Who is Earl Charles Spencer? Diana’s brother whose new book sparked a royal war of words

Princess Diana’s younger brother has stirred up drama in the royal family after sharing remarks allegedly said by King Charles.

Earl Spencer claimed that days after her car crash death, he told Charles that she wouldn’t want the boys to make the public walk behind her coffin.

He claims the then-Prince Charles rang him back to tell him that he had walked in the funeral procession of Lord Mountbatten, his great ‘uncle Dickie’.

When Spencer hit back, saying that Charles was 30 at that funeral, there was a pause on the phone.

Earl Spencer wrote: ‘I assumed the pause signalled an effort to bring himself under control, but then he unleashed down the phone what I have always taken to be his pent-up contempt for Diana, and his horror that the world was so bowled over by her death.

“Rest assured,” he hissed, “we’ll forget her soon enough.”‘

Who is Earl Spencer?

Born Charles Edward Maurice Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, on May 20, 1964, in London. His godmother was Queen Elizabeth II.

Born to John Spencer, the 8th Earl Spencer, and his mother, Frances Shand Kydd, he’s the youngest of his siblings.

When his grandfather died, he became Earl Spencer and went on to attend private schools and later Eton College and Oxford.

He has married three times and has four children with his first wife, Victoria Aitken – eldest daughter Kitty Spencer, twin daughters Lady Eliza Spencer and Lady Amelia Spencer, and son Louis Spencer, Viscount Althorp.

Charles and Victoria were married from 1989 to 1997. He then married Caroline Freud in 2001, having children Edmund Charles Spencer and Lady Lara Spencer.

Their marriage ended in 2007, with Charles then marrying Karen Spencer, now Countess Spencer, in 2011, before divorcing in 2025. Together, they have one daughter, Lady Charlotte Diana Spencer.

In 2024, he was accused of ‘bullying’ Karen and ‘dumping her by text message’ – a claim which he denied.

He worked as a journalist with NBC News in the late 1980s and early 1990s and also wrote several books.

Earl Spencer’s speech at Diana’s funeral

After his older sister, Princess Diana, tragically died in a car accident in 1997, Earl Spencer’s eulogy was widely reported as a dig at the establishment he believes killed her.

He suggested she was the most ‘hunted person’ of the modern age, and pledged to protect his nephews, Princes William and Harry, from a ‘similar fate’.

‘We will not allow them to suffer the anguish that used regularly to drive you to tearful despair,’ Earl Spencer said.

‘And beyond that, on behalf of your mother and sisters, I pledge that we, your blood family, will do all we can to continue the imaginative way in which you were steering these two exceptional young men so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition but can sing openly as you planned.’

In the years after his famous eulogy, Earl Spencer continued to take part in his nephew’s lives.

Earl Spencer’s upcoming book

Earl Spencer is releasing a book about the life of his sister, Diana, entitled ‘Swan Song: Diana, My Sister’. It will be released later this month.

This week, Earl Spencer revealed in his new book that just days after Diana died in 1997, Charles allegedly told him: ‘Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough.’

The palace has pushed back on the claims, issuing a statement reading: ‘While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty 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.’

Royal expert Duncan Larcombe told Metro: ‘This moment is the calm before the storm.

‘Diana was the biggest threat the British establishment had for decades. As her brother, I think the royal family is very worried that Earl Spencer may speak out publicly and criticise the institution again. This book shows that rather than him letting bygones be bygones, he was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.’

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