Princess Diana's brother, Earl Spencer, has claimed there was a “lack of obvious care” for Prince Harry at his mother’s funeral and that the young prince was “allowed to spin out of control”.
In a second extract from his memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, Earl Spencer says that on the day of Diana's funeral, as the family travelled from London to Althorp for her burial, he was “concerned” about his nephew. He alleges that Harry, who was just 12 at the time and walked behind his mother’s coffin alongside his older brother Prince William, “needed Diana’s hugs” but was instead “allowed to spin out of control”.
Concern on the train journey to Althorp
Writing about the “ghastliness” of Diana’s funeral service in London, Earl Spencer describes his “chief memory” of the train journey to Althorp as being “concerned at the lack of obvious care for Harry, as he decompressed from the ghastliness of the morning”. He writes: “He needed Diana’s hugs, of course, and they would forever be denied him. But instead of calm and nurture, he was allowed to spin out of control.”
He adds: “I have often looked back, reckoning that a more caring hand at such points as this would have helped him enormously in the future. Instead, he seemed so very alone in his despair and torment.”
Walking behind the coffin
The Earl also recalls walking behind his sister’s coffin alongside his nephews, then Prince Charles and the late Prince Philip. He thought Harry “looked too small to be doing this”, but added of William: “William, although doubtless suffering equally terribly, looked more self-possessed. He was the image of his mother then: tall and handsome and dignified. Although I cared deeply about what he must be going through, his greater composure and maturity made him my secondary concern that morning.”
He further alleges that before the group walked behind the coffin, Charles wanted to be in the centre flanked by his two sons but was overruled by his father Philip, who he claims said the Earl should be in the middle. He writes: “Prince Charles looked pained but capitulated to his father’s authority without a word.”
Palace rebuke and royal sources' response
The new extract comes as the Earl says he is “telling the truth” about claims that the King said the royal family would “forget her soon enough” following Diana’s death in 1997. Buckingham Palace issued a strongly worded rebuke after Spencer’s claims emerged in a newspaper serialisation of his book, saying the King was “mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss”.
Speaking to the BBC, the Earl said: “I can tell you here and now, those are exactly the words he said.” Royal sources told The Mirror that Spencer’s claims are “utter nonsense”. One source, who worked for the royal family for a decade, said: “(The allegations) couldn't be further from the truth of a man (King Charles) who was deeply affected by Diana’s death.” The source added: “To claim anything other than he was overwhelmingly concerned for the wellbeing of his son’s futures, without their mother, is simply contumelious.”
Earl Spencer’s book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, is due to be published next Tuesday and is expected to be highly critical of the royal family. Buckingham Palace has declined to give a response to Earl Spencer's fresh comments.
