A release of bombs. Facing Oprah Winfrey, Meghan Markle and Harry have multiplied devastating confessions. The war is now frankly open with the Windsors. Whatever their motives, their confessions may not be as liberating as hoped. Before them, Diana had torpedoed the royal family in 1995. Before bitterly regretting it…
A field of desolation. With their four hands, facing an Oprah Winfrey eager for their revelations about rampant racism and systematized oppression within the royal family, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, pressed a “nuclear button”, to use the expression of British tabloids. And the extent of the damage is considerable: embodiment of the monarchical institution so hated by the Sussexes, Elizabeth II has made it known that memories may vary, while ordering the continuation of an investigation into the harassment that Meghan herself would have shown to his staff ; father not very supportive in the eyes of his youngest, Charles had to be prevented from hitting hard, but did not give anything up in his last phone conversations with “Dirty Harry”; William has not digested the attacks made against Kate Middleton, herself stunned, and rants about the leak of his last post-Oprah Winfrey conversations with his little brother. .. Albion is praying that Prince Philip, fresh out of hospital, will bring everyone back into line, as he has done in the past. Notably, after Diana’s devastating confessions to the BBC’s Panorama program in 1995.
Diana celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Allied Victory, with Harry, William and Charles, in August 1995… three months before her disastrous interview with Martin Bashir.
The late Princess of Wales’ salvos against her unfaithful husband and the inhumanity of the Windsors seem to have inspired the Sussexes’ highly subjective and, it is said, self-serving confessions to Oprah Winfrey, who is accustomed to rolling the Windsors in dregs. The two renegades should probably have reviewed their little illustrated Diana better. We know today, her brother Charles Spencer has moved to last fall: the mother of William and Harry gave in to his paranoia, stung by the journalist Martin Bashir making him believe that his entourage was monetizing indiscretions about him. Diana, manipulated then. But very quickly aware that she had made a regrettable mistake with her participation in Panorama. And not only because these confessions precipitated her divorce from Charles. Close friends, obviously forgotten by Harry and Meghan, as well as by the general public, have already had the opportunity to make the echo.
William remained stunned
Thus, Patrick Jefferson, private secretary of the princess at the time, recalled that she had “deeply regretted” her confession to Martin Bashir, a week before their television broadcast. “In retrospect, what seemed like a bold and subversive act – as the BBC had led her to believe – no longer seemed like such a good idea,” he testified. What rubbed her the wrong way: her presentation as a victim, when she was “much stronger”. And Jefferson explains: “She could have gained height, rather than appearing as a humiliated woman. That would have been her strength. To me, it was unfortunate, and I think she also realized her mistake, that begging for sympathy in that way was not very empowering. She could have strengthened her image as a strong woman. Instead, it did her a disservice.”
The same is true of biographer Robert Johnson, who recalls in his book William‘s Princess the embarrassment of the princess when she had to inform William of her devastating confession: “Diana decided to pay him a surprise visit at Eton College, the day before the broadcast. She wanted to warn him of what had been recorded, regretting what she had gotten herself into.” On the same day of Panorama, the biographer writes, “William was summoned to the supervisor’s house shortly before 8:00 p.m. He was left to watch the program alone there. Harry would not join him. William was stunned by the degree of shamelessness that no one suspected Diana had.”
Diana leaving a London sports club with William and Harry, in September 1996, a year after the broadcast of the Panorama program. The princess does everything to strengthen the ties with her sons, especially William.
She regretted the evil done to her two boys
The distress of William, her accomplice son, is indeed what would have tormented Diana even more, after the broadcast of Panorama. “William was sad to learn about all that his mother had endured for years, but he also resented her immensely,” said Simone Simmons, Lady Di’s healer and confidant.
His classmates made fun of him. The weekend after Panorama aired, they had a big fight in Kensington. I was there. Diana was upside down.” After remorse further confirmed by the royal columnist Jennie Bond: “She took me into confidence of her torments, as she did with some other journalists. A year after the interview, I asked her if she regretted it. She told me that she regretted certain phrases like “I want to be the princess of hearts”, too political. But especially that she regretted the harm done to her two boys.” For William, she confirmed, it was “very, very painful.” Curious how Harry’s words to Oprah Winfrey – “I’m afraid history will repeat itself” now take on a whole new resonance
Photo credits : Bestimage