Royal row between King Charles and Earl Spencer

[Viviennemary]

Buckingham Palace said they don't usually comment but they can't stay silent. Apparently Prince Charles said at the time of Diana's death rest assured we'll forget her soon enough. Which is pretty horrendous. Charles has more or less said grief had clouded Earl Spencer's judgement and memory.

I don't know why he has waited nearly 30 years to come out with this.

'He didn’t call the shots, he was acting in her best interests'

Like he is now, gossiping and causing massive upset for William?

Nope.

Not sure I would say made up - but it's his interpretation or a conversation some time ago when he was very upset with his existing biases.

He clearly hated Charles and Camilla - understandably they hurt his sister - and their focus probaly was if Charles would re-marry and if she'd get push out going forward and then projecting that when upset on to emotional state of another during a tense conversation.

I think Charles was a bloody awful husband to Diana - I think he didn't always get things right with his kids like all parents - and I think his own upbring left deep scars on him but elated by his ex wife mother of his kids death just seems unlikely - and to let one of her family members know that seems unnessarily risky and cruel.

Well how interesting.

Video now circulating of Spencer being interviewed on US TV by CNN soon afterwards, explicitly stating that Charles was completely polite in the aftermath of Diana's death.

Well, quite a few people here seem elated about her death also. Gives them the chance to delight over this book and try to take a piece out of Charles.

But what do I know?

You don't have to reprimand people, just ignore any repeated stuff. 800 posts in, not everyone has the time or inclination to study each contribution.

Spencer may have offered Diana somewhere to live when she needed a place but for some reason she never took up the offer. What happened? I bet there's a story there and it probably doesn't show Spencer in the best light.

Spencer should perhaps be a little careful before he attacks others over Diana as his own relationship with her may come under scrutiny. The Telegraph has just dug out some of Spencer's letters to Diana (read to the jury during the 2002 theft trial of Paul Burrell).

Sure, he offered Diana a place to stay and then rescinded it after she accepted. Then he offered her some farmhouses to stay in and asked for rent. I guess after the way he pulled his first offer she didn't want to pay rent for one of his farmhouses.

“I know you will be disappointed but I know I am doing the right thing for my wife and children. I am just sorry I cannot help my sister!

“Seriously though, there are farmhouses around here that may well not interfere with us, but I cannot afford to give them rent-free, although I wish I could. In theory, it would be lovely to help you out and I am sorry I can’t do that."

He also made cruel comments to Diana about her eating disorder:

“I know how manipulation and deceit are part of the illness. I pray you are getting treatment for your mental problems.”

He even ignored her letters when she was at her lowest and obviously in distress:

“Dearest Duch, knowing the state you were in the other night when you hung up on me, I doubt whether reading this will help our relationship.

“Therefore I am returning it unopened because it is the quickest way to rebuild our friendship.”

All these nasty letters were written in passive-aggressive faux loving tones to a woman who was at rock bottom and seeking help from those supposedly closest to her. And he paints himself as her great protector! Nasty man.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2026/09/17/earl-spencer-princess-diana-king-charles-princess-of-wales/

(Sorry, I can't make an archived version for some reason)

I find the behavior here is gross and ghoulish. Let the woman rest.

Yep. Oh but he was probably lying then to protect his blood relative nephews or some such claptrap.

Charles Spencer:

One day Diana asked me at very short notice to join her for lunch at San Lorenzo, her favourite London restaurant. She looked down at the table and said, ‘Carlos, I’m going to get divorced.’
I was silent for a moment. I had known things were bad, but not this bad.
‘Well, Duch,’ I carefully replied, ‘you of course have my full support… I know you’ll have thought this through. But my main worry is the public. I fear they won’t forgive you. They’ve bought into a fairytale, and I reckon they may ­well – wrongly – blame you for destroying their fantasy.’
She looked up at me, nodded, and said quietly: ‘But, Carlos, my husband is in love with his valet.’
I gulped. ‘Well, I guess, in that case, you really don’t have a choice.’
She did not name the member of staff, and I never asked her who it was, or why she would believe such an improbable thing.
It was not important: the end of her marriage, and of her dreams, was.

I mean, what utter soap opera guff! it’s laughable. KC in love with the valet!

Also him saying Diana telling him she’s getting divorced and it came as a surprise to him. They separated in ‘92 and divorced in ‘96! He didn’t think it was that bad?????

He also has zero class, when talking about how he has been divorced a number of times……he just had to add this :

As someone who has been divorced three times (from women who are all double divorcées)

Also, Charles Spencer had to walk behind Diana’s coffin so KC didn’t get booed. It’s also why William and Harry had to walk behind the coffin. I mean, he’s on another planet:

Sir Robin Janvrin, the Queen’s Deputy Private Secretary, told the committee planning the funeral that if Prince Charles went ahead, then I must be persuaded to walk with him.
This was out of fear that, if Prince Charles walked alone, members of the public might shout abuse at him. The committee realised that if they could persuade William and Harry to be there too, that would surely guarantee against insults flying.

I very much doubt he was elated but anyone who has lost someone in your dramatic circumstances would tell you that there can be a kind of crazy adrenaline rush that carries you through. Maybe that’s what he heard in Charles voice

The police security vetoed the cottage she wanted because it was next to a public road and accessible by the media. They deemed it unsafe. There was also an employee living there at the time. CS also had young children and didn’t want them exposed to the press and media who would inevitably have stalked her. He offered her various other properties, all of which she refused. All of this is documented in the evidence produced for a court case he brought against the daily mail for alleging he abandoned her. Which he won.

@BunnyBunbunbun That is the Charles Spencer I remember. Most of us remember, I think.

Please read @BunnyBunbunbun post above for the reality of how Spencer treated his sister during what was likely the most difficult period in her life.

The point is Earl Spencer has caused this by writing a book which is making headlines in all the news stations and newspapers so I don't think it's fair to blame people on this thread for commenting. And the book hasn't even been published yet.

This is an excerpt? 😱

Unfortunately, that's not really how those aristocratic inheritances work. Eldest boy gets the lot and is the boss of the estate.

@BunnyBunbunbun
“Dearest Duch, knowing the state you were in the other night when you hung up on me, I doubt whether reading this will help our relationship.
“Therefore I am returning it unopened because it is the quickest way to rebuild our friendship.”

What a horrible way to treat your distressed sister. CS seems like a cruel and vindictive man.

Not his or security's decision it was their family estate she should've been free to choose. He wanted rent too! Arsehole.

He sounds an utter control freak no wonder he's allegedly estranged from his dc.

It wasn’t her family estate. In the aristocracy the eldest male inherits the lot. I don’t disagree with your sentiment at all, but my quotes upthread were taken from a summing up of the facts in evidence in a libel court case he won against the Daily Mail

That the palace and Downing Street wanted the two young princes and possibly Diana’s brother walk behind the coffin not just Charles and Philip, to avoid booing or the public showing anger, is not new news.

we’ve known this since shortly after the funeral. It gets downplayed now because Charles has frankly played a blinder since then, but he was hated in the aftermath of Diana’s death.

Yes I know the legalities, the thing is though it was their family estate and not up to Spencer to call the shots. There clearly was an issue with what he offered or how it was offered for her not to accept.

If only one of the sisters could be offered enough to be a blabbermouth and dish the dirt on him.

I'd be more spooked to learn there was a large country on Zog whose residents had elected Trump.

Then KC would have been told not to walk behind the coffin. As if CS presence would have prevented booing.

Additionally, there’s absolutely no way the British public, on Diana’s funeral, would boo anyone.

The ire at that time, was actually directed at QEII, she wasn’t booed either when she went to observe the floral displays.

It's tradition - especially in that family for the close male relatives to walk behind the coffin. Minors don't usually walk. Diana's situation was odd in that normally an ex-husband and ex-FIL would not be in the funeral procession. So it would have been Charles Spencer on his own.

From a man who has been married several times!