Bashir came to wide prominence in 1995 when he interviewed Diana, Princess of Wales about her failed marriage to the Prince of Wales. Since then he has conducted interviews with, amongst others, Louise Woodward, the five suspects in the Stephen Lawrence case, Michael Barrymore, Jeffrey Archer, and most recently Michael Jackson.
After seeing the resulting documentary, Jackson felt betrayed by Bashir and filed complaints. See the article on Jackson for more.
Bashir was born in London and educated at King's College, London studying English. He started work as a journalist in 1986. He worked for the BBC until 1999, when he joined ITV, working on special documentary programmes and features for Tonight with Trevor McDonald.