Prince William ‘livid’ at Harry for using footage of Princess Diana in Netflix documentary: Report
Misty Severi
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Prince William will be “livid” at his brother, Prince Harry, for using a BBC interview that included footage of their mother, the late Princess Diana, during his recent Netflix documentary with wife Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, a royal expert claims.
The new Netflix documentary series features multiple clips of Diana, including clips from the BBC’s TV interview in which she talks about the collapse of her marriage to then-Prince Charles. William requested that the footage never be played again after it was later revealed that Diana was deceived by former reporter Martin Bashir into giving the interview.
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“[William] will be livid,” Vanity Fair’s Katie Nicholl told OK magazine. “William has campaigned for that footage to never be screened again, so for it to be used in his brother’s own reality TV show will be very frustrating for William. It’s quite antagonistic and it’s not right.”
Nicholl added that the way Harry has “monopolized” the narrative of his mother was also hurtful for the older prince. Nicholl is regarded as one of the world’s leading experts on the British royal family, according to Vanity Fair.
The documentary used the clips to compare Diana’s and Meghan’s lived experiences in royal life, including the press that come with it. In one segment, Meghan claims she came under fire for attracting media attention before the documentary pivots to Diana talking about the jealousy that comes with being a royal. Other clips included Diana telling Bashir that the press attention she received was “daunting and phenomenal.”
However, Bashir tricked Diana into giving the Panorama interview by showing her falsified financial documents that “proved” her close friends and family were being paid to say bad things about her to the press. A BBC investigation and report from former British Supreme Court Judge Lord John Dyson confirmed Bashir’s deceit.
“It is my view that the deceitful way the interview was obtained substantially influenced what my mother said. The interview was a major contribution to making my parents’ relationship worse and has since hurt countless others,” William said in a statement last year. “It brings indescribable sadness to know that the BBC’s failures contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia, and isolation that I remember from those final years with her.”
BBC Director-General Tim Davie agreed that the outlet would never air the footage again and also promised never to license the footage to any other broadcaster. However, Netflix was able to use the footage under an exception in British copyright law called “fair-dealing,” according to the Daily Mail. The exception allows broadcasters to play short news clips without permission to report on current events, as long as they give proper credit to the initial outlet and can prove it had been aired before.
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The controversy around the clips comes as the latest in a string of attacks from the documentary that were lobbed against the royal family. Meghan and Harry have previously claimed that there was “unconscious bias” among the royals, and Harry claimed that William allowed his press office to send negative stories about the younger couple to the press.
Tension between the brothers began in 2016 but has strengthened in recent years.