess Diana tragically passed away just a year later in a car accident in Paris.
