IN one of the most honest interviews ever from a royal family member, Princess Diana famously revealed she knew Prince Charles was having an affair with his now wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles.
The interviewer, BBC journalist Martin Bashir is a contestant on X Factor Celebrity 2019. Here’s all you need to know about that interview…
What was the Princess Diana interview with Martin Bashir?
On November 20, 1995, the BBC managed to pull off a royal coup when veteran Panorama journalist Martin Bashir spoke to Princess Diana in her first solo interview since her marriage to Prince Charles.
Diana was still part of the monarchy – but only just after she and Charles legally separated three years before.
Her scandalous interview was kept a total secret from Buckingham Palace – and within a month of it being broadcast, the Queen wrote to both Diana and Charles personally advising them to divorce.
Dressed in a powerful black suit and white blouse, Diana sat down with Bashir for an hour in what would become one of the most explosive interviews ever conducted.
She dropped a number of bombshells as she opened up about her life as a member of the Royal Family.
A staggering 22.8 million watched it, and it remains one of the highest-rated BBC programmes of all time.
What did Princess Diana say about Camilla Parker-Bowles?
Around 20 minutes into the interview, Bashir mentioned a biography written by Jonathan Dimbleby where he revealed Charles had renewed his relationship with Camilla.
After asking the Princess how she knew about the affair, Diana replied: “Oh, a woman’s instinct is a very good one.”
She went on to say she was told about the relationship by staff and people “who minded and cared about our marriage”.
Diana then admitted the “pretty devastating” revelation left her with “rampant bulimia”.
She also said she knew her husband loved someone else by the “change in behavioural pattern…for all sorts of reasons that a woman’s instinct produces”.
How did the famous ‘three people’ line happen?
Bashir – a seasoned journalist – asked: “Do you think Mrs Parker-Bowles was a factor in the breakdown of your marriage?”
Diana, whose head had been pointing towards the ground, looked up and replied: “Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”
The line became infamous and one of the most explosive in an interview already full of scandal.
What else did Princess Diana say?
The Princess also spoke candidly of her battle with post-natal depression after giving birth to William.
She said: I was unwell with post-natal depression, which no one ever discusses, post-natal depression, you have to read about it afterwards, and that in itself was a bit of a difficult time.
Youd wake up in the morning feeling you didn’t want to get out of bed, you felt misunderstood, and just very, very low in yourself. I had never had depression in my life.
Diana also explained how she received little sympathy from those around her, adding: “It gave everybody a wonderful new label Dianas unstable and Dianas mentally unbalanced. And unfortunately, that seems to have stuck on and off over the years.
She also revealed how her struggles with bulimia, which she branded a “secret disease”, where she would make herself sick five times a day.
