Diana worried William and Harry would be 'embarrassed' by her after tell-all interview

Princess Diana reportedly worried William and Harry would be "embarrassed" by her tell-all BBC interview.

Diana was said to be "worried" at her sons learning about her infidelity, says her former butler Paul Burrell.

Discussing the legacy of her shocking BBC Panorama interview on Good Morning Britain, Mr Burrell was adamant that Diana had not been manipulated into the sit-down - but she may have regretted some things she said.

Mr Burrell said: "The Princess was a professional, she was briefed, she was rehearsed.

"The recording was on her terms, she said what she wanted to say.

"But looking back on it, she did say to me that she worried about speaking about her love life, about James Hewitt, and what the boys would think.

"No children want to listen to their parents' infidelity, it's the same the world over.

"She was worried that the boys would be embarrassed by that."

The infamous interview is now facing accusations Diana may have been in "too vulnerable" a state to do.

The BBC denies any suggestions that they manipulated the princess.

Channel 4 documentary 'Diana: The Truth Behind the Interview' is exploring the controversy.

In the interview, Diana revealed she had embarked on an affair with James Hewitt, and said her then husband Prince Charles had been unfaithful.

She even questioned his suitability to be King, and the interview "burnt her bridges with the rest of the Royal Family, and cut her off, fatally, from the protection of the royal institution," said her former Private Secretary, Patrick Jephson.

Diana's biographer Andrew Morton said in the documentary that she was paranoid, convinced she was being spied on and that her staff were double agents.

Patrick said she believed Kensington Palace was bugged, but the equipment was actually just a new fire alarm.

She even told her former lawyer she believed she was going to be murdered along with other untrue assertions including the royal nanny, Tiggy Legge-Bourke, had had an abortion, and that the Queen would abdicate in six months.

The documentary alleges the reason she decided to do the BBC interview was because her brother, Earl Spencer, was shown forged bank statements “confirming he had been betrayed by a former employee”.

The "forged" documents, allegedly created by someone working at the BBC, are said to have shown payments worth £10,500 from two companies, one of which was named as News International, and the other was from a company with an invented name.

The graphic designer who says he mocked up the false documents even explained on the documentary how he allegedly did it.

Andrew claimed: "I spoke to people that were very close to the Princess of Wales who said they discussed these bank statements in October 1995

"They were quite specific and they discussed with Diana and these documents and whether or not she should give an interview.

"It all makes sense when you realise she lived in a world of anxiety and possible surveillance.

"Speaking to those in Diana’s circle at that time you could get a sense of why the bank statements were a tipping point that made her mind up to sit down at Kensington Palace and speak about her life to Martin Bashir."

The BBC told MirrorOnline: "The suggestion of criminal activity is a serious allegation, but, in these circumstances, a risible one.

"A handwritten note from Princess Diana stated that she had not seen the bank statements and that they had no role in her decision to give the interview."

The BBC said regarding the bank statements: "The BBC itself no longer possesses a physical copy of this note, and thus could not release it under FOI in 2007 or indeed now, but its existence is documented in the BBC’s records, and it was seen, at the time, by BBC management.

"Questions around the ‘mocking-up’ of bank statements were covered in the press a quarter of a century ago.

"BBC records from the period indicate that while we understand the documents were shown to Earl Spencer, they were not shown to the Princess of Wales and that she had confirmed that they played no part in her decision to give what was, and still is, one of the most iconic interviews of the last half of the twentieth century.

"Martin Bashir is seriously unwell with Covid-related complications and we cannot put any of these questions to him."