Harry & Meghan’s inclusion of infamous clip ‘pointedly hurtful’ to Prince William

Harry & Meghan’s inclusion of an infamous clip has been described by royal commentator Jennie Bond as “pointedly hurtful” to Prince William. 

• An episode of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Netflix documentary series, Harry & Meghan, featured a clip from Princess Diana’s Panorama interview. 
• Prince William previously asked that the interview should never be shown again and Jennie Bond believes Prince Harry has “not respected” his wishes. 
• This royal news comes as we revealed the royal Christmas tradition Meghan Markle was allowed to break but Kate Middleton never did.    

The first part of the highly-anticipated Harry & Meghan docuseries has seen everything from Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s first date spot to Prince Harry’s terror that Meghan would be driven away by media scrutiny revealed. And alongside the many revelations, the Netflix special also featured a clip from Princess Diana’s infamous BBC Panorama interview with Martin Bashir. This might come as a surprise to many in light of both Prince Harry and Prince William’s condemnation of how the interview was found to have been obtained. 

Whilst the future King also asked that the documentary “should never be aired again” following the conclusion of an inquiry. Now it’s been claimed by royal commentator Jennie Bond that including the clip despite Prince William’s request is “pointedly hurtful”. 

Getting candid to OK! (opens in new tab) about the inclusion of this Panorama interview clip in Harry & Meghan, Jennie Bond has expressed her belief that it was disrespectful to Prince William on Prince Harry and Meghan’s part. 

“I think Harry and Meghan's decision to include Diana's Panorama interview was pointedly hurtful," she said, before suggesting, "To go against your brother's express wishes about your mother. He's not respected William's wishes.” 

Jennie also expressed skepticism over whether Prince Harry would’ve given the future King advanced notice that the Panorama clips would be there. 

“I doubt he phoned his brother and said 'By the way we're going to be using that clip',” she claimed. “It's blatantly, openly and pointedly hurtful."

Last year, an inquiry led by Lord Dyson determined that the BBC (opens in new tab)’s internal inquiry in 1996 into the interview was “woefully ineffective” and that the way Martin Bashir went about convincing Princess Diana to agree to participate in the shocking interview was “deceitful”. It added that the BBC had fallen short of “high standards of integrity and transparency”.

Speaking out following the final conclusion, Prince William issued a moving statement during which he dismissed the “legitimacy” of the programme and spoke about how his mother had been “failed”.

"The interview was a major contribution to making my parents' relationship worse and has since hurt countless others," he added, before going on to powerfully request that it should “never be aired again”. 

Meanwhile, Prince Harry called the BBC’s apology the “first step towards justice and truth” at the time. Now over a year later and a Panorama clip has featured in Harry & Meghan - something that according to The Telegraph (opens in new tab), the BBC reportedly insisted it didn’t give permission for. 

It’s not known whether any more clips from the interview could appear in the second part of Harry & Meghan on Netflix. But there will no doubt be plenty of fans eager to see what further revelations emerge when it drops on December 15.