Prince William "understands" his mother Princess Diana's controversial 'Panorama' interview.

Prince William

Prince William

The late royal - who tragically passed away after being involved in a fatal car crash in 1997 at the age of 36 - caused uproar when she gave the candid interview in 1995 in which she detailed her strained relationship with her then-husband Prince Charles, and hit out at Charles' current wife Camilla Parker-Bowles when she claimed it felt like there were "three people" in her marriage.

Now, her eldest son Prince William, 35, has defended her decision to do the interview, saying it was better to dispel the rumours by talking openly about her life.

Speaking in an interview for the upcoming BBC documentary 'Diana, 7 Days', William said: "I can understand - having sometimes been in those situations, you feel incredibly desperate and it is very unfair that things are being said that are untrue. The easiest thing to do is just to say or go to the media yourself. Open that door. [But] once you've opened it you can never close it again."

However, despite the claims made by Diana about her relationship with 68-year-old Prince Charles, Dickie Arbiter - the former press secretary for the Prince - recently defended the royal, claiming he "absolutely adored" the late Princess of Wales, and used to be "all over" her.

He said: "For years now, Prince Charles has been presented as the bad boy of the Royal Family: having an affair, portrayed as never really having loved Diana and singled out to blame for the disintegration of their marriage. Yet in my experience, they absolutely adored each other, and embarked on married life in 1981 with the highest of intentions.

"Three days before they married, I had tea with Charles and Diana at Buckingham Palace. Back then, I was a radio reporter for Independent Radio News and a presenter for LBC, and they were all over each other like a rash, holding hands, giggling and clearly utterly besotted.

"Equally, once returned from honeymoon and together during public engagements, Charles was tactile and would think nothing of squeezing her bottom, something I noticed more than once. You can't fake that sort of affection."