Nearly 30 years after Princess Diana’s death, the world is once again being invited to pick through her most painful moments - this time courtesy of her own brother. Earl Spencer has published a commercial memoir that revisits Diana’s death, funeral, her relationship with the then Prince Charles and intensely private conversations, prompting accusations that the project is less about tribute and more about profit.
Claims of commercial exploitation
The late royal spent much of her life being photographed, analysed and sold to the public, yet even in death, the market for intimate details about her appears endless. Spencer may call this historical record, but when private conversations, old wounds and explosive claims about the King are packaged for sale, it becomes impossible to ignore who benefits.
For critics, this feels less like protecting Diana’s legacy and more like finding another way to cash in on the tragedy that has already been picked apart for three decades. Spencer has said he felt a responsibility as an “eyewitness to history” to put his memories on record, but having the right to tell one’s own story does not mean the rest of us cannot question why it needed to be sold now.
Factual error exposed
Piers Morgan spotted a basic error in the memoir, making the credibility problem impossible to ignore. Spencer linked Morgan to the publication of intrusive photographs of Diana exercising in 1993, despite Morgan being at The Sun at the time and not becoming editor of the Daily Mirror until 1995.
Spencer apologised, accepted his assumption was wrong and later described it as a “small error” that would be corrected in a second edition. However, if a date and employment history that can be checked in minutes are wrong, readers are perfectly entitled to look much harder at claims that rely on nothing more than somebody’s memory.
Questions over accuracy
The more sensational the claim, the greater the responsibility to make sure every surrounding detail is rock solid. Morgan found one crack in the wall, and once readers have seen it, they are entitled to inspect the rest of the structure.
Nearly three decades after Diana’s death, she is still being repackaged, revisited and sold - and the question remains whether the kindest way to honour her now would simply be to let some things remain private.
