Martin Henry Bashir is a British former journalist. He was a presenter on British and American television and for the BBC’s Panorama programme, for which he interviewed Diana, Princess of Wales in 1995.
Bashir worked for the BBC from 1986 to 1999 on programmes including Panorama before joining ITV. He presented the 2003 ITV documentary about Michael Jackson.
From 2004 to 2016, he worked in New York, first as an anchor for ABC’s Nightline and then as a political commentator for MSNBC, hosting his own programme, Martin Bashir, and a correspondent for NBC’s Dateline NBC.
He resigned from his position at MSNBC in December 2013 after making “ill-judged” comments about the former governor of Alaska and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. In 2016, he returned to the BBC as a religious affairs correspondent.
In 2020, the BBC’s director general Tim Davie apologised to the brother of the princess, Earl Spencer, for Bashir’s use of faked bank statements to secure his 1995 Panorama interview with the Princess of Wales, Spencer’s sister. Bashir resigned from the BBC in May 2021, citing health reasons.
Martin Bashir Brother: Meet Tommy Bashir
Tommy was born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), the most common fatal genetic disorder to affect children around the world. Children with DMD are unable to produce dystrophin – a protein absolutely essential for muscle strength and function.
Although Tommy was two years older, I recall the growing realisation – just after my fifth birthday – that he wasn’t as quick at racing and rarely put up a fight for toys.
By then he was already attending a special school, being collected by a local authority bus that carried Tommy and his fellow pupils, who had everything from cerebral palsy to Down’s syndrome.
The award winning broadcaster, 56, lost his young sibling Tommy at 29 after a lifelong struggle against muscle disease.
Speaking on Simon Cowell’s talent show, to air tomorrow night, he revealed that Tommy’s voice comes to him when he is faced with obstacles and daunting opportunities in life.
Speaking about his reasons for taking part, he tells the music boss: “Every time I have faced a challenge I have heard him whispering saying, ‘What excuse do you have? You have no excuse.
Martin says he cared for his sick brother with his mum and dad and Tommy passed away in 1991.