‘Charles was like a lottery winner when Diana died’: Five new Earl Spencer claims
New revelations from Earl Spencer’s new book about his late sister, Diana, Princess of Wales, describe his claims about the night that she was killed in Paris and that her husband, then Prince Charles, “sounded giddily elated… like a lottery winner”. In an extract from his book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, serialised in the Daily Mail, Spencer writes: “I was at my home in Cape Town, alone with my four children, when I learnt that my sister had been killed. The phone next to my bed rang in the middle of the night. On the night Diana died, Charles sounded giddily elated... like a lottery winner.” He claims Charles later told him: “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough!” On Wednesday, Buckingham Palace issued an unusually strong statement regarding Spencer’s claims. A Palace spokesperson said: “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 recognise, even many years after such a loss.” Other revelations include: Spencer says he fought to stop William and Harry walking behind Diana’s coffin Public opinion was divided on the decision to have the young princes, then aged 15 and 12, follow their mother’s coffin in procession, accompanied by Earl Spencer and their father, ahead of her funeral in September 1997. Diana had left her brother as her sons’ guardian – which has limited power while there is a surviving parent – but Spencer said it gave him the impetus to speak up for his sister’s wishes. Spencer – who claims courtiers wanted William and Harry in the procession partly to protect Charles from public abuse – called the decision “utterly barbaric, and quite out of the question”. He claims some people inside the Palace were “relieved – indeed, pleased” that Diana had died. Public opinion was divided on the decision to let the princes, then aged 15 and 12, join their father, uncle and grandfather in walking behind their mother’s coffin (Photo: Jeff J Mitchell/Pool/AFP) Diana allegedly tried to call off her engagement to Charles “Diana had grown up with a clear objective in mind: to marry for love,” Spencer writes, citing their own parents’ divorce as a key factor that would help her to sustain a happy marriage and raise her children. However, when she raised concerns to their father, Spencer claims that he made it clear that breaking off the engagement was out of the question, as it would bring shame on the Royal Family. Spencer says Diana learned immediately before the wedding that Charles did not love her, having had several unpleasant suspicions. A month after their engagement, she found a bracelet that he had bought for Camilla, and at Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s 21st birthday party, Charles showed no interest in her despite his having just returned from a trip to New York. He says a comment by Charles about Diana being “a bit chubby” around the time of their engagement devastated her, and that she revealed to Spencer on her wedding day that she had been in the throes of an eating disorder for five months to lose weight. Spencer writes: “Only much later would I discover that, as she confided to a close friend, her husband-to-be had told her [the day before their wedding] that she needed to know he was very happy to marry her, but he was not actually in love with her.” Spencer says he is convinced Diana had ADHD Palace doctors allegedly took over Diana’s medical care against the wishes of her longstanding GP. Spencer says Diana contemplated suicide at Beachy Head more than once. Spencer was diagnosed with ADHD – a condition primarily caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors – in 2024, by a colleague of his podcast co-host, and now wife, Cat Jarman. The Earl is certain that Diana shares the emotional dysregulation known as “rejection sensitive dysphoria” that he himself has experienced. Moreover, behaviour associated with ADHD was identified in her school reports from a young age, Spencer claims. He writes: “Her kindergarten teacher noted that she had difficulty focusing, and at primary school, Miss Lowe repeatedly noticed Diana’s ‘flibbertigibbet’ mind. “This issue was noted again after she started at prep school aged nine: ‘Diana has great difficulty in concentrating for any length of time,’ her first report from Riddlesworth Hall said, ‘and tends to become very restless during lessons’.” He describes how Diana’s youth, compared with her older husband, meant that she was more inclined to take suggestions as reproaches. “I am convinced now that Diana had ADHD, and that as part of that condition, she suffered from Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (as do I). This is an intense emotional pain in the face of others’ rejection or criticism, which amplified her wounded response to her husband’s suggestions.” Diana told Spencer an American suitor believed marrying her could make him US president After separating from Charles, Diana was courted by a number of eligible men – but who was the one who told her that he was convinced he could attain the US Presidency if she became his wife? Spencer claims that one of his sister’s “many powerful, ageing American suitors” was keen to secure her as the ultimate trophy wife. He says: “The idea of the position titillated her rather more than the elderly would-be husband: there was, I could see, a mischievous attraction to reinventing herself in a role that would make her enemies in the British Royal Family sick with jealousy, while ushering in an era of glamour in the White House that would surely have surpassed even that of the Jackie Kennedy years.”This is a breaking story and is being updated.