Earl Spencer draws parallels between Diana's media treatment and Sussexes' scrutiny

Earl Spencer sat down with the BBC at his Althorp estate and drew a direct line between the media treatment his sister Diana endured and what Prince Harry and Meghan now face. The parallels, he said, were unmistakable and troubling. When asked whether Diana would recognize herself in the scrutiny surrounding the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Spencer didn't hedge. Tabloid articles about either Diana or the couple could be "really, really unpleasant," he said, and he believed people ought to study what happened to his sister as a cautionary tale. For anyone being "destroyed in this way daily," the press becomes "such a cancerous influence in their life."

Spencer's memory of Diana under that weight was vivid and painful. He recalled seeing her in "tears of despair," describing her as deeply sensitive to criticism. The relentless coverage had "really brought low" a woman who married the then-Prince Charles in 1981 and remained a subject of intense press interest until her death in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997. At her funeral, Spencer had delivered a eulogy accusing the media of conducting a "permanent quest" to diminish her, threatened by what he called her "genuine goodness." Now, nearly three decades later, he was watching similar dynamics unfold with his nephew and his wife.

Spencer was careful to say he wasn't speaking for Harry and Meghan themselves, but he wanted to be clear about his own position. Some people believed he was "on Harry's side," he said, but that wasn't quite right. "I'm on my deceased sister's sons' side, both of them," he explained, "and if either of them wanted anything, then I'd be equally there for them." The Sussexes had returned to the UK just weeks before this interview, six years after stepping back from royal duties. Their relationship with the British press had been contentious for years. In a 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Prince Harry had described the tabloid environment as "toxic," built on "control and fear." Meghan had said in a 2022 Netflix series that no matter her effort or conduct, the media "were still going to find a way to destroy me."

The legal battles had been costly. In July of that year, Prince Harry and six others, including Liz Hurley and Sir Elton John, lost a privacy case against the Daily Mail's publisher and faced a potential legal bill of up to £34.5 million. In earlier cases, Harry had won against the Mirror Group in court and forced a settlement and apology from News Group. The pattern was one of sustained conflict.

Spencer's interview came in the wake of a separate controversy. He had claimed that King Charles, in a phone call days after Diana's death, said people would forget her "soon enough." The Palace had responded with a strongly worded statement suggesting that "fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory." Spencer's reaction was sharp. He said he had received only two calls from Prince Charles in his entire life, and he had been "hyper alert" to what was said in that moment. "Those are precisely the words that he said," Spencer insisted, "and I promise that to you now. Genuinely, that is what he said." When pressed on evidence, he said he had told family and friends immediately because the remark seemed "so monstrous." The Palace's response, he suggested, had simply "smudged" the matter by saying recollections may vary. "I'm telling the truth," he concluded.

Spencer's forthcoming memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, was due to be published the following week and was expected to be sharply critical of the Royal Family. Early extracts had already surfaced claims that King Charles had "sounded giddily elated" when he called Spencer after Diana's death, sounding like a "lottery winner." The book promised to be a reckoning, and Spencer's public statements suggested he was prepared to defend every claim in it.