BREAKING: Earl Spencer in tears as he’s confronted by BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg
Earl Spencer was overcome with emotion as he reflected on the loss of his sister Princess Diana during a deeply personal BBC interview with Laura Kuenssberg.
The presenter travelled to Althorp Estate in Northamptonshire to speak with Diana’s brother about his new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which includes a number of controversial claims about the Royal Family and the period surrounding Diana’s death.
But one of the most emotional moments of the interview came when the conversation moved away from the current royal row and towards Spencer’s childhood memories of his sister.
Asked what he remembered most clearly about growing up with Diana, Spencer recalled happier days at Park House in Sandringham, Norfolk.
“My memories of Diana tend to be from our happy childhood days, in our home before this, which was Park House in Sandringham, in Norfolk,” he said.
“Even though we had the rupture of my parents’ divorce, it was such a happy home.”
‘It Really Breaks Me Up’
Spencer said it was not one particular childhood memory that stood out, but an entire period of their lives together.
“Just those days there, carefree days … not an instance, but a period of life,” he explained.
However, remembering Diana as a young girl quickly became overwhelming.
“It really breaks me up when I look at old photographs of Diana as a child, and then think what happened to her,” he said.
“It’s terribly sad.”
Kuenssberg then asked a simple but painful question: “How much do you miss her?”
Spencer replied: “Every day.”
He added: “That’s the thing with sibling loss, you never get over it.”
The interview then fell silent as Spencer’s eyes filled with tears.
Kuenssberg allowed a long pause before the conversation continued, while Spencer did not add anything further to the deeply emotional admission.
Childhood Memories Remain Powerful
Diana and Spencer spent part of their childhood at Park House, situated on the Sandringham estate.
Despite the breakdown of their parents’ marriage, Spencer described the home as a happy place and remembered those years as relatively carefree.
His comments offered a more personal side to an interview that was otherwise dominated by arguments surrounding his new memoir.
Swan Song: Diana, My Sister contains several claims about the Royal Family that have already generated significant controversy.
Among them is Spencer’s allegation that King Charles, then Prince of Wales, told him after Diana’s death that she would “soon be forgotten”.
Buckingham Palace has challenged Spencer’s account.
Spencer Insists He Is ‘Telling the Truth’
Elsewhere in the interview, Kuenssberg directly questioned Spencer over the disagreement between his version of events and Buckingham Palace’s response.
She read out the Palace statement, which said: “His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss.”
Kuenssberg noted that Buckingham Palace rarely issues statements of this nature and suggested the King appeared angry about the allegation.
Spencer questioned that interpretation.
“Well, is he furious, or is he embarrassed?” he replied.
He then repeated his insistence that his recollection was accurate.
“Because I can tell you here and now, those are exactly the words he said.”
Spencer said he had only ever had two telephone conversations with Charles and argued that he had therefore been paying particularly close attention during the exchange in question.
“I was hyper-alert to what he was saying, and those are precisely the words that he said,” Spencer insisted.
“I promise that to you now. Genuinely, that is what he said.”
Palace and Spencer Remain at Odds
Spencer also argued that the Palace statement did not explicitly state that Charles had never made the alleged remark.
“I don’t hear him saying he didn’t say that,” he told Kuenssberg.
The disagreement remains one of the central controversies surrounding Spencer’s book.
Buckingham Palace has questioned how grief may have affected his memory, while Spencer continues to stand firmly behind his account.
But despite the increasingly public dispute, the most striking moment of the BBC interview came when Spencer spoke not about the monarchy or his book, but simply about losing his sister.
Nearly three decades after Diana’s death, his brief response to being asked how often he misses her summed up the continuing personal impact in just two words: “Every day.”