The BBC conceded Tuesday it had a “lapse in our usual high editorial standards” when it failed to adequately challenge Prince Harry’s claims during a recent interview.
Harry spoke to the BBC on Saturday, a day after he suffered a courtroom setback regarding his family’s U.K. security. He characterized the ruling as a “stitch-up,” suggesting it was a calculated move by the establishment and Buckingham Palace.
An interviewer did not “properly challenge this and other allegations” made by the Duke of Sussex, the BBC said in a statement on its corrections and clarifications page on Tuesday. The BBC added that it had wrongly omitted statements from the Home Office and Buckingham Palace during the interview.
“This case is ultimately the responsibility of the Home Office and we should have reflected their statement,” the BBC said.
That statement reads, “We are pleased that the Court has found in favor of the Government’s position in this case. The U.K. Government’s protective security system is rigorous and proportionate. It is our long-standing policy not to provide detailed information on those arrangements, as doing so could compromise their integrity and affect individuals’ security.”
Harry, 40, spoke with the BBC for more than 30 minutes on Friday in another news-making interview, which included him suggesting the British establishment potentially wants him dead and adding he would ”love reconciliation with my family.” He also criticized King Charles III for failing to resolve the issue regarding his U.K. security.
Harry said plainly that, in the wake of Friday’s ruling, he “can’t see a world” where he’d ever return to the U.K. with Meghan Markle or their two children.
The California-living royal gave another interview to the BBC the following morning, this time speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today program. That is when he suggested his court defeat was a “good old-fashioned establishment stitch-up” with no pushback from his interviewer, the BBC said.
Buckingham Palace released its own statement regarding the security drama, which read: “All of these issues have been examined repeatedly and meticulously by the courts, with the same conclusion reached on each occasion.”
