In his new book, Earl Spencer has revealed a slew of untold stories about his sister’s life, including details about her marriage difficulties, funeral arrangements, and King Charles’ reaction to her death.
Excepts of ‘Swan Song: Diana, My Sister’, published by the Daily Mail, include claims Charles told the former Princess of Wales he didn’t love her ahead of their wedding day, and sounded “elated” at the news of her death.
The Earl also claimed the Queen offered to restore the Diana’s HRH after she died.
Here ITV News unpacks the memoir’s biggest revelations.
Before the marriage
Charles met the then 16-year-old Diana in 1977 at her family home when he was dating her sister at the time.
She attended his 30th birthday in 1978 at Buckingham Palace, and in the summer of 1980 their romance began. The pair were engaged the following February after only a few meetings.
In his new book, the Earl claimed Diana had told their father she could not go through with the marriage to Charles a month before the wedding, having been ignored by Charles all evening during Prince Andrew’s 21st birthday party.
“Immediately after that evening of escalating heartbreak, Diana went to see my father. She told him she could not go through with marriage to a man who clearly did not love her,” the Earl wrote.
“My father was appalled and said it was impossible to pull out of such an enormous commitment at that point.”
He also wrote that he had seen his sister sitting quietly in front of a mirror on the morning of her wedding, having been told by Charles he was “very happy” to marry her, but was “not actually in love with her” the day before.
Mental health concerns
Princess Diana married Charles at St Paul’s Cathedral on July 29 1981. A year later Prince William was born, followed by Prince Harry in 1984.
The couple separated in 1992 and finalised their divorce in 1996, following allegations of extramarital affairs.
The Earl made multiple claims about Charles and Diana’s marriage, stating that Diana was having “explosive outbursts when she was at her unhappiest”.
“It is a sad fact that, in her later years, Diana drove herself more than once to Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in England, while contemplating ending it all,” Earl Spencer wrote.
He stated that it was love for her sons, Prince Harry and Prince William, which stopped her taking her own life.
Diana’s death
On August 31 1997 Diana died from injuries sustained in a car crash in Paris, aged 36. She was being pursued by paparazzi when the driver lost control of the vehicle.
Earl Spencer claimed the King sounded “giddily elated… like a lottery winner” when he rang him following his sister’s death.
One passage read: “Unlike my other callers, who were stunned, barely able to articulate their condolences and offers of help, he sounded giddily elated – like a lottery winner, I remember thinking at the time.”
At the time, Charles was with his mum the Queen, and sons William and Harry, aged 15 and 12, at Balmoral.
The Earl said: “He let me know he had informed William and Harry of their mother’s death, first thing that morning, in their bedrooms at Balmoral. It all sounded strangely matter-of-fact, given the enormity of the disaster.
“Looking back now, I suspect the prince’s first reaction must have been to think more of how this event might free him to marry the woman he loved, rather than appreciating the loss of one he did not.”
Queen offers to restore HRH title
Earl Spencer claimed the Queen offered to restore Princess Diana’s HRH title after she died.
He described the Queen’s Private Secretary Robert Fellowes making the proposal as he travelled to his sister’s private burial in Althorp, Northamptonshire.
The Earl wrote that Diana had been “dreadfully hurt” by the removal of her title in 1996 following the divorce, but said he decided to decline the offer as it had no use to her now.
“I felt that I knew in my bones how she would view this posthumous award,” he wrote.
“That’s very kind of the Queen, of course. But what’s the point, Robert? Now? I mean – Diana’s dead.”
The public were outraged by the monarch’s late response to her death in 1997.
The flag at Buckingham Palace was not lowered to half mast, and the Queen did not return to London until five days later, the day before her funeral.
Buckingham Palace was cloaked with flowers and people sobbed mourning the loss of ‘the people’s Princess’, as described by the then-prime minister Tony Blair.
But as her coffin went past, the Queen bowed her head – a moment which made history for being the first time the Queen has ever bowed to a member of the public.
Buckingham Palace responds
Throughout the years several books have claimed to spill secrets about the Royal Family.
In 2023 Prince Harry released Spare in which he claimed his brother, Prince William, attacked him, and that the King had put his own interests above his son.
In a response to Earl Spencer’s memoir on Wednesday, Bucking Palace stated that “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason”.
“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,” a Palace spokesperson said.
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