Tiggy Legge-Bourke to receive damages from BBC after unfounded allegations about affair with Prince Charles

Tiggy Legge-Bourke was the nanny to Prince William and Prince Harry when they were growing up with their parents Princess Diana and Prince Charles at Kensington Palace.

• Tiggy Legge-Bourke has received an apology and damages from the BBC.
• This follows the news that Panorama's Martin Bashir used fake documents to obtain an interview with Princess Diana, including false information about an affair involving Tiggy and Prince Charles.
• In other royal news, Why the Queen may never see Prince Harry’s memoir as Sussex biography bombshells rock Royal Family.

In 1995, Princess Diana took part in an interview with BBC's Martin Bashir. An independent investigation into this interview has revealed that the BBC acted in 'a deceitful way' in order to coerce Princess Diana into sitting down for the documentary. This included forged documents and false information about Prince Charles having an affair with their nanny Tiggy Legge Bourke which resulted in a pregnancy and an abortion.

As of July 21, Tiggy Legge-Bourke who is also known as Alexandra Pettifer, received an apology at the High Court today as the BBC agreed that they were "extremely sorry for the serious and prolonged harm" caused to Tiggy and her family following the broadcast of Princess Diana's interview with Martin Bashir.

The ex-royal nanny's solicitor highlighted "the very serious and totally unfounded allegations that the claimant was having an affair with HRH Prince of Wales, resulting in a pregnancy which was aborted." The solicitor then explained, "these allegations were fabricated."

The solicitor, Louise Prince, added that it was, "likely that these 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".

In response, the BBC admitted that the claims of an affair and pregnancy, "were wholly baseless, should never have been made, and that the BBC did not, at the time, adequately investigate serious concerns" over how the outlet had secured the Panorama interview with the Princess.

Following this admission from the BBC, Princess Diana's brother Charles Spencer took to social media to further criticize the broadcaster. "While I’m delighted to see that another innocent victim of this appalling scandal is being vindicated, it’s amazing to me that no criminal charges have been leveled against those responsible, yet," said the royal 

Although these allegations were horrendous for the former nanny, Tiggy has remained close with Prince Harry and Prince William as they have grown up. The former employee even attended Prince Harry's wedding to Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle in 2018. 

Tiggy was originally recommended as a nanny by the Queen’s trusted lady-in-waiting Lady Susan Hussey, and continued to run in royal circles for many years.