In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE at Althorp, Princess Diana’s brother opens up about telling her sons about his deeply personal new memoir
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NEED TO KNOW
- Charles Spencer tells PEOPLE he kept his new memoir about Princess Diana secret from some of her closest family members while writing it
- Spencer says he told Prince William, Prince Harry and his sisters, Lady Sarah and Lady Jane, about the book at “exactly” the same time
- While he says his sisters are “still digesting” the book, Spencer adds, “I can say that Harry is completely fine about it”
Charles Spencer kept his deeply personal memoir about Princess Diana under wraps — even from some of the people closest to her.
Sitting down exclusively with PEOPLE at Althorp, the Spencer family’s ancestral home and Diana’s final resting place, the 9th Earl Spencer, 62, reveals that he did not tell his sisters, Lady Sarah and Lady Jane, or Diana’s sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, that he was writing Swan Song: Diana, My Sister until later in the process.
Instead, Spencer says, only his wife, professor Cat Spencer, 44, and “the people who had to know in the book world” were aware that he was writing the intimate account of his relationship with his older sister, the breakdown of her marriage to then-Prince Charles and the aftermath of her tragic death in August 1997.
He recalls that when he finally told his sisters, Lady Sarah, 71, and Lady Jane, 69, “I think they were very surprised. They hadn’t seen it coming.”
Spencer says he told his sisters about the book at “exactly” the same time he told William, 44, and Harry, 42.
“All I would say is one was…” he says, trailing off. “So all four of them [William and Harry and Sarah and Jane], I told them exactly the same time. And I can say that Harry is completely fine about it.”
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Spencer says the Duke of Sussex hoped there was “nothing embarrassing” about him in it.
“I said, ‘There isn’t.’ ” he recounts. “I think it’s natural that people so in the public eye are concerned how they will come across in the book. But I could reassure both of them that they’re, of course, in the book, but really as examples of two little boys who had the most exceptional mother, I’m not in any way compromising their privacy at all.”
Spencer also tells PEOPLE that he understands William and Harry might have been concerned about how he portrayed their father, King Charles, 77.
“Yeah, that was a concern,” he admits. “I mean, I don’t want this to sound loaded, but there was an awful lot I could have put in and I didn’t. If I wanted to write a scandalous book about Prince Charles or King Charles as he is now, it would really be a jaw-dropper, but I’m not here to do that.”
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As for his sisters, Spencer admits he believes they are “still digesting” their reactions to the book, despite his assurance that it is a “pure celebration” of Diana.
“I think they were hurt that I hadn’t told them, to be honest,” he confesses. “I said, ‘I was going to hurt you either way, because I was either going to tell you and still write it how I wanted it. It wasn’t going to be a committee effort.’ ”
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“I wanted them to be able to put their hand up and say, ‘Well, we didn’t know he was doing it,’ in case there’s backlash or whatever. So they’re totally innocent parties in this. This is very much a brother’s view,” he adds.
Swan Song: Diana, My Sister was announced last month. The book marks the first time that Spencer speaks “openly” and “at length” about his late sister, and he said he was inspired to write it after being “inundated” with requests for interviews as the 30th anniversary of Diana’s death approaches.
“The aim of this book is to tell the truth about Diana from her brother’s perspective, just as I attempted to do when speaking at her funeral,” Spencer said. “As with my eulogy, I want to speak on Diana’s behalf and do so in an openly positive way.”
After recording the audiobook, Spencer recounted the experience in an Instagram post, calling Swan Song the “most personal” book he’s ever written.
“At heart, this is a brother’s simple tribute to an extraordinary sister,” he wrote. “When I finished the recording, I thought: ‘That is exactly what I wanted and needed to say — and she would, I reckon, have approved of every word.’ ”
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