George Best's widow Alex says that the Manchester United legend felt 'cheated' by a documentary by Martin Bashir.
Bashir's journalistic reputation has dipped after an inquiry into an interview with the late Princess Diana showed that he had forged documents to gain her trust.
Bashir documented Best's life in a 2000 documentary for Tonight with Trevor McDonald, and Alex Best believes that the journalist did wrong by him.
“It’s sad that George isn’t here to see Bashir finally exposed for what he is, because he would be delighted to see it,” she told The Mirror.
“George felt cheated by Bashir. He was so upset about how I was attacked in the documentary. It left him feeling distraught and I think the upset of it stayed with him right up until he died.
“He was used to bad things being written about him. It had become water off a duck’s back. But when he saw the main point of the documentary was to say me and Phil were pushing him back to drink, that was taking it too far. He was angry. And he felt like he’d been manipulated.”
George Best and Martin Bashir
Alex says that the recent revelations reminded her of how Bashir had acted with her and her late husband.
“Seeing the Diana stuff come out has brought it all back.
“He did it to George and myself. It is absolutely appalling the way he behaved to Diana and to me. I’m just amazed it took this long for it to come out.
“He is very good at manipulating you, making you feel like he’s your best friend. He would try to get information out of you by convincing you that you have so much in common. He would say things like ‘my father was an alcoholic so I know what you’re going through.’ I never found out if he was.
“He’d be outside the hospital and say ‘you look like you’ve had a tough day, let’s go for drinks,” said Alex.
“And yes, it was a nice alternative to going home after a miserable day so we’d go there and he would ply us with drinks. Absolutely ply us.
“I would say ‘no I don’t want another glass of wine’ and he would say go on, calling the waiters over and telling them to keep our glasses topped up.
“When I saw how he portrayed us I just felt disgusted. It was nothing like he said it would be.”
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