Former BBC reporter Bashir says sorry to princes over Diana interview

London - Bashir has said that he regretted showing Diana’s brother forged documents, but that it had “no bearing” on the revelations aired during the interview.

Martin Bashir, the BBC journalist who tricked princess Diana into giving an explosive interview, on Sunday apologised to Princes William and Harry but said claims linking his actions to her death were “unreasonable”.

A report by retired senior judge John Dyson published on Thursday found that Bashir commissioned faked bank statements that falsely suggested some of Diana’s closest aides were being paid by the security services to keep tabs on her.

Bashir, 58, then showed them to Diana’s brother Charles Spencer in a succesful bid to convince him to arrange a meeting between himself and Diana and earn her trust.

Bashir told the Sunday Times he was “deeply sorry” to Diana’s sons Prince William and Prince Harry.

“I never wanted to harm Diana in any way and I don’t believe we did,” he told the paper.

But William said Bashir’s actions and the interview had made “a major contribution” to the demise of his parents’ relationship and “contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia and isolation” in her final years.

In his own release, Harry said that the deceptive practices had played a part in his mother’s death.

“The ripple effect of a culture of exploitation and unethical practices ultimately took her life,” he said.

Diana died in a Paris car crash in 1997, aged 36.

Bashir disputed the accusations, saying “I don’t feel I can be held responsible for many of the other things that were going on in her life, and the complex issues surrounding those decisions.

“The suggestion I am singularly responsible I think is unreasonable and unfair,” he told the paper.

He argued that the 1995 interview had been conducted on Diana’s terms, and that they remained firm friends after it aired to an audience of 22.8 million people.