Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Charles Spencer revelations are getting a lot of media attention

125 replies

Constantrunner · 21/09/2026 08:21

The wording below the photo is not mine. I was interested though in how much media coverage Charles Spencers revelations are getting. Multiple front pages.

Charles Spencer revelations are getting a lot of media attention
OP posts:
KilkennyCats · 23/09/2026 17:44

GoodkneeBadKnee · 21/09/2026 08:27

Good. I believe every word Earl Spencer has said.

He’s already had to withdraw allegations made against Piers Morgan, so you’d be quite wrong.

nlop · 23/09/2026 17:47

Venusunbroken · 23/09/2026 17:40

I abhorr Charles Spencer. I find his cashing in on his sister and the royals distasteful. He’s also tried to make it as salacious as possible. Like Harry did. To get it in the media and boost sales. It’s just grubby shitty behaviour. I understand he likely needs money, but this is low.

personally I don’t give a shit what Charles said when Diana died. She was his ex, it was acrimonious, all that mattered was how he cared for the kids, not what he thought or said about his ex when they weren’t present.

i hope Morgan gets it removed from the shelves and pulped.

I have a lot of empathy for Charles during his divorce with Diana. They’d both behaved badly. She had mental health issues and trauma which predated Charles. I can imagine she was incredibly difficult to live with. She had many affairs during her marriage and a vengeful interview about her marriage afterwards where she ripped Charles to shreds. Not including the Andrew Morton book which it later turned out she’d practically dictated!
I don’t blame him for being vile on the phone to Charles Spencer, who is a grubby money grabber like his nephew Harry

HoppityBun · 23/09/2026 18:16

These aren't revelations, though. They are allegations and assertions.

MissMoneyFairy · 23/09/2026 18:46

HoppityBun · 23/09/2026 18:16

These aren't revelations, though. They are allegations and assertions.

Which parts are not revelations? The Piers "story" is clearly untrue

Wewinnow · 23/09/2026 19:43

MissMoneyFairy · 23/09/2026 16:47

CS is a historian so facts are an essential integtral part of his job, it wasn't the mail, he accused PM of being the editor at the mirror which was factually untrue. There have been other inaccuracies so the whole book is just a sham, I don't particularly like PM but he's right and I hope he wins if he pursues his case.

I don’t think the whole book is a sham just because PM wasn’t editor of the Mirror at that time.
Its a sloppy mistake and it was lazy of Charles Spencer not to check the facts but it doesn’t prove the rest of the book is untrue.
All it proves is that Charles Spencer couldn’t be bothered to give any head space to PM while he was writing the book.
People who are saying this error negates the whole book are just trying it on because they don’t like what Charles S is saying. Personally I think he’s telling the truth about King Charles, sadly.

MissMoneyFairy · 23/09/2026 22:09

Is the PM claim the only error?

Mischance · 23/09/2026 22:12

It's not important at all - it is just feeding into the public's prurient interest into other people's relationships - people they do not even know.

It is simply a money making exercise, and picking on an old geezer who has cancer is a bit below the belt I think.

Illegally18 · 23/09/2026 22:18

SoupSoup · 21/09/2026 09:00

But she was anything but a pleb. As a lot of people have pointed out for decades, in terms of English/Scottish aristocratic blood, Diana, as a Spencer, had a lot more of it than Charles. The Spencers were a high-ranking aristocratic family from at least the 16thc, long before the Hanoverian line came to the throne after Queen Anne died without children. He outranked her, obviously, as the heir to the throne, but for some people the Windsors are Johnny-come-latelies, compared to old aristocratic families like the Howards , Percys etc.

Yeah, and so what?

Illegally18 · 23/09/2026 22:19

nlop · 23/09/2026 17:47

I have a lot of empathy for Charles during his divorce with Diana. They’d both behaved badly. She had mental health issues and trauma which predated Charles. I can imagine she was incredibly difficult to live with. She had many affairs during her marriage and a vengeful interview about her marriage afterwards where she ripped Charles to shreds. Not including the Andrew Morton book which it later turned out she’d practically dictated!
I don’t blame him for being vile on the phone to Charles Spencer, who is a grubby money grabber like his nephew Harry

A lot of truth in your post.

SheilaFentiman · 23/09/2026 23:09

Illegally18 · 23/09/2026 22:18

Yeah, and so what?

The “ so what?” is that it’s odd to describe Diana as a pleb, given her family background. Isn’t that obvious from the context?

Smokeywater · 24/09/2026 09:34

very funny - my one problem with it all was where were her older sisters - why did they never appear as a kind supporter, older wiser advisor, a loving sister supporting her in difficult times, provide a bolt hole where the paparazzi couldn't find her, introduce her to more suitable men that Dodi - she was very let down by her whole family and Charles

edit - perhaps they were around and I didn't see it - but very well hidden

SheilaFentiman · 24/09/2026 09:38

@Smokeywater eh? why would her sisters be responsible for introducing their mid-30s, adult sister to a suitable man? Are you in an Austen novel?

I'm sure the paparazzi knew where her sisters lived, so not much help as a bolthole.

ETA also, she had only been dating Dodi Fayed for, what, a couple of months, having previously had a longer relationship with a heart surgeon? She's only eternally linked with Dodi because they died in the same crash, god knows if it would have lasted.

SoupSoup · 24/09/2026 09:55

Smokeywater · 24/09/2026 09:34

very funny - my one problem with it all was where were her older sisters - why did they never appear as a kind supporter, older wiser advisor, a loving sister supporting her in difficult times, provide a bolt hole where the paparazzi couldn't find her, introduce her to more suitable men that Dodi - she was very let down by her whole family and Charles

edit - perhaps they were around and I didn't see it - but very well hidden

Edited

I think you’re thinking of Diana’s family in terms of a ‘normal’, non-dysfunctional, non-aristo one, though. I mean, not alone was her father reputedly violent to her mother (who’d married at 18) and was granted full custody when her mother left him for another man, but her mother then didn’t live nearby to see as much as she could of the children she divided her time mostly between a Scottish island and a sheep farm in Australia, divorced again, and was banned from driving after drink driving, and seems to have had a quarrelsome relationship with Diana.

That kind of childhood environment can often drive children apart, especially once you add in a hated new step parent, because they just don’t have enough energy to do anything more than focus on their own survival.

And add in a household where all the children were sent to boarding school very young (Diana was nine), and I think you have a situation where the relationship is already much more distant than when you grow up together all the time. At four and six years older, she may not have known them all that well before they started boarding, especially as I think she and Charles lived with their mother for a while after the separation.

Then if you add in the complications that one sister introduced her to the man she would have a disastrously unhappy marriage to, after she’d had the good sense not to marry him herself, and the other was married to the queen’s private secretary who represented the Palace’s ‘grey men’ she hated so much, I’d say you don’t have a recipe for any kind of normally supportive sisterly relationship, though Sarah McC travelled with her sometimes as unofficial lady in waiting.

Illegally18 · 24/09/2026 14:31

Smokeywater · 24/09/2026 09:34

very funny - my one problem with it all was where were her older sisters - why did they never appear as a kind supporter, older wiser advisor, a loving sister supporting her in difficult times, provide a bolt hole where the paparazzi couldn't find her, introduce her to more suitable men that Dodi - she was very let down by her whole family and Charles

edit - perhaps they were around and I didn't see it - but very well hidden

Edited

I didn't see it either!

Illegally18 · 24/09/2026 14:36

SheilaFentiman · 23/09/2026 23:09

The “ so what?” is that it’s odd to describe Diana as a pleb, given her family background. Isn’t that obvious from the context?

It wasn't me who described Diana as a pleb. But this endless discussion on whose family is the oldest and who has more blue blood is stupid and small minded. BTW, has the House of Hanover been told that the Spencers consider them as johnny-come-latelies?

SheilaFentiman · 24/09/2026 16:49

Illegally18 · 24/09/2026 14:36

It wasn't me who described Diana as a pleb. But this endless discussion on whose family is the oldest and who has more blue blood is stupid and small minded. BTW, has the House of Hanover been told that the Spencers consider them as johnny-come-latelies?

I know it wasn't your description, because I read the quote chain.

But you replied to someone who had addressed the 'pleb' statement from the OP. So you introduced yourself into the chat.

It's not 'endless discussion'. It was a silly statement from the OP which was challenged by a PP. This is how forums work.

HTH. I shan't bother responding again, since you are clearly new to the process.

Illegally18 · 24/09/2026 17:03

SheilaFentiman · 24/09/2026 16:49

I know it wasn't your description, because I read the quote chain.

But you replied to someone who had addressed the 'pleb' statement from the OP. So you introduced yourself into the chat.

It's not 'endless discussion'. It was a silly statement from the OP which was challenged by a PP. This is how forums work.

HTH. I shan't bother responding again, since you are clearly new to the process.

Get over yourself.

SoupSoup · 24/09/2026 17:11

Illegally18 · 24/09/2026 14:36

It wasn't me who described Diana as a pleb. But this endless discussion on whose family is the oldest and who has more blue blood is stupid and small minded. BTW, has the House of Hanover been told that the Spencers consider them as johnny-come-latelies?

I don’t imagine it’s exactly news to them, given that it’s not terribly long ago in real terms that they had the indignity of having to change the family name to make it sound less inappropriately foreign/immigrant during a war against the very country their heritage was overwhelmingly from.

Lemonpossett · 24/09/2026 17:55

SoupSoup · 24/09/2026 09:55

I think you’re thinking of Diana’s family in terms of a ‘normal’, non-dysfunctional, non-aristo one, though. I mean, not alone was her father reputedly violent to her mother (who’d married at 18) and was granted full custody when her mother left him for another man, but her mother then didn’t live nearby to see as much as she could of the children she divided her time mostly between a Scottish island and a sheep farm in Australia, divorced again, and was banned from driving after drink driving, and seems to have had a quarrelsome relationship with Diana.

That kind of childhood environment can often drive children apart, especially once you add in a hated new step parent, because they just don’t have enough energy to do anything more than focus on their own survival.

And add in a household where all the children were sent to boarding school very young (Diana was nine), and I think you have a situation where the relationship is already much more distant than when you grow up together all the time. At four and six years older, she may not have known them all that well before they started boarding, especially as I think she and Charles lived with their mother for a while after the separation.

Then if you add in the complications that one sister introduced her to the man she would have a disastrously unhappy marriage to, after she’d had the good sense not to marry him herself, and the other was married to the queen’s private secretary who represented the Palace’s ‘grey men’ she hated so much, I’d say you don’t have a recipe for any kind of normally supportive sisterly relationship, though Sarah McC travelled with her sometimes as unofficial lady in waiting.

Charles Spencer’s said in the book his Father was never violent to his Mother

upinaballoon · 24/09/2026 20:10

SheilaFentiman · 23/09/2026 23:09

The “ so what?” is that it’s odd to describe Diana as a pleb, given her family background. Isn’t that obvious from the context?

Diana was Lady Diana Spencer. She wasn't a pleb. I've no idea whether she kept that title when she married and got some more titles.

SheilaFentiman · 24/09/2026 20:22

upinaballoon · 24/09/2026 20:10

Diana was Lady Diana Spencer. She wasn't a pleb. I've no idea whether she kept that title when she married and got some more titles.

Yep, I’m aware!

SheilaFentiman · 24/09/2026 20:26

Lemonpossett · 24/09/2026 17:55

Charles Spencer’s said in the book his Father was never violent to his Mother

I don’t know if the father was violent or he wasn’t, but the current Earl was three at the time of the divorce, so presumably be going by whatever his parents or other family members chose to tell him.

upinaballoon · 24/09/2026 21:47

SheilaFentiman · 24/09/2026 20:22

Yep, I’m aware!

Yes, I know you know I know you know, but someone in the thread had said that she was a pleb so I was just supporting the ' Oh no she wasn't ' posters.

SheilaFentiman · 24/09/2026 22:10

upinaballoon · 24/09/2026 21:47

Yes, I know you know I know you know, but someone in the thread had said that she was a pleb so I was just supporting the ' Oh no she wasn't ' posters.

Edited

Gotcha ❤️

New posts on this thread. Refresh page