Latest news with #EarlCharlesSpencer
Daily Mail
30-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Princess Diana's brother Earl Spencer shares previously unseen photo of late royal
Princess Diana 's younger brother has shared a previously-unseen photograph of the late royal. Earl Charles Spencer shared the sweet family picture, which featured his father, Earl John Spencer, his stepmother Raine Spencer, along with Princess Diana, her sisters Jane and Sarah, and Charles himself. The family appear pictured together while stood at the bottom of the stairs of Althrop House, their estate in Northampton. Both Diana and Charles were raised at the Northamptonshire-based house, which has been in the Spencer family for more than 500 years. The Earl, who is three years younger than the late Princess, estimated that the photo would have been taken in 1989 around the time of their father's birthday, when Diana would have been 27. Captioning the social media post, Charles, 60, wrote: 'Trying to remember what this rather formal family photograph was for - it shows my sisters and brothers in law, flanking my father and stepmother, at the base of the main staircase (in the central hallway, known as the Saloon) at Althrop House in the late '80s. Perhaps it was something to do with my father's 65th birthday, in January 1989? 'Definitely an '80s air to it all…. I'm always intrigued by interior shots from Althorp's past. Those huge candelabra are no longer on the staircase, and the Saloon's walls are now white,' he wrote. The touching tribute comes just over a month after relatives of the late Princess mourned her passing during Mental Health Awareness week. The post amassed more than 12,000 likes from fans of Princess Diana, the former wife of King Charles, who died on 31 August 1997. Charles appeared appeared on ITV 's Loose Men in May - a variant of the channel's daily show Loose Women - which is back on screens to mark Mental Health Awareness week, to discuss his sister's death. There, he described losing his sister as 'such an amputation' as he reflected on his 'sibling grief'. Charles said: 'It's such an amputation. You grow up with these people, they are your flesh and blood, they're with you forever – and then they're gone.' Describing losing a sibling as 'a really extraordinary thing', Charles recalled how, even years after his sister's untimely death at the age of 36, he would still think to pick up the phone and call her. He said: 'For years after Diana died, I would think, "I must ring her and tell her something," because we shared the same sense of humour.' 'You just realise, of course, that's not going to happen,' he added. While Charles also grew up with two other sisters - Lady Sarah McCorquodale, 70, and Lady Jane Fellowes, 68 - he was much closer in age with Diana, who would have been 63 in May. He said: 'I don't share my childhood with anyone anymore. That's a great loss that you can never really put right.' Charles, who last year published a harrowing account of the abuse he was subjected to at Maidwell Hall prep school, also told fellow panelist Craig Doyle about the responsibility he felt to protect Diana. Despite being only 16 when Diana burst into 'the public light in 1981', Charles was eager to 'get stuck in' and 'deal with the photographers who were plaguing her.' On another occasion, he really did get involved, contacting a journalist who had written 'a really horrendous article' about her himself. He explained: 'I remember just before she died, a female journalist wrote a really horrendous article – because by that stage I don't think that journalist was thinking of Diana as a person.' Charles regretted that Diana had become 'something to make money out of' and wrote an 'outraged letter' to the journalist, which developed into 'a bit of a to and fro'. He concluded: 'I think, particularly as a brother of a sister, you always feel like you want to get stuck in really.' Earl Spencer's parents had five children between 1955 and 1964. Lady Sarah McCorquodale was born in 1955 and Lady Jane Fellowes followed two years later. The couple's third child, John Spencer, died hours after being born in January, 1960. The late Princess Diana was born in 1961 and the youngest, Earl Charles Spencer, was born in 1964. The siblings' father John worked as a royal equerry for both King George VI and the young Queen Elizabeth II, and the family initially rented a home at the royal estate in Sandringham. When Frances and John divorced, the two youngest Spencer siblings lived with their father, who Charles described as 'quiet and a constant source of love' in a 2020 interview with The Sunday Times.
Daily Mail
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Lady Eliza Spencer reveals the heartbreaking question she asked her father when Princess Diana died
Lady Eliza Spencer has recalled her heartbreaking reaction to her aunt Princess Diana 's death in 1997. Eliza, 32, who models for high-end fashion brands alongside her identical twin sister, Lady Amelia, is one of Diana's younger brother's seven children. The blonde beauty's father, Earl Charles Spencer, 61, shared a very close childhood bond with the late princess and has described his sister's death as 'an amputation'. Eliza, who was raised in Cape Town, South Africa, with her twin, her older sister Lady Kitty, 34, and her younger brother Louis, Viscount Althorp, 31, and her half brother Samuel Aitken, 22, told The Standard that Diana came to stay with the family 'just a few months before she passed away'. Recalling the visit, she said: 'We were five, but we remember going to the beach with her, and her being a very gentle and kind and sweet figure in our lives.' When Charles told the twins that Diana, who was only 36, had died, Eliza responded with the question: 'But not in real life, Daddy?' 'We thought it couldn't be real,' Eliza reflected. In the same interview, the twin sisters spoke about their recent, seventies-inspired fashion campaign with quintessentially British brand Aspinal of London. They also revealed that their mother, former model Victoria Lockwood, 60, has been their 'biggest fashion role model' and 'biggest cheerleader' professionally. Referring to their mother, Amelia added: 'She's so naturally chic, she never tries too hard - it's less is more.' Their father Charles has spoken openly about his grief for Diana and last month described losing her as 'such an amputation'. Reflecting on his 'sibling grief', he also revealed that he always felt an intense need to protect Diana - and even intervened when a journalist wrote a 'horrendous article' about her. Charles appeared on ITV 's Loose Men - a variant of the channel's daily show Loose Women - which is back on screens to mark Mental Health Awareness week. Reflecting on losing the sister he shared his childhood with, Charles said: 'It's such an amputation. 'You grow up with these people, they are your flesh and blood, they're with you forever – and then they're gone.' Describing losing a sibling as 'a really extraordinary thing', Charles recalled how, even years after his sister's untimely death at the age of 36, he would still think to pick up the phone and call her. He said: 'For years after Diana died, I would think, "I must ring her and tell her something," because we shared the same sense of humour.' 'You just realise, of course, that's not going to happen,' he added. While Charles also grew up with two other sisters - Lady Sarah McCorquodale, 70, and Lady Jane Fellowes, 68 - he was much closer in age with Diana, who would have been 63 today, and said they grew up together. He said: 'I don't share my childhood with anyone anymore. That's a great loss that you can never really put right.' Charles, who last year published a harrowing account of the abuse he was subjected to at Maidwell Hall prep school, also told fellow panelist Craig Doyle about the responsibility he felt to protect Diana. Despite being only 16 when Diana burst into 'the public light in 1981', Charles was eager to 'get stuck in' and 'deal with the photographers who were plaguing her.' On another occasion, he really did get involved, contacting a journalist who had written 'a really horrendous article' about her himself. He explained: 'I remember just before she died, a female journalist wrote a really horrendous article – because by that stage I don't think that journalist was thinking of Diana as a person.' Charles regretted that Diana had become 'something to make money out of' and wrote an 'outraged letter' to the journalist, which developed into 'a bit of a to and fro'. He concluded: 'I think, particularly as a brother of a sister, you always feel like you want to get stuck in really.' Earl Spencer's parents had five children between 1955 and 1964. Lady Sarah McCorquodale was born in 1955 and Lady Jane Fellowes followed two years later. The couple's third child, John Spencer, died hours after being born in January, 1960. The late Princess Diana was born in 1961 and the youngest, Earl Charles Spencer, was born in 1964. The siblings' father John worked as a royal equerry for both King George VI and the young Queen Elizabeth II, and the family initially rented a home at the royal estate in Sandringham. When Frances and John divorced, the two youngest Spencer siblings lived with their father, who Charles described as 'quiet and a constant source of love' in a 2020 interview with The Sunday Times.
Fox News
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Princess Diana's brother shares heartbreaking grief, says her death felt like 'an amputation'
Earl Charles Spencer lost a part of himself when his sister, Princess Diana, was killed nearly three decades ago. On May 15, he appeared on "Loose Men" in honor of Mental Health Awareness Week, where he discussed sibling grief. "It's such an amputation," said the 60-year-old. "You grow up with these people, they are your flesh and blood, they're with you forever, and then they're gone." "It's a really extraordinary thing," the historian reflected. Diana died in 1997 from injuries she sustained in a car crash in Paris. She was 36. At the time, the mother of two was being chased by paparazzi. Spencer noted that grief never goes away. "For years after Diana died, I would think, 'I must ring her and tell her something,' because we shared the same sense of humor," he recalled. "And you just realize, of course, that's not going to happen." The author described how his big sister played a key role in his childhood. "As your family naturally folds in on itself — you lose your parents — I have two older sisters who I adore," Spencer explained. "They're quite a lot older than me, so I don't share my childhood with anyone anymore. And that's a great loss you can never really put right." The world, along with Spencer, watched Diana grow from a shy teenage nursery schoolteacher into a glamorous celebrity who comforted AIDS patients. She instantly became a household name when she married the future King Charles III in 1981, when she was 20 years old. They welcomed two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, before the couple announced their separation in 1992. Their divorce was finalized in 1996. Spencer said that even as a teenager, he felt an urgency to protect his sister from "the photographers who were plaguing her." "I remember just before she died, a female journalist wrote a really horrendous article, because by that stage I don't think that journalist was thinking of Diana as a person," said Spencer. "She was something to make money out of or whatever." "I wrote her an outraged letter and had a bit of to and fro with her," he said. "I think, particularly as a brother of a sister, you always want to get stuck in, really." It was during Diana's funeral that Spencer denounced the ruthless U.K. press that hounded his beloved sibling in her lifetime. Spencer was 42 years old when he first revealed to a therapist he had been sexually abused as a child. At the time, he had "hit rock bottom." Seventeen years later, he detailed the trauma he endured in a memoir, "A Very Private School." He never told Diana about his experience at Maidwell Hall, an elite English boarding school. But as he struggled with loneliness away from his family, he often thought of his sister. "She was the closest person to me growing up," he told Fox News Digital in 2024. "We had two much older sisters and a baby brother who had died. Then there was Diana and me. We were very close. And, actually, that was one of the devastations of being sent away. She was sent a year ahead of me, but for the first few years of my life, we went everywhere together." WATCH: PRINCESS DIANA'S HAIRDRESSER RECALLS THEIR LASTING FRIENDSHIP "We did everything together," he shared. "We went to a very gentle primary school together, a day school, [before boarding school]. She was an absolutely lovely older sister to a little boy whose parents were divorced and had quite a traditional English upbringing. We were allies." At the time, a spokesperson for Maidwell Hall didn't immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment. It previously told "Today" that it has notified authorities who investigate crimes against children. School officials are also encouraging any past students with similar experiences to come forward. Today, Spencer hopes the school will now deal with its past "in an honest way." "I would tell [my younger self] it wasn't his fault," Spencer said. "As a child, you're always thinking it's your fault. I used to think I must have failed as a son to be sent away to such a place and not be part of the family. … But I would tell him, 'You're fine. You've come out on the other side.'"
