Daily Mail: Princess Diana's Friend Claims Panorama Interview Contributed to Her Death

This month, the late Princess Diana’s friend made some shocking claims about what contributed to her death in 1997. The People’s Princess sadly passed away in a car crash in Paris.

In November 2020, Rosa Monckton, a friend of the late Princess Diana, penned a damning essay about what contributed to her friend’s untimely death. Diana died on August 31, 1997, at the age of 36.

In November, 25 years ago, the Princess of Wales was interviewed by BBC Panorama journalist Martin Bashir. The royal spoke candidly about being isolated at home, her crumbling marriage, and her battles with post-natal depression, and bulimia.

Her interview was something that went against the British Royal Family’s behavior. The family is known for keeping their personal lives private and they don’t believe in airing their dirty laundry to the world.

However, all those years back, Diana’s interview received 23 million viewers. A new documentary about that interview has since questioned whether there was journalistic malpractice by the BBC.

Diana's brother, Charles Spencer has since claimed that his late sister was deceived to take part in the program. Now Monckton has shared that she only found out about the interview in the evening it aired.

She recalled in her piece how Diana called her the next morning and apologized for not giving her fore-warning about the interview. The friend claimed the princess noted how she knew Monckton wouldn’t have agreed to it.

The late royal’s friend shared how she felt the interview wasn’t Diana’s “finest moment.” Monckton revealed how it was actually the worst space the late princess had ever been in.

She lamented how sad it made her that most people would remember that “Diana.” The People’s Princess was reportedly “controlled” by Bashir, according to her dear friend who noted how she failed to see the Diana she knew in the interview.

Monckton claimed her friend wasn’t as fun-loving, level-headed, and as compassionate as she’d known her to be. Diana’s friend has put the blame for the change that followed in her friend on Bashir.

She recalled how her friend met the journalist in 1995 before the Panorama interview that November. As the date for the interview crawled forward, the princess allegedly started to believe there was a plot against her.

According to her brother’s information and Monckton, Diana was fed these plot ideas by Bashir. The princess’s friend also recalled the letters she received from the royal over that period stating:

“Re-reading the letters I received from her over that period, I can see the transformation.”

Monckton shared how loving and supportive her friend was up until late September when she received a disturbing letter from Diana. The letter mentioned how the royal had changed the landline number at Kensington Palace because of “strange things.”

The princess’s friend felt Diana lost her humanity to that interview and became a commodity.

The People’s Princess became jumpy and worried her husband, Prince Charles, was having an affair with her children’s companion. All these things were allegedly planted in her mind by Bashir.

Diana’s friend shared how she was convinced that her friend’s heightened anxieties and allegations were a direct result of the conspiracies that Bashir put in her head. Monckton likened the journalist’s pursuit of an interview with the royal to be the same as the frenzy of the paparazzi that chased her on the day she died.

The princess’s friend felt Diana lost her humanity to that interview and became a commodity. The royal passed away after she was driven at high speed when leaving the Ritz Hotel leading the vehicle to crash into a pillar in a tunnel under the Alma Bridge.