False claims that Tiggy Legge-Bourke had affair with Prince Charles ‘were likely spread to help secure exclusive’
The BBC has agreed to pay substantial damages to the former royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke after false allegations she had an affair with Prince Charles were used to obtain Martin Bashir’s 1995 interview with Diana, Princess of Wales.
Legge-Bourke’s solicitor, Louise Prince, told the high court the allegations caused “serious personal consequences for all concerned”.
As well as the allegation of the affair, the court was told Legge-Bourke was falsely accused of becoming pregnant with Charles’s baby and having an abortion.
Prince said Legge-Bourke, now known as Alexandra Pettifer, had not known the source of the allegations over the past 25 years but that it was now likely the “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”.
Bashir is alleged to have spread the fake accusations in his successful attempt to win Diana’s trust and convince her to sit down for the Panorama interview. In an effort to get access to the princess, the journalist also created fake bank statements and suggested people close to Diana were selling stories to newspapers.
Originally hailed as one of the all-time great journalistic scoops – with Diana sharing the details of her failed relationship with Prince Charles in front of tens of millions of people – the Panorama interview is...
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