James Hewitt, known for his affair with Princess Diana, has fiercely criticised former BBC journalist Martin Bashir, accusing him of making him “the most hated man in the world”.

The ex-cavalry officer lambasted Bashir for manipulating Princess Diana into revealing their affair during the notorious 1995 Panorama interview, which has since resulted in an official inquiry.

In a new interview, he claims Bashir took advantage of Diana and called him a “toad”.

Speaking to the Sun, Mr Hewitt said: “I think the chap needs to seriously search his conscience. To do it by deception is unforgivable and there is very little road back from that. I don’t know him personally, but I think any underhandedness – and particularly if it’s taking advantage of someone’s weakness and being a toad – is wrong. It did affect me and it had a huge effect.

“I hope people realise that the whole of the programme should be seen for what it was – and that was to deceive somebody into saying things and doing things that they may not necessarily have been willing to say had all the facts been known. It was not good for anybody except BBC figures and Martin Bashir’s career. It wasn’t exposing anything, it was just using lies and half-truths.”

In her infamous candid conversation with Bashir, Diana confessed about her marital split with then-Prince Charles, admitting to Bashir: “Yes, I was in love with him, but I was very let down.”

The inquiry into Martin Bashir’s tactics for securing his infamous Panorama interview with Princess Diana has unearthed some disturbing findings. It was revealed that Bashir employed “deceitful means” to obtain the interview, including feeding the princess false information about her inner circle.

Mr Hewitt, now aged 66, expressed hope that the inquiry’s revelations would offer the public a clearer picture and reframe the narrative.

He recounted how the fallout made him an international outcast at the time and caused irreparable harm to his reputation.

Mr Hewitt insists he only met Diana two years after Prince Harry’s birth. He says the stigma of being her lover and being labelled a “cad” has shattered his aspirations of fatherhood.

He lamented the unlikelihood of having children due to his tarnished image, even believing he was once the most despised man globally.

Mr Hewitt has faced significant health challenges in recent years. In 2017, he endured a stroke following open-heart surgery and battled a life-threatening infection that compromised a heart valve.

This left him paralysed on his left side, taking six months to regain sensation. Additionally, he suffered a septic embolism, losing a portion of his brain’s frontal lobe, and spent five months in hospital after being warned that a day’s delay in treatment could have been fatal.

The independent investigation led by Supreme Court Judge John Dyson in 2021 concluded that Bashir had indeed used deceptive practices to secure the explosive interview with Diana.

A report slammed Martin Bashir for his conduct and the BBC for covering up the truth about how he landed the controversial interview with Princess Diana.

The document stated: “I have also concluded that, without justification, the BBC covered up in its press logs such facts as it had been able to establish about how Mr Bashir secured the interview and failed to mention the issue at all on any news programme and thereby fell short of the high standards of integrity and transparency which are its hallmark.”

In the notorious 1995 interview, Diana famously remarked: “Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.”