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The
payout to Tiggy Legge-Bourke, now Alexandra Pettifer, was over
false claims made about her by BBC journalist Martin Bashir in
order to obtain the interview, in which Diana admitted to an
affair and disclosed intimate details of her failed marriage to
the heir to the throne, Prince Charles.
Last year, a report concluded Bashir had tricked Diana's brother
into arranging a meeting with her by producing fake bank
statements suggesting Diana was being bugged by the security
services and that two senior aides were being paid to provide
information about her. The report found that the broadcaster had
covered up the deception.
"The BBC has agreed to pay substantial damages to Mrs Pettifer,"
BBC Director-General Tim Davie said in a statement.
"I would like to take this opportunity to apologise publicly to
her, to the Prince of Wales, and to the Dukes of Cambridge and
Sussex, for the way in which Princess Diana was deceived."
Local media reported the BBC's lawyer told a London court the
broadcaster accepted the allegations made against the nanny were
"wholly baseless".
Davie said the BBC regretted that it did not get to the facts in
the immediate aftermath of the programme when "there were
warning signs that the interview might have been obtained
improperly".
He said the BBC had decided it would never show the programme
again, or license it to other broadcasters.
Earlier this year, the BBC also agreed to make a substantial
payout to Diana's former private secretary Patrick Jephson in
relation to the interview.
Bashir has apologised for the fake statements, but said he stood
by his evidence a quarter century ago and he did not believe
they had prompted Diana to give the interview.
(Reporting by Farouq Suleiman; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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