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Nearly three decades later, the raw details of Diana’s funeral planning are finally coming to light. Spencer’s account paints a stark picture of a grieving family clashing with royal protocol.
Princess Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, is shedding new light on his sister’s death and the tense aftermath that followed. The beloved royal died following a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997.
Diana, Princess of Wales (1961 – 1997) sitting on a step at her home, Highgrove House, in Doughton, Gloucestershire, on July 18, 1986. | Source: Getty Images
Diana, Princess of Wales (1961 – 1997) sitting on a step at her home, Highgrove House, in Doughton, Gloucestershire, on July 18, 1986. | Source: Getty Images
On Thursday, September 17, the Daily Mail published the first excerpt of the 9th Earl Spencer’s upcoming memoir, “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister.” After learning of her death, Spencer became his family’s point of contact regarding Diana’s funeral arrangements.
He served as a go-between for his family, the Buckingham Palace faction led by Queen Elizabeth, and Diana’s ex-husband, then-Prince Charles, as they planned her funeral.
“Diana remained theirs, in Buckingham Palace’s eyes, even in death. Her family, despite her divorce, were simply expected to fall into line with any royal decisions,” he wrote.
Spencer said he tried to advocate on his family’s behalf. “My sisters knew that Diana had always wanted Mozart’s Requiem to be played for her, after her death,” he revealed.
“But when I passed this on, it was rejected as a possibility: ‘No part of a requiem can be played at a Church of England funeral,’ I was told,” he recounted. “I later found out that was not the case — the first of several untruths that the authorities would push my way at that time.”
Earl Spencer lays flowers on the island in the grounds of the Spencer family home at Althorp, Northamptonshire, on September 8, 1997, where his sister Diana, Princess of Wales was buried. | Source: Getty Images
Earl Spencer lays flowers on the island in the grounds of the Spencer family home at Althorp, Northamptonshire, on September 8, 1997, where his sister Diana, Princess of Wales was buried. | Source: Getty Images
Elsewhere in the passage, Spencer detailed his dispute with the royals over whether Diana’s sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, then ages 15 and 12, would walk behind her coffin during the funeral procession.
“‘Well, that’s not going to happen,’ I said, in a matter-of-fact tone,” Spencer recalled. “It was a suggestion that struck me as utterly barbaric, and quite out of the question.”
Prince Harry, Prince Charles, Earl Spencer and Prince William at Westminster Abbey for the funeral service for Diana, Princess of Wales, on September 6, 1997. | Source: Getty Images
Prince Harry, Prince Charles, Earl Spencer and Prince William at Westminster Abbey for the funeral service for Diana, Princess of Wales, on September 6, 1997. | Source: Getty Images