Princess Diana and Earl Spencer: An immortal sibling bond

Princess Diana’s untimely death 28 years ago impacted nearly the entire world and her younger brother, Charles Spencer, continues to feel the loss tenfold to this day.

Charles, 9th Earl Spencer, recently shared the aspect of his elder sister’s demise which he finds most jarring to live with still — the public testimonies regarding it.

“I tell you what I do find quite difficult. It probably sounds ungracious but occasionally total strangers come up and feel they must tell me where they were when they heard that she died,” he told podcast host Gyles Brandreth on his show, Rosebud. “I’m sure that’s helpful to them, it’s not entirely helpful to everyone else.”

Despite being related to two elder sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, both Diana and Charles shared an immeasurably heartfelt bond independent of their other siblings.

A united childhood

Two siblings on the forefront of shared childhood trauma was the foundation of Diana and Charles’ everlasting connection.

“Diana and I had two older sisters who were away at school, so she and I were very much in it together and I did talk to her about it,” Earl Spencer told The Sunday Times in 2020.

Additionally, the two younger Spencer siblings were the ones who bore the brunt of their parents’ split the most out of the four children in total by living in full custody of their father, John Spencer. Their mother, Frances Shand Kydd, left home when Diana was only five years old and she took it particularly hard.

“While she was packing her stuff to leave, she promised Diana she’d come back to see her. Diana used to wait on the doorstep for her, but she never came,” her brother recalled.

Till death did part

Telling PEOPLE that since he had always felt “intensely protective” towards his late sister, Charles found it enormously difficult to accept her death due to that very reason.

“You always think, God, I wish I could’ve protected her. It was just… it was devastating,” he told the outlet in 2017.

While the former Princess of Wales, by her own admission, never truly divulged her marital problems with her family, Earl Spencer was the one to make sure that the royal establishment suitably honour her in death, despite her divorce from King Charles, then the Prince of Wales.

“Though technically not a royal matter, he had decided that as the mother of a future king, and a globally popular public figure, his sister should have a royal funeral,” Dickie Arbiter, royal journalist and former Palace secretary, revealed in his memoir, On Duty With The Queen.

A proud uncle

Due to his special proximity with Princess Diana, Charles Spencer remains an equally doting uncle of her two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.

When his younger nephew won a case against News Group Newspapers (NGN) in January of this year, the Earl publicly commended him via X (formerly known as Twitter).

“It takes an enormous amount of guts to take on opponents like News Group Newspapers, and great tenacity to win. And it’s just wonderful that Harry fought for – and gained – an apology to his mother. She would be incredibly touched at that, & rightly proud,” he wrote.

While he also showed support for William’s wife, Kate Middleton, through her cancer journey. Following the announcement of her illness, Earl Spencer reposted the video which accompanied it on his Instagram story, describing it as a display of “Incredible poise and strength.”