Charles Spencer says Princess Diana was deeply in love with the future King Charles III when they married in 1981, despite her brother’s account that Charles confessed he didn’t love her the day before their wedding.
The 9th Earl Spencer reflected on the early days of his sister’s troubled marriage during a Sept. 28 appearance on CBS Mornings. When Gayle King asked why Diana proceeded with the wedding despite reportedly expressing reservations to her father, Spencer offered a straightforward explanation: she was in love with Charles.
Spencer recalled Diana telling him that Charles had said, “I’m not in love with you, but I’m going to marry you anyway,” just a day before their wedding ceremony at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
“Well I, as a younger brother, I was very reassured,” Spencer told King. “You know, when I talked to Diana before the wedding, during the engagement—she was clearly, genuinely in love with Prince Charles, you see.”
Diana was only 20 when she married the 32-year-old heir to the British throne. Spencer, who was 17 at the time, recalled that his sister had “no romantic experience at all” and described Charles as her “first big love.”
“I think, with Diana, she was very much somebody of the heart,” Spencer explained. “She led with the heart, and she was really her own person,” adding that “maybe she thought it would be okay.”
His recollections offer a striking contrast to some of the darker revelations in his newly released memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister .
The book chronicles a marriage that, according to Spencer, began with Diana deeply in love but ended with her preparing to divorce a husband she believed had feelings for someone else .
And then there’s the valet.
Spencer writes that when Diana eventually revealed her plans to divorce Charles, she allegedly told him, “But, Carlos, my husband is in love with his valet.”
Similar rumors dating back decades about Charles and a male royal aide were previously rejected by Clarence House, which described claims about the King’s sexuality as “entirely without foundation.”
Swan Song also delves into events following Diana’s death in Paris in 1997. Spencer claims Charles sounded “giddily elated—like a lottery winner” when they spoke after her passing.
He further alleges that Charles later told him, “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough,” amid disagreements over Diana’s funeral.
Buckingham Palace responded to one of Spencer’s claims earlier this month, stating that while it does not typically comment on books, King Charles recognizes that “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss.”
Spencer, however, remains firm in his account. He has maintained that his intention is to document his sister’s life rather than settle personal scores.
“Part of my duty, I am a historian, is to lay down facts,” he told People . “There’s no viciousness. I’m not resentful or bitter.”
