Princess Diana’s brother, eyewitness to history, set to spark royal ruckus with new book
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brother → spark → book
Charles Spencer, brother of the late Princess Diana, is no stranger to writing books about British kings.
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Spencer → write → kings
His previous bestsellers include Killers of the King and To Catch a King and, while those two works focused on the 17th century, some might say his latest book is along the same lines.
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book → include → lines
Swan Song: Diana, My Sister will be published on Sept 22, and is his take on his sister’s life and her unhappy marriage to the now King Charles.
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Song → publish → Charles
In pre-released excerpts, Spencer claims Charles was “giddily elated” in the aftermath of Diana’s death in 1997, reopening a painful episode for the royal family.
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Charles → release → family
Spencer, 62, said he wrote the book because it was his duty “as an eyewitness to history”, but his version of events has been rejected by Buckingham Palace in unusually strong terms.
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version → say → terms
“The pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory,” it said, in a statement that added to the publicity surrounding the book.
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that → cloud → book
Godson to Queen Elizabeth
Spencer was born into a British aristocratic family, with close links to the royal family.
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Spencer → bear → family
He was 17 when his 20-year-old sister, fast becoming the most photographed woman in the world, married the then Prince Charles in a fairytale wedding in 1981.
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sister → become → 1981
Spencer told CNN in an interview some years later how at the time he was more interested in “exams and playing my sports at school” than the global event.
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he → tell → event
The wider world, however, was fascinated by the young couple, who went on to have two sons, William in 1982 and Harry two years later.
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who → fascinate → 1982
But behind the scenes, the relationship unravelled.
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relationship → unravel → scenes
“I didn’t fully understand actually how very difficult things were for her at times,” Spencer told Good Morning America in an interview before the book was released.
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book → understand → interview
I wish I could have done more to help her.”
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I → wish → her
By the early 1990s, Diana’s unhappiness was making headlines across the world, and she and Charles were using the media to brief against each other.
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she → make → other
They divorced in 1996.
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They → divorce → 1996
A year later, she was killed, aged 36, in a Paris car accident as she was pursued by photographers.
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she → kill → photographers
Spencer used a much-lauded eulogy at her funeral to tell an estimated two billion people watching around the world that her “particular brand of magic” meant she would “never be extinguished from our minds”.
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she → use → minds
His words were applauded by the tens of thousands of people who listened on loudspeakers in the streets of London, but some of his comments about how Diana’s goodness was “threatening” and how her “blood family” would need to protect her sons, made uncomfortable listening for the royal family.
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family → applaud → family
Whatever goodwill between the two families remained after Diana’s death will likely have been lost after Spencer’s new allegations about King Charles, which have reignited talk about one of the most damaging periods in the royal family’s modern history.
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which → remain → history
He writes that Charles said of Diana “we’ll forget her soon enough”, before shouting at Spencer for suggesting the then 15-year-old William and 12-year-old Harry, should not be expected to walk behind her coffin at the funeral.
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William → write → funeral
Spencer, who has seven children from three different wives and married his fourth wife earlier in 2026, hit back at Buckingham Palace’s questioning of his memory.
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who → have → memory
“It was astonishingly provocative and below the belt because it was essentially trying to say I’d lied without the King being able to deny what I’d said,” he told the Daily Mail.
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he → try → Mail
After studying history at the University of Oxford in the early 1980s, Spencer worked for US broadcaster NBC News for a decade, presenting lifestyle and travel programmes.
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Spencer → study → programmes
He inherited the family’s 30-bedroom ancestral mansion in central England in 1992, when his father died, and started writing history books in the late 1990s, one of which was shortlisted for an award and many of which were top sellers.
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many → inherit → which
His publishing career has helped pay for the restoration of the Althorp estate, which has been in his family for five centuries and where Diana is buried.
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Diana → help → centuries
In 2024, he published a memoir, A Very Private School, that detailed his experience of sexual abuse, neglect and isolation while at boarding school as a child.
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that → publish → child
“When looking at the wreckage of my first and second marriages, I learnt early in therapy that being sent away to boarding school at eight years of age meant that I had next to no understanding of intimacy,” he writes in that book.
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he → look → book
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