The BBC has agreed to pay damages to the former nanny of Princes William and Harry over “false and malicious” claims made about her by the journalist Martin Bashir.
Last year, a report found Mr Bashir “deceived and induced” Princess Diana’s brother Earl Spencer to secure a bombshell Panorama interview with her in 1995.
As part of that process, Mr Bashir is alleged to have lied about Tiggy Legge-Bourke – who looked after the princes when they young – telling Earl Spencer that Ms Legge-Bourke, whose married name is Alexandra Pettifer, had an affair with Prince Charles.
Louise Prince, Mrs Pettifer’s lawyer, said the assertions included the “very serious and totally unfounded allegations that the claimant was having an affair with HRH Prince of Wales, resulting in a pregnancy which was aborted”.
Ms Prince added: “The allegations were fabricated. They also appeared to exploit some prior false speculation in the media about the claimant and HRH The Prince of Wales.”
The lawyer went on: “The claimant did not have an affair with HRH The Prince of Wales, did not become pregnant with his child, and did not have an abortion.”
In the High Court this morning, representatives for the BBC apologised to Alexandra Pettifer and agreed to pay damages.
They said: “The BBC accepts that the allegations made against the claimant were wholly baseless, should never have been made, and that the BBC did not, at the time, adequately investigate serious concerns over the circumstance in which the BBC secured the Panorama interview with Diana, the Princess of Wales.”
Earlier this year, the BBC apologised “unreservedly” to the Princess of Wales’s private secretary, Patrick Jephson, and paid him a “substantial sum” in damages – again over the way Martin Bashir obtained his 1995 Panorama interview.