Updated

Updated · The Independent · Sep 19

Earl Spencer Claims Palace Still Resents Diana as Memoir Revives 1997 Funeral Row

Updated

Updated · The Independent · Sep 19

Earl Spencer Claims Palace Still Resents Diana as Memoir Revives 1997 Funeral Row

Q: Why did Earl Spencer reject the Queen's secret offer to restore Princess Diana's royal title after her tragic death?

Earl Spencer says he rejected the late Queen’s private offer because he believed restoring Diana’s HRH title after her death was meaningless and too late. According to extracts from *Swan Song: Diana, My Sister*, Spencer was told on the day of Diana’s funeral by the Queen’s private secretary, Robert Fellowes, that Queen Elizabeth II wanted to give Diana her “Her Royal Highness” title back. Spencer says he declined, replying in effect that there was no point because “Diana’s dead.” His reasoning, as presented in the memoir and subsequent reporting, was that Diana had been deeply hurt when the title was removed after her 1996 divorce from Charles. Spencer describes that earlier decision as “petty and vindictive” and says he felt she would have seen a posthumous restoration as a “consolation prize,” not a true act of justice. He also suggests the offer failed to address the real grievance: in his view, the title should never have been taken away while Diana was alive. Spencer later reflected on whether he had made the right call, but maintained that restoring the honorific only after her funeral would not have changed what Diana had endured. So, by Spencer’s account, he turned down the offer out of principle and because he believed Diana herself would have regarded it as an empty, belated gesture.

3 articles · Updated · The Independent · Sep 19

David Dimbleby said on BBC Radio 4 that Princess Diana was and remains “deeply resented” inside Buckingham Palace because her public appeal and refusal to behave like other royals created lasting tension.
The claim lands as Earl Spencer defends memoir extracts alleging King Charles said “we’ll forget her soon enough” after Diana’s death and “went ballistic” during a dispute over funeral arrangements involving William and Harry.
Spencer also wrote that Queen Elizabeth reacted “tetchily” to early news of Diana’s Paris car crash, asking, “What is she up to now?” before the severity was known.
Buckingham Palace has issued a rare rebuttal, saying the King is mindful that grief can cloud reason, turning the book’s serialised claims into a fresh public clash over Diana’s legacy.