Martin Bashir has said that he "deeply regrets" forging bank statements to secure his bombshell interview with the late Princess Diana.
As per the outcome of Lord Dyson's inquiry into the interview, the former BBC reporter, 58, commissioned false bank statements and used "deceitful behavior" ahead of the high-anticipated exclusive chat in 1995.
The investigation found that the journalist was in "serious breach" of BBC guidelines, which Bashir now confessed was a "stupid thing to do".
After the findings of the inquiry were released on Thursday, the apologetic media personality said in a statement, per Metro: "This is the second time that I have willingly fully co-operated with an investigation into events more than 25 years ago."
He continued: "I apologized then, and I do so again now, over the fact that I asked for bank statements to be mocked up. It was a stupid thing to do and was an action I deeply regret. But I absolutely stand by the evidence I gave a quarter of a century ago, and again more recently.
"I also reiterate that the bank statements had no bearing whatsoever on the personal choice by Princess Diana to take part in the interview. Evidence handed to the inquiry in her own handwriting (and published alongside the report today) unequivocally confirms this, and other compelling evidence presented to Lord Dyson reinforces it.
"In fact, despite his other findings, Lord Dyson himself in any event accepts that the Princess would probably have agreed to be interviewed without what he describes as my 'intervention'.
"It is saddening that this single issue has been allowed to overshadow the Princess' brave decision to tell her story, to courageously talk through the difficulties she faced, and, to help address the silence and stigma that surrounded mental health issues all those years ago."
Bashir concluded: "She led the way in addressing so many of these issues and that’s why I will always remain immensely proud of that interview."
In Princess Diana's now 26-year-old interview with Bashir, she famously opened up about her life in the Palace and her troubled marriage to Prince Charles.
Per Metro, her brother Earl Spencer has long claimed that Bashir had shown him fake financial documents that appeared to indicate that payments had been made by the security services to the Princess of Wales' former private secretary Patrick Jephson and another former member of the royal household.
It was falsely suggested to Earl Spencer that they were being paid to spy on his sister.
