Princess Diana's Private Secretary Patrick Jephson Consulted on The Crown
Earlier this year, the BBC apologized to Princess Diana’s private secretary Patrick Jephson over "serious harm" caused by the 1995 interview between BBC journalist Martin Bashir and Princess Diana. The BBC also announced they paid Jephson a "substantial sum in damages." Jephson was Diana's private secretary for eight years, including at the time of the interview.
The news comes after last year's Dyson Report, which concluded that Diana’s brother Earl Spencer was "deceived and induced" by Bashir to arrange a meeting with the Princess, including by false documents that showed Jephson had received off-shore payments. The supposed payments to Jephson were what convinced Diana's brother to introduce her to Bashir, leading to the infamous Panorama interview, in which Diana spoke openly about her struggles within the royal family and famously said "there were three of us in this marriage"—referring to Prince Charles's affair with Camilla Parker-Bowles.
"The BBC accepts and acknowledges that serious harm was caused to Commander Jephson as a result of the circumstances in which the 1995 interview with Diana, Princess of Wales, was obtained, which have become apparent as a result of the Dyson Report," the UK national broadcaster said in a statement.
Diana's brother, Charles Spencer, tweeted the decision was "the right result" and it was "appalling what Patrick Jephson had to go through as a result of grotesque 'journalism.'" Charles added it was "terrible that it was covered up for so long by senior people" at BBC.
"After more than 25 years, it is a relief finally to reach a conclusion to this painful episode," Jephson said in a statement, per WalesOnline. "I am grateful to Lord Dyson and the journalists whose tenacity has brought the truth to light and I now look forward to donating the damages I have been awarded to Tŷ Hafan, the hospice for children in Wales, in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales." Welsh children's hospice Tŷ Hafan is an organization Princess Diana worked closely with.
Ahead of filming season four of The Crown, actress Emma Corrin met with Jephson to understand Princess Diana better.
"He was really great," Corrin told Town & Country. "He worked with her for a number of years, and I remember him describing her as such a happy person, and that really meant a lot to me. He said that even though she was going through a lot, especially as the marriage was ending, he said, 'If you knew her well, then you knew that you could make her smile in an instance.'"
Jephson, too, consulted on season five of The Crown. "Since I was witness to quite a few of the original events portrayed here, I accepted the producers’ invitation in early 2019 to contribute my first-hand perspective on what really happened. After all, it was my life too and I wanted to make sure they got the bits I knew about as authentic as possible," he wrote in an essay in the Telegraph.
One plot point he says was incorrect was that Princess Diana was not the one to tell the Queen about the Panorama interview—it was him. "I can tell you that the princess absolutely failed to summon up the necessary courage and delegated the job to me," he writes. "So, sitting beside her in her Jaguar en route to an official engagement, I used the car telephone to call the Queen’s private secretary and break the sensational news. In a comedy of confusion—the genuine mark of reality—the only person in the Queen’s office at the time was Her Majesty’s press secretary who thus got the vital information seconds before he received it first hand from the BBC."
Yet, he's not mad that the show opted for the drama. "I suppose I could be upset that The Crown failed to spotlight my moment of glory. But it had better things in mind—a high-tension confrontation between the Queen and Diana, which spellbindingly adds authenticity and narrative value to their on-screen relationship."
Jephson also says Elizabeth Debicki's Diana is "utterly convincing as wife, mother and global icon, struggling to cope with loneliness, divorce and betrayal, yet still with an undimmed sense of compassion—and trademark quick wit."
You Might Also Like
