

Celebrity news, beauty, fashion advice, and fascinating features, delivered straight to your inbox!
Thank you for signing up to Marie Claire. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
It was the controversial 1995 interview that still makes headlines today for how it was obtained; the interview that, ultimately, was the final nail in the coffin of a long-suffering marriage between Prince Charles and Princess Diana. But, according to a new book from longtime royal biographer and former editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker Tina Brown, Diana had no regrets about her BBC Panorama interview with Martin Bashir.
Not only did the Princess of Wales have no regrets about the interview, she was “pleased” with it and “didn’t have a bad word to say” about Bashir, writes Brown in her forthcoming book The Palace Papers, out later this month and excerpted by Vanity Fair, via the Mirror. In the explosive interview, Diana spoke candidly about her failing marriage to Charles, who she had been separated from since 1992. It’s from this interview that Diana’s famous there was “three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded” line came. (Last year, a report by Lord Dyson found that Bashir deceived Diana’s brother in order to secure the interview. Both of Diana’s sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, spoke out forcefully about the interview in separate statements thereafter.)
Brown—who, in addition to her new book, also wrote 2007’s The Diana Chronicles—writes that friends of Diana’s “made clear that she had said exactly what she wanted to say on camera.”
“I don’t subscribe to the now pervasive narrative that Diana was a vulnerable victim of a media manipulation, a mere marionette tossed about by malign forces beyond her control,” Brown writes. “While strongly sympathetic to her sons’ pain, I find it offensive to present the canny, resourceful Diana as a woman of no agency, as either a foolish, duped child or the hapless casualty of malevolent muckrackers.”
Just one month before Diana’s death in a Paris car crash in August 1997, Brown (then editor-in-chief at The New Yorker), Diana, and Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour sat down for a power lunch if there ever was one in July, just one month before the accident.
“I was bowled over by the confident, skillful way she wooed us,” Brown writes. “Diana was always more beautiful in person than in photographs—the huge, limpid blue eyes, the soft peach skin, the supermodel height. She told us her story of loneliness and hurt at Charles’ hands with an irresistible soulful intimacy that sucked us in, then switched to a startlingly sophisticated vision of how she planned to leverage her celebrity for the causes she cared about with a series of TV specials, 24 years before Harry and Meghan’s incoherent multimedia plans.”
Unfortunately, the princess never lived to see those plans come to fruition.
Marie Claire Newsletter
Celebrity news, beauty, fashion advice, and fascinating features, delivered straight to your inbox!

Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.
-
Sen. Dianne Feinstein Dies at 90
The liberal icon was the longest-serving woman in the Senate, known for championing gun control as well as protecting the environment and reproductive rights.
By Tanya Benedicto Klich
-
Power Pick: The Sneaker That We're Wearing With All Our Fall ’Fits
It’s ultra comfortable.
By Anneliese Henderson
-
Yes, You Can Apply Retinol To Your Whole Body—Not Just Your Face
A dermatologist gives us the run-down.
By Gabrielle Ulubay
-
If Prince Harry Does Attend the Coronation, He Will Avoid Bowing to Queen Consort Camilla
Plans are being drawn up to avoid the potentially awkward moment.
By Rachel Burchfield
-
Prince George and Prince Louis Are "Protective" of Mom Kate in Mother's Day Photos, Body Language Expert Says
They have such a sweet relationship.
By Iris Goldsztajn
-
Royal Family Would “Collapse” Without Catherine, Princess of Wales, As the “Future Rests on Her”
No pressure!
By Rachel Burchfield
-
Paris Hilton Calls Princess Diana Her Idol, Says She’s Rooting for Prince Harry
Hilton and Harry both released memoirs this year.
By Rachel Burchfield
-
The Next Royal Adjacent Wedding Is Coming Up—Soon
Let us (re)introduce you to the bride, Lady Amelia Spencer.
By Rachel Burchfield
-
Catherine, Princess of Wales’ Daring Erdem Look from This Week Has a Deeper Backstory
A British fashion label apparently became a divisive element in her relationship with sister-in-law Meghan Markle.
By Rachel Burchfield
-
Sarah Ferguson Says She and Princess Diana Were Once Arrested for Impersonating Police Officers, After Getting Kicked Out of a Club
Excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor.
By Iris Goldsztajn
-
While the Royal Family Skipped Princess Lilibet’s Christening, Princess Diana’s Two Sisters Were There
Prince Harry did have family at the event, even though there were no royals.
By Rachel Burchfield