Charles Spencer to publish memoir of Diana

[OccasionalHope]

Could be interesting.

Prince Henry, the Duke of Gloucester, son of George V and brother of George VI, attended Eton. So did the current Duke of Kent, Prince Edward, who is a working royal.

From the BBC piece on the news the Sussexes are moving back to the UK for 'an extended period of time':

The family's visit to the UK in July was significant.
As well as spending time with the King at Highgrove, Harry, Meghan and their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet are said to have loved being with the family of Harry's mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.
...
The Cotswolds and Northampton area, close to the Spencer family estate, Althorp, are rumoured to be where they will settle.

Northampton as in near Oundle which is where Charlotte is rumoured to be going? Oh come on!

if that’s all he does, I have no issue, Bunny. Let’s hope taste, wisdom and discretion prevail.

I wasn't aware until the BBC Director General (don't remember his name) apologised for the whole Martin Bashir fiasco during Covid and someone on social media mentioned that Martin Bashir was introduced to Diana by her brother Charles Spencer! Which, IMHO, goes a long way to explaining why Diana trusted Bashir so quickly.

That's the problem with the book 30 years on. Very few of the people involved conducted themselves well, and in the era of social media, few will read the actual book. Most people will view media/social media takes on the matter and I doubt Spencer will emerge unscathed.

I am a pretty old-fashioned person but I’ve never understood the hatred of Camilla. These things happen. Don’t want to mention names but I could reel off a long list of well-loved celebs, TV people and other public figures who’ve had affairs and in some cases brazenly gone out to break up another marriage. Few get the hate Camilla gets. I guess it’s not because she had an affair but that she had an affair with St Diana’s husband.

Therefore I roll my eyes at the ‘moral’ disapproval of her - I think it’s much mor “I’m Team Diana”. Oh, and the misogynistic view that Diana was young and pretty and Camilla isn’t, plays into it too. I bet if Camilla had been the young, pretty one threatening an older, frumpier Diana, that would have been OK.

Exactly.

CS himself would only have been on marriage no. 2 then!

If he starts being moral, he’ll have a problem.

If charlie boy wasn't the future king would camilla have made such an effort to carry on with him. Doubt it. There's been a lot of effort to market it as a love story, 'whatever love means.'. My view is she was machiavellian and he was needy. They're a bit underwhelming.

I agree coffee.

People are complex but times were different then and marrying for love would have also come with a whole lot of restrictions and conditions. They were both fighting against the odds.

They have been married a lot longer than his first marriage and they are infinitely better suited.

If Diana had been a saint I would understand. She wasn’t and was happier in the company of others. Good for her for seeking the same happiness her ex husband clearly found.

As you say though, it is a lot easier to demonise an older women - even if it isn’t by much.

CS would do better to celebrate his sister and concentrating on the positive because by pointing out the ‘flaws’ of others, he will only highlight her faults.

Not what her sons need. Or their children.

I can. I still think what she and Charles did was as low as you can get.

It wasn’t just a case of an affair. Charles married Diana to produce an heir but carried on his relationship with Camilla. Diana wasn’t kidding when she said there were three people in the marriage. She had her faults and she later behaved badly herself but the two of them should be ashamed of the way they used her.

I think she is shaping up well in her role as Queen Consort and I give her credit for that. But she’s a disgusting woman.

This is what I think. I was wondering if there was somewhere on the estate they would move to too.
Also ridiculous to say a child ' only knew his mother briefly'!

You have a right to your strong view and I’m normally quite po-faced about affairs but I just see this as really complex morally. If anything was to blame I think it was rather bizarre situation, the archaic conventions and the massive pressure on both D and C.

Im not absolving Charles or Camilla - but I think there’s a possibility of redemption.

I do think that the conventions placed both D&C in a terrible position.

I wonder if the wives of the husbands that caught D’s eye also think she was a disgusting woman?

Arguably more so because she knew the hurt of that and chose to do it to others.

Morally complex for sure.

I’ve always held the view that if the people concerned can reconcile themselves to the situation then it’s none of my business. Diana and Charles were beginning to get along better by the time she died. Diana and Camilla I’m not so sure. Maybe they would have got there, who knows?

But what is known is that C and C carried on their affair (emotional at least, possibly sexual) throughout D and C’s entire courtship and marriage. That is betrayal on another level, way beyond an extra marital affair due to irreconcilable differences in the marriage.

I think much of what happened between Diana and Charles might have been avoided without Camilla in the picture. They would still have divorced but with less pain perhaps.

I agree with you it is complex.

think much of what happened between Diana and Charles might have been avoided without Camilla in the picture.

Agree. Wonder what camilla's children thought about the married man their mother was pursuing. None of the adults involved come out of it well.
In many respects Diana had much going for her, she was physically fit & strong, energetic, charismatic, attractive. It will be interesting to hear another side to her story and her brother can be an interesting man to listen to.

They had a grim childhood and I guess having written about his hideous experience at school he feels able to write about his sister. He’s a very good writer.

Yes, he is.

I really feel for William.
He might have more money in his hip pocket than I'll ever have. But what a shit show of a brother and uncle to make life hard.

Diana's own family should be ashamed for pushing her into a marriage when she'd only met him 6 or 7 times. And was barely 19.

It was essentially a very badly matched arranged marriage.

The Queen Mother shouldn't have interfered and spilt Charles and Camilla up in the the first place.

That's a very good point - was Diana a disgusting woman to chase these men ? How will her brother balance that ? He himself is the married man who had affairs. Glasshouses and all that.

I think she was wrong to chase married men but I also think she was wrongly pushed into a marriage her family who should have told her to calm, not rush, did the opposite they pushed it.

She was 19, Andrew has been called a pedo for touching a girl only two years younger. Yes circumstances were totally different. But she was barely an adult!

She wasn't 19 when she was having affairs.

I believe KC was pushed into it just as much but seemed more accepting of it or was told no quibbling.

She voiced her concerns to her family and they pushed her anyway because teatowels…

That was terrible.

As for the married men bit? I don’t think it fair that people can go on about QC and call her disgusting and then let D off with ‘but’.

We could say ‘but KC and QC did love one another’ and someone will still say it doesn’t make it right.

So the same should apply for D.

She was 19 when she was pushed into a very unsuitable marriage.

And that excuses every questionable action you take for the rest of your life?