By Lucy Caulkett-
The BBC has agreed to pay damages to the ex-nanny to Princes William and Harry over false claims made about her to obtain a 1995 Princess Diana interview.
The damages to Alexandra Pettifer, (pictured)known as Tiggy, is to compensate for unfounded claims made by the BBC that she had had an affair with the Prince of Wales. It is the corporation’s second big pay out for damages in one month.
Last month, the BBC also paid an undisclosed sum, said to be really high, to former Panorama producer Mark Killick, after sacking him for honourably challenging the fraudulent bank statements used by shamed Martin Bashir to secure the globally televised interview with princess Diana, which rocked the royal family at the time, and deepened tensions between them and the well loved late princess.
The decision to compensate Killick came after the Dyson report last year found that Bashir had engaged in “deceitful behaviour” by commissioning false bank statements to get the interview
Killick accused the BBC of creating a “culture of fear” to stop staff speaking out against bad journalism practice, after the Lord Dyson report found Martin Bashir committed a “serious breach” of guidelines in relation to the Princess Diana interview.
rogramme due to “disloyalty” and then smeared by the broadcaster.
He described the revelations that Bashir used fraudulent bank statements to secure the interview with Princess Diana as being are equivalent to the News of the World’s phone hacking scandal, which resulted in the paper being closed down.
The broadcaster also apologised for “defamatory statements” made about him after the interview, in which Diana famously said of her marriage with Prince Charles: “Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”
The latest damages to Ms Pettifer is for the false allegations by Mr Bashir to the then nanny of Prince William and Prince Harry of being romantically involved with Prince Charles.
On behalf of their nanny, her lawyer denounced the allegations, condemning them as “very serious and totally unfounded allegations that the claimant was having an affair with HRH Prince of Wales, resulting in a pregnancy which was aborted”.
She added: “The allegations were fabricated. They also appeared to exploit some prior false speculation in the media about the claimant and HRH The Prince of Wales.”
“The claimant did not have an affair with HRH The Prince of Wales, did not become pregnant with his child, and did not have an abortion.”
BBC has now agreed to pay “substantial damages” to the former royal employee over the claim.
In a statement, the publication noted: “Following publication of the Dyson Report last year we have been working with those who suffered as a result of the deceitful tactics used by the BBC in pursuit of its interview with Diana, Princess of Wales for the Panorama programme in 1995, including the matters that were mentioned in court today in respect of Miss Tiggy Legge-Bourke, now Mrs Alexandra Pettifer.
“The BBC has agreed to pay substantial damages to Mrs Pettifer and I would like to take this opportunity to apologise publicly to her, to The Prince of Wales, and to the Dukes of Cambridge and Sussex, for the way in which Princess Diana was deceived and the subsequent impact on all their lives.
“It is a matter of great regret that the BBC did not get to the facts in the immediate aftermath of the programme when there were warning signs that the interview might have been obtained improperly.
“Instead, as The Duke of Cambridge himself put it, the BBC failed to ask the tough questions. Had we done our job properly Princess Diana would have known the truth during her lifetime. We let her, The Royal Family and our audiences down.
An agreed statement read out in court said the false claims about Ms Pettifer had included “the very serious and totally unfounded allegations that the claimant was having an affair with HRH Prince of Wales”.
“It is likely that these false and malicious allegations arose as a result and in the context of BBC Panorama’s efforts to procure an exclusive interview with Diana, Princess of Wales,” the statement said.
The statement by Louise Prince on behalf of Ms Pettifer, said the former nanny was “relieved that the BBC accepts that the allegations are completely untrue and without any foundation whatsoever”.
The corporation will pay her a substantial, undisclosed sum and her legal costs.
After the hearing, BBC director-general Tim Davie said the corporation apologised to Ms Pettifer, the Prince of Wales, and Princes William and Harry “for the way in which Princess Diana was deceived and the subsequent impact on all their lives”.
He added: “Now we know about the shocking way that the interview was obtained, I have decided that the BBC will never show the programme again; nor will we license it in whole or part to other broadcasters.
“It does of course remain part of the historical record and there may be occasions in the future when it will be justified for the BBC to use short extracts for journalistic purposes, but these will be few and far between and will need to be agreed at executive committee level and set in the full context of what we now know about the way the interview was obtained.
“I would urge others to exercise similar restraint.”