Charles, the Earl Spencer, was Princess Diana’s younger brother and the only boy in a house full of sisters. He was closest to Diana in age, and they were pretty close throughout their lives, although they did have fights as well. The Earl Spencer has maintained relationships with his nephews, Prince William and Prince Harry, although I’ve always heard that Harry is the one closest to his Spencer relations, especially his Spencer cousins. The Earl rarely comments on either of his nephews and he’s never participated in any of the smears against the Sussexes – in fact, in the rare moments he says anything about the Sussexes, he’s defended them. There were even rumors that the Earl has visited Harry and Meghan in California. The Earl Spencer is currently promoting A Very Private School, all about the horrific abuse he suffered as a child in boarding school. When promoting the book with the BBC, he was asked some stuff about his nephews and their families.
The earl is loath now to talk specifically about the pressures on his two nephews and the rift between them. But after weeks of speculation online about the health of the current Princess of Wales, I asked if he thought today’s pressures were more potent.
He told me the situation had been more risky for Diana, saying, “I think it was more dangerous back in the day.”
Diana died when her car crashed as it entered an underground tunnel in Paris while it was being pursued by photographers.
“I think, if I look back to ’97 and Diana’s death, I think that was so shocking too – the circumstances of her death were so shocking, that it did make the industry that supports the paparazzi really consider more carefully what it could and couldn’t do,” he said. “Not because they had a moral judgement, but because it was unacceptable to the public.”
Looking back, Earl Spencer now thinks he used to take on the press, most famously through a powerful and eloquent eulogy at Diana’s funeral, because he had “an absolute hatred of injustice” influenced by his treatment at school.
Following weeks of conspiracy theories about his nephew’s wife, Catherine, he added: “I do worry about what happened to the truth.”
I agree that it was more “dangerous” for royals in the 1990s than today – the media environment was more dangerous and the paparazzi’s tactics were more dangerous. The danger today is that the media has been co-opted by the monarchy or vice versa – that they are in cahoots, that their symbiotic relationship is damaging to both parties morally and ethically. Which transitions to his comments about Kate – “I do worry about what happened to the truth.” Kate and William haven’t revealed the truth because they don’t have to, because a compromised, supplicating media system has simply bought the palace line.
The Earl Spencer also revealed that he’s doing EMDR therapy for his PTSD, which is a kind of therapy Prince Harry promoted and showed in his AppleTV series, The Me You Can’t See.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.