Princess Diana had the 'public in the palm of her hand' after Panorama interview

Princess Diana did not have any regrets about doing the Panorama interview with Martin Bashir because it gained her the public's sympathy.

Royal biographer Tina Brown said that the late Princess of Wales was no "vulnerable victim of the media." She knew what she got herself into when she agreed to do the infamous 1995 BBC1 interview.

The author of "Remembering Diana: A Life in Photographs" said the late royal was even actually "pleased" about the outcome of her explosive talk with Bashir. She told The Telegraph that the princess would have found it "offensive" that she was portrayed as a "foolish, duped child" following the investigation by Lord Dyson into the interview.

In May last year, it was revealed that Bashir deceived Princess Diana into doing the interview. He lied when he told her that her phone calls were being monitored or bugged and that Prince Charles was having an affair with their children's nanny, Tiggy Legge-Bourke, who now goes by Tiggy Pettifer.

In the interview, the Princess of Wales acknowledged the struggles in her relationship with Prince Charles. She famously said the lines "there were three of us" in the marriage. At that time, the public speculated that she referred to Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall being the third person.

Moreover, Bashir claimed that MI5 paid palace officials to spy on her. He acquired fake bank statements and showed them to her brother, Earl Spencer, to win his trust so he can persuade his sister to do the interview.

"While strongly sympathetic to her sons' pain, I find it offensive to present the canny, resourceful Diana as a woman of no agency, as either a foolish, duped child or the hapless casualty of malevolent muckrakers," Brown said.

She added that Princess Diana "didn't have a bad word to say about Martin Bashir." In fact, the Panorama interview reportedly left the royal in good graces with the public. It left her "with the public in the palm of her hand."

Brown's revelations echoed what former "Good Morning Britain" host Piers Morgan said about his conversation with Princess Diana. He said the late royal once told him that she had "no regrets" about doing the interview.