Diana’s notorious Panorama interview about the state of her marriage was an act of desperation, Prince William said.
William said he understood why his mother had wanted to speak out, to address lies about the breakdown of her marriage to Prince Charles.
Speaking for the first time about the interview, in which Diana laid bare her anguish over her husband’s relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, William appeared sympathetic to his mother’s decision.
Prince William said Princess Diana’s famous Panorama interview, pictured, was ‘an act of desperation’
He said: ‘I can understand – having sometimes been in those situations, you feel incredibly desperate and it is very unfair that things are being said that are untrue.
‘The easiest thing to do is just to say or go to the media yourself. Open that door. [But] once you’ve opened it you can never close it again.’
Charles and Diana separated in 1992 after an 11-year marriage and the warring Waleses set up separate households, which often briefed journalists against each other.
In her 1995 Panorama interview, Diana garnered enormous public sympathy when she complained her husband’s relationship with Camilla meant there were three people in her marriage.
Diana’s sister Lady Sarah McCorquodale said the princess had not consulted her family over her decision to go ahead with the bombshell interview, in which she also admitted her own affair with James Hewitt.
Lady Sarah said: ‘She had run out of options. She didn’t know what else to do.’
A staggering 22.8million viewers tuned in for the interview, which remains one of the most-watched BBC programmes in history.
The documentary saw Diana claim there were ‘three people in her marriage’, regarding Prince Charles’, left, relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles, right
Diana’s former lady-in-waiting, Anne Beckwith-Smith, was on a public engagement with the princess on the night the interview was broadcast.
She said Diana told her: ‘Don’t worry Anne, don’t worry, it’s going to be fine. People tell me it’s going to be fine.’
Mrs Beckwith-Smith said she did not share the princess’s confidence saying: ‘I thought, “Uh-oh”.’
The interview was considered to have caused untold damage to the monarchy and prompted the Queen to demand the couple divorce, and divorce proceedings began shortly afterwards.