New Princess Diana book 'not about settling scores,' says her brother, Charles Spencer

Almost 30 years after the death of Princess Diana, her brother Charles Spencer has written a new memoir about her life, her struggles and the royal institutions that played a role in both. (Sean Brocklehurst/CBC)Social SharingCharles Spencer says his new book about his sister, the late Princess Diana, is not an attempt to get revenge on his former in-laws, the British Royal family.

"It's not about settling scores," Spencer, a historian, journalist and the 9th Earl Spencer, told CBC Radio's The Current.

"I could have written something much more devastating," he said. "This was the considered version that I thought, 'Yeah, whatever's in here, needs to be in, to give the full story of Diana's life."

The book, Swan Song: Diana, my sister, has prompted a barrage of international headlines over its claims, including that the then-Prince Charles sounded "giddily elated" when Diana died.

But Spencer said he wrote it in part because he's been inundated with interview requests ahead of the 30th anniversary of her death next year.

"I began to think, 'Well, if everyone wants to know the truth, I think it's time for that,' " he said.

Spencer sat down with The Current's Matt Galloway to discuss the book, and his sister's legacy.

Diana and Spencer in 1981, the year she married then-Prince Charles. Spencer was 17 at the time of their wedding. (The Spencer Family/Penguin Random House)Charles 'upbeat' in call after Diana's deathDiana was arguably the most famous woman in the world after she married Charles in 1981, and gave birth to two sons, William and Harry. But after a tumultuous marriage, the royal couple separated in 1992, finalizing their divorce in 1996.

After leaving the Royal Family, she became a style icon and philanthropist, leading campaigns to clear landmines and challenge stigma around HIV and AIDS. 

But she increasingly strained under the glare of the tabloid media and died in a car crash in Paris in 1997, after a high-speed chase while being pursued by paparazzi. 

In the book, Spencer claims that Charles sounded "giddily elated" in a phone call after Diana died. Spencer said he'd already received calls from many people wishing to express their shock and offer their condolences. 

"He just sounded completely different to everyone else … sort of buoyant … upbeat," he said.

"It was so jarring, particularly among all the sea of other voices."

Spencer also wrote that he argued with Charles in the days following Diana's death, over palace plans for Princes William and Harry to walk behind their mother's coffin in the funeral cortege. Spencer said he told Charles it would be an ordeal Diana would not have wanted her sons to endure. 

"He went nuts and started screaming and shouting," Spencer said. "And then he pulled himself together, I thought — and then, he said, 'We'll forget her soon enough.' "

"I was stunned. And I went, 'I can't believe you just said that,' and hung up on him."

Buckingham Palace responded to the allegations earlier this month.

"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 recognize, even many years after such a loss," the palace said in a statement. 

Spencer described the statement as "classic gaslighting."

"They're trying to say maybe it's grief, maybe it was a long time ago, but they're trying to put a question mark over my reliability. It's a tactic, but I don't think it's worked for them."

Princes William and Harry did walk behind their mother's coffin, alongside Spencer and other family members — with thousands of people thronged on either side of their route.

In the book, Spencer describes it as walking through a tunnel of grief, where the reactions of the crowd kept shifting.

"We could walk for 100 metres and it would be silent, you could just hear sobs. And then [further on], people wailing, like it's a biblical thing, a sort of wailing and gnashing of teeth," he told Galloway, adding that some people screamed out their love for Diana and for her two sons.

"For over half an hour, we were just walking with this crashing in from all sides," he said, describing it as emotionally exhausting.

Spencer, centre, with his hands clasped behind his back, walks behind Diana's coffin in 1997. Princes Harry and Prince William are at either side. To their left is the boys' father, Charles, and to the right, their grandfather, Prince Philip. (Dave M. Benett/Getty Images/Penguin Random House)Some solace came from the late Prince Philip, the late Queen Elizabeth's husband.

"He was very much there for his grandsons, and he took control of it," Spencer said. "He said to the other four of us, the most important thing is to just keep looking ahead."

Diana's funeral took place at Westminster Abbey on Sept. 6, 1997. Spencer delivered a eulogy that spoke of her talents, while also delivering sharp criticism of the press and paparazzi. 

But at a rehearsal the day before the funeral, he was asked to read his speech for a microphone check in the Abbey. As he climbed the steps to the lectern, "a handful of people, not that many, appeared out of the shadows," he said.

"An alarm went in my brain thinking, 'Hey, this is odd.' And then in that moment I realized they were probably listening … that they were gonna vet it and perhaps veto it," he told CBC.

So Spencer said he'd forgotten the speech at home, and instead started to read from a prayer book. 

"I'd hardly read a word when they went, 'That's OK.' And then at that moment I realized that I'd saved the speech."

A handwritten draft of the eulogy Spencer read at Diana's funeral. (The Spencer Family/Penguin Random House)More than two billion people watched Diana's funeral, with Spencer's eulogy prompting a standing ovation from the crowds watching on screens outside.

But in the days before the funeral, Spencer discovered that the palace had invited the editors of Britain's tabloid newspapers. Believing they had hounded Diana during her lifetime, Spencer called each editor individually.

"I said just please don't come, it's totally inappropriate. Given the circumstances of Diana's death, it's obviously not right that you attend this funeral," he told The Current.

"That really did upset them, but it shouldn't have. They shouldn't have accepted."

Spencer thinks his sister suffered immensely under the glare of the paparazzi, who would provoke her to get the photographs they wanted.

"They would call her the worst words in the world, take a picture and then say, 'Look at her looking upset, she must be deranged or she's mentally unstable,' " he said.

"I mean that is so appalling. As a brother it still makes my blood boil."

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He thinks things have improved since the 1990s, but still sees people being demonized in the public eye, including his nephew, Prince Harry, and his wife Meghan, Duchess of Sussex. 

"I'm not saying Diana or Harry or Meghan or whatever are perfect people, but they're people. And I do think the public have to remember this," he said.

"Sometimes, I see these appalling comments under newspaper articles from people, and I think those people should be ashamed of piling in on a witch hunt."

Diana with William, left, and Harry on holiday in Austria in 1993. (Tim Graham/Tim Graham Photo Library/Getty Images/Penguin Random House)Diana the sister, Diana the superstarOn the day she married Charles, Diana "emerged from Saint Paul's Cathedral as a global superstar," Spencer said.

"I certainly didn't see that coming. I mean, she's just my big sister," he said, adding that because he was just 17 at the time, he was "a typical, self-centred, hormonal teenager."

What is the truth about Diana? Her brother offers his view, ‘once and for all’

In the years that followed, he learned to focus on his original connection with his sister, by "cutting that away from the Princess Di or Lady Di of the media's imagination and semi-invention."

That wasn't always easy. He remembers one dinner where they met with old friends, who were suddenly sycophantic, having been swayed "into treating her as someone different to the Diana they'd always known."

He said he walked home that night puzzled by the shift and wondering what to do.

"I realized, my job as her brother from that point on was to always just be true, be the same brother," he said.

"And if that meant that sometimes she didn't like what I [said], then it was still good for her, I hope."

Diana on her wedding day in 1981. Spencer said that on that day, 'everything changed for Diana, forever.' (The Spencer Family/Penguin Random House)Audio produced by Alison Masemann