The British broadcaster says he will pursue legal action against the earl and his publisher over a factual error in a new book about Princess Diana.
The Sydney Morning Herald•Staff reporter8h ago
A harmless joke made by Princess Diana has devastating undertones after her death. In Charles Spencer’s new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, the late Princess of Wales’ younger brother detailed...
E! Online•Olivia Evans18h ago
Charles Spencer’s memoir on Princess Diana goes on sale after claims about King Charles and the 1997 funeral prompt a rare, sharp response from Buckingham Palace.
Euronews21h ago
LONDON: Charles Spencer, brother of the late Princess Diana, is no stranger to writing books about British kings. His previous bestsellers include "Killers of the King" and "To Catch a King" and, while those two works focused on the 17th century, some might say his latest book is along the same lines. "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister" will be published on Tuesday, and is his take on his sister's life and her unhappy marriage to the now King Charles. In pre-released excerpts, Spencer claims Charles was "giddily elated" in the aftermath of Diana's death in 1997, reopening a painful episode for the royal family. Spencer, 62, said he wrote the book because it was his duty "as an eyewitness to history", but his version of events has been rejected by Buckingham Palace in unusually strong terms. "The pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory," it said, in a statement that added to the publicity surrounding the book. Godson to Queen Elizabeth Spencer was born into a British aristocratic family, with close links to the royal family. The late Queen Elizabeth was his godmother. He was 17 when his 20-year-old sister, fast becoming the most photographed woman in the world, married the then-Prince Charles in a fairytale wedding in 1981. Spencer told CNN in an interview some years later how at the time he was more interested in "exams and playing my sports at school" than the global event. The wider world, however, was fascinated by the young couple, who went on to have two sons, William in 1982 and Harry two years later. But behind the scenes, the relationship unravelled. "I didn't fully understand actually how very difficult things were for her at times," Spencer told Good Morning America in an interview before the book was released. "That's one of my regrets. I wish I could have done more to help her." By the early 1990s, Diana's unhappiness was making headlines across the world, and she and Charles were using the media to brief against each other. They divorced in 1996. A year later, she was killed, aged 36, in a Paris car accident as she was pursued by photographers. Spencer used a much-lauded eulogy at her funeral to tell an estimated 2 billion people watching around the world that her "particular brand of magic" meant she would "never be extinguished from our minds". His words were applauded by the tens of thousands of people who listened on loudspeakers in the streets of London, but some of his comments about how Diana's goodness was "threatening" and how her "blood family" would need to protect her sons, made uncomfortable listening for the royal family. 'Astonishingly provocative' Whatever goodwill between the two families remained after Diana's death will likely have been lost after Spencer's new allegations about King Charles, which have reignited talk about one of the most damaging periods in the royal family's modern history. He writes that Charles said of Diana "we'll forget her soon enough", before shouting at Spencer for suggesting the then 15-year-old William and 12-year-old Harry, should not be expected to walk behind her coffin at the funeral. Spencer, who has seven children from three different wives and married his fourth wife earlier this year, hit back at Buckingham Palace's questioning of his memory. "It was astonishingly provocative and below the belt because it was essentially trying to say I'd lied without the King being able to deny what I'd said," he told the Daily Mail. After studying history at the University of Oxford in the early 1980s, Spencer worked for US broadcaster NBC News for a decade, presenting lifestyle and travel programmes. He inherited the family's 30-bedroom ancestral mansion in central England in 1992, when his father died, and started writing history books in the late 1990s, one of which was shortlisted for an award and many of which were top sellers. His publishing career has helped pay for the restoration of the Althorp estate, which has been in his family for five centuries and where Diana is buried. In 2024, he published a memoir, "A Very Private School", that detailed his experience of sexual abuse, neglect and isolation while at boarding school as a child. "When looking at the wreckage of my first and second marriages, I learned early in therapy that being sent away to boarding school at eight years of age meant that I had next to no understanding of intimacy," he writes in that book.
Nearly 30 years after Princess Diana died, her brother has written a book about her life, her marriage to Prince Charles and the suffering she endured at the hands of the tabloid press.
The New York Times•The Book Review22 Sept
In his first interview about his new book, "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister," Charles Spencer talks about his attempt to set down what he calls the definitive story of Princess Diana.
In his first interview about his new book, "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister," Charles Spencer, the 9th Earl Spencer, sits down at his ancestral estate Althorp with correspondent Mark Phillips to talk about Princess Diana, and why he sought to write the definitive story of her life. He also discusses the royals' relationship to Diana, and then-Prince Charles' reaction to her death in 1997.
In his first interview about his new book, "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister," Charles Spencer talks with correspondent Mark Phillips about his attempt to set down what he calls the true history of the life of his sister, Princess Diana. He also talks about Prince Harry's grief after Diana's death, suggesting that a "more understanding treatment" of the young prince at the time might have led to "a happier course ahead."
Hosted by Jane Pauley. Featured: Battling sports gambling addiction; Charles Spencer on his sister, Princess Diana; Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on AI; Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear; Hollywood superagent Ari Emanuel; The Smithsonian's Lonnie Bunch; and a spectacle of buffalo puppetry.
London: Earl Charles Spencer, the brother of the late Princess Diana, has compared the media treatment of Prince Harry and Meghan to the intense scrutiny his sister faced before her death, warning that important lessons must be learned from that period. In an interview published on Sunday, Spencer said tabloid coverage of Diana and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex could be "really, really unpleasant". “If you look at an article in a tabloid about Diana or the couple that you were mentioning, Harry and Meghan, you know, they can be really, really unpleasant,” he told the BBC. “I think it would be really beholden on people to learn from Diana's example. “I'm not here to speak for Harry and Meghan, but for anyone who's being destroyed in this way daily, it must be such a cancerous influence in their life.” Princess Diana died aged 36 in a car crash in Paris in 1997 as photographers pursued her vehicle on motorcycles. Her death prompted widespread public grief and renewed debate over the role of the media in covering the private lives of public figures. Prince Harry and Meghan have previously spoken about the impact of what they described as a toxic media environment on their lives before stepping back from royal duties and relocating to the United States in 2020. The couple also launched legal actions against several British tabloid newspapers before returning to Britain in August. Spencer has attracted significant attention in recent days following the publication of excerpts from his book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, serialised in the Daily Mail. In the book, he accuses Diana's former husband, King Charles, of sounding “giddily elated” in the hours after her death. Buckingham Palace responded by saying that the King “is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss”. The publication of the book and the return of Harry and Meghan to Britain present fresh challenges for King Charles, who continues to undergo treatment for cancer. Diana's family has long accused the royal household of failing to provide sufficient support to the princess before her death, allegations that have also been echoed by Prince Harry, whose relationship with much of the Royal Family remains strained.
Recollections may vary all these years later, but there's no denying the wave of intense emotion that swept over Britain when Princess Diana died. And while Queen Elizabeth II's priority as a...
E! Online•Natalie Finn19 Sept
Diana wore the dress the same day a TV interview aired in which Charles acknowledged his affair.
The Hill•Taylor Delandro18 Sept"The pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason," Buckingham Palace said in response to claims made by Princess Diana's brother in a new book.
Princess Diana's brother, Earl Charles Spencer, makes stunning allegations in a new memoir against then-Prince Charles, now King Charles III, and his reaction to Diana's death. Holly Williams reports.
A striking black dress worn by Princess Diana on the day her estranged husband admitted adultery is going up for auction at Sotheby’s
Buckingham Palace has rejected criticisms of King Charles III in a new book from the brother of his late wife Princess Diana. Earl Charles Spencer has been a fierce critic of his former brother-in-law for decades.
Deutsche Welle17 Sept
The royal family has, as the British press put it, been dragged into a war of words with Charles Spencer, the younger brother of the beloved Princess Diana.
The Hollywood Reporter•Lily Ford17 SeptThe Prince of Wales says it's his "lifelong mission," inspired by his mother Princess Diana, to solve the crisis of homelessness, and now he sees a solution.
