Entertainment 25 years on: The true story behind Princess Diana's explosive BBC interview

25 years ago, Princess Diana gave an in-depth tell-all TV interview to BBC journalist Martin Bashir that would rock the royal family and shock the public.

More than 22.8 million viewers watched the Panorama programme with Diana; the first solo interview the princess had given since her marriage to Prince Charles.

Let's take a look at some of Diana's reasons for going public and the impact of sharing so much personal information in the 1995 interview that shook the world.

Desperate measures

We can only imagine Princess Diana was feeling absolutely desperate when, in November 1995, she decided to speak out against the royal family.

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Diana , Princess of Wales, has spoken openly for the first time about her separation from the Prince of Wales in a frank interview for the BBC ' s Panorama programme. During her hour-long conversation with BBC reporter Martin Bashir, she admitted to an adulterous affair with her riding instructor, James Hewitt.

Princess Diana ' s 60 minutes on Panorama remains the most hypnotic and spellbinding interview ever seen on British television. The BBC began an inquiry amid newspaper reports that suggested the Princess might have been coerced into co-operating with the programme. They approached Diana .

Not only had her marriage fallen apart over Prince Charles' long-term affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles, she also admitted she had been in love with "another man". A man who ended up betraying her; James Hewitt.

Diana also said she felt the monarchy was losing its relevance, a bold statement for the 'People's Princess'.

© Tim Graham Photo Library via Get Prince Charles and Princess Diana on their last royal tour together to South Korea in 1992.

The 34-year-old looked strained as she revealed bombshell after bombshell on Panorama. Never before had a member of the British royal family been so honest about such personal, sensitive information.

But how did the interview come about in the first place, when the royals are usually so strict about their media appearances?

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Princess Diana infamously said there were "three people" in her marriage to Prince Charles in the interviewCredit: BBC . Dressed in a powerful black suit and white blouse, Diana sat down with Bashir for an hour in what would become one of the most explosive interviews ever conducted.

Princess Diana ‘regretted’ shocking tell-all interview . PRINCESS Diana ’ s former chief-of-staff has revealed the words she regretted saying on the Jephson told Fox News people still ask him about the real Diana , who died 21 years ago on August 31. “ Diana continues to be the lens in which we view

Diana had secretly allowed BBC journalist Martin Bashir and his crew into Kensington Palace to film the candid interview. Only a select few of those closest to the Princess knew what was going on, including Diana's private secretary Patrick Jephson.

The most shocking of Diana's revelations was her iconic statement: "Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded."

Diana made a shocking revelation about her marriage to Prince Charles in 1995:

She was, of course, referring to the fact that Charles and Camilla had continued their affair during his and Diana's marriage. It was no secret by that point, and Charles had already admitted to his own infidelity on a TV documentary that aired the previous year.

But this was the first time we heard it from Diana.

Mot only did she blame Charles and Camilla's affair for the ultimate breakdown of her marriage, but she also questioned whether Charles would make a suitable king. But Charles wasn't the only one who has been unfaithful.

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Track breaking Princess Diana headlines on NewsNow: the one-stop shop for Princess Diana Princess Diana laid bare ‘staggering' royal secrets during explosive interview Geo.tv10:08 Princess Diana ' s style has hit the shops again as TV show The Crown reaches the Diana years Mail

Princess Diana ' s spirit appears when Prince Charles comes to the throne as she haunts the rooms of Buckingham Palace and tells her late husband: 'You think I didn't love you. It' s not true .' Mr Pigott-Smith told The Times: 'One area of the play I found incredibly painful to do was the ghost of Princess Diana .

James Hewitt

One of the biggest bombshells of the interview was when Diana admitted she'd had a five year affair with James Hewitt, whom she said she "adored."

In the aftermath of that affair, James went on to betray Diana by spilling their love secrets in a book he contributed to, Princess in Love by Anna Pasternak.

James quickly became known as "the most hated man in Britain" for betraying Diana, who was beloved by the public. Since then, he's had to defend himself against theories that he was the true father of Prince Harry, though the theory was impossible because James met Diana after Harry was born.

Oddly, those rumours only began when people began to question Harry's ginger hair, without realising that red hair ran in Diana's family.

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A cry for help

While many saw Diana's BBC interview as a cry for help, others questioned why she decided to talk to the BBC at all. What were her motives?

The answer might lie in the words of one of her close friends, Simone Simmons, who claimed in the documentary Diana: The Woman Inside that Sarah Ferguson had encouraged Diana to speak to the BBC so she could talk about her charity work.

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Their story inspired the beloved 2012 blockbuster featuring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum. 'I am thankful for the 25 years that I had. I have two amazing children and we had so many great Queen described Princess Diana ' s explosive Panorama interview on her marriage to Charles as 'a

Princess Diana remains a beloved figure more than 20 years after her untimely death. See more photos of the British icon and the legacy she left behind . Photos: Princess Diana : Her life and legacy. Charles and Diana kiss on the Buckingham Palace balcony after being married. Hide Caption.

The Duchess of York and Diana had been friends for years, and were close confidantes through their respective divorces.

After Diana's death, Simone wrote a book, Diana: The Last Word, where she claims Diana told her in 1997: "If anything happens to me, write a book and tell it like it is."

The bombshell revelations

Diana's hour-long interview included several shock revelations, from her and Charles' affairs, to doubts about the royal family.

When Martin Bashir referenced a book written by Jonathan Dimbleby which mentioned Charles reviving his affair with Camilla, he asked Diana how she knew about the relationship. Diana replied, "Oh, a woman's instinct is a very good one." She added that she was also told about the affair by people "who minded and cared about our marriage".

© BBC Diana spoke candidly about her marriage in the BBC Panorama interview.

The impact of the Charles and Camilla affair triggered a bout of "rampant bulimia" for Diana. She referred to her eating disorder as a "secret disease", where she would make herself sick several times a day.

The princess also spoke about suffering from post-natal depression after the birth of William.

"I was unwell with post-natal depression, which no one ever discusses… and that in itself was a bit of a difficult time," she said in the BBC interview.

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"You'd wake up in the morning feeling you didn't want to get out of bed, you felt misunderstood, and just very, very low in yourself. I had never had depression in my life."

The royal family gave her very little sympathy, according to Diana.

"It gave everybody a wonderful new label – Diana's unstable and Diana's mentally unbalanced. And unfortunately, that seems to have stuck on and off over the years," she revealed.

The princess also said she didn't expect to become queen, and even doubted that Charles wanted to be king. She described Prince Charles' camp as the "enemy" and claimed that the monarchy was in desperate need of modernisation. Though she didn't believe she would ever be queen, Diana admitted that she wanted to be the "queen of people's hearts".

As for the rest of the royal family, Diana had struggled. She believed she'd been labelled as a troubled woman and "a threat." However, Diana added: "I'll fight to the end, because I believe I have a role to fulfil, and I've got two children to bring up."

Immediately after the interview, Britain's Daily Mail declared Diana's words had "plunged the monarchy into the greatest crisis since the Abdication", referring to Edward VIII abdicating so he could marry Wallis Simpson.

Deep regrets

In 2016, the Mail on Sunday unearthed documents showing that two years before the interview, senior BBC staff conspired with the Princess to keep Buckingham Palace in the dark about the program.

Diana's former private secretary Patrick Jephson told the outlet that he'd known about the interview, and that Diana later regretted taking part.

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© PA/AAP Diana Princess of Wales with sons Prince William and Prince Harry at Hyde Park in 1995.

"I think by the time of the broadcast, she deeply regretted it, not least because it did nothing to advance her cause," Jephson said.

"I think the scales fell from her eyes and suddenly what had been rather a subversive or daring scheme - or however they [the BBC] had dressed it up for her - it suddenly in the cold light of day didn't look like such a good idea.

"I realised this was the first time that she had really thought about how the real world was going to react."

At the time of the interview, Diana and Charles were separated, although Diana was still part of the monarchy. But not for long.

© Tim Graham/Getty Images Princess Diana on the steps of her home at Highgrove, Gloucestershire.

The interview became the final nail in the coffin for the royal marriage, leading to the Queen writing to Charles and Diana, asking them to officially divorce.

The Panorama programme aired just two years before Diana's tragic death.

You can read a full transcript of the interview here.