Martin Bashir to be new BBC correspondent for religious affairs

Journalist Martin Bashir has been appointed as the BBC’s new religious affairs correspondent. He succeeds Caroline Wyatt, who is stepping down after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Bashir, 53, previously worked for BBC News as a correspondent. He became a household name after he persuaded Diana, Princess of Wales, to open up about her marriage on the Corporation’s Panorama programme in 1995. During the interview with the princess, after her separation from Prince Charles, she talked about her husband’s infidelity, saying: “Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded,” in a coded reference to Camilla Parker Bowles.

Bashir also presented BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme and later moved to ITV. He hit the headlines again with his interviews with singer Michael Jackson and the suspects in the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence.

In 2004 he moved to the US to work on ABC’s Nightline programme. After almost a decade in the United States, he resigned in 2013 from his position with the broadcaster MSNBC after making controversial remarks about former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, whom he labelled a “world-class idiot”.

Bashir said he was “delighted” to be returning to the BBC. He added that: “The opportunity to cover the broad spectrum of religious affairs is challenging and compelling and I cannot wait to get started.”