BREAKING NEWS: Earl Spencer makes shocking claim about Prince Harry after Princess Diana’s de@th
Earl Spencer’s heartbreaking claim about Prince Harry after Princess Diana’s de@th
Earl Spencer has made a deeply emotional claim about Prince Harry’s childhood, recalling how painfully vulnerable the young royal appeared on the day his mother, Princess Diana, was laid to rest.
In his forthcoming memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, Diana’s brother looks back at the funeral in September 1997 and claims he was particularly concerned about Harry, who was just 12 years old at the time.
According to Spencer, the young prince appeared overwhelmed by the enormity of what was happening around him.
“I could not get over how tiny, and slight, and bereft Harry looked,” Spencer reportedly writes.
“Too small to be doing this,” he recalled thinking, questioning how a heartbroken child could possibly endure the extraordinary ordeal that awaited him.
The comments offer a strikingly personal account of Harry on one of the most difficult days of his childhood.
Diana’s funeral became one of the most watched events in modern history, with an estimated 2.5 billion people around the world watching the procession and service.
But while millions watched the young princes walk behind their mother’s coffin, Spencer suggests that what viewers saw did not necessarily reflect what Harry was experiencing privately.
He recalled William appearing considerably more composed.
“William, although doubtless suffering equally terribly, looked more self-possessed,” Spencer wrote, describing him as “tall and handsome and dignified”.
The difference reportedly influenced where Spencer’s attention was focused that morning.
“Although I cared deeply about what he must be going through, his greater composure and maturity made him my secondary concern that morning,” he wrote.
Instead, Spencer said his overriding memory was his concern for Harry.
“My chief memory on the train journey to Althorp is of being concerned for the lack of obvious care for Harry,” he reportedly wrote.
The most painful part of Spencer’s account comes when he reflects on what Harry had lost.
“He needed Diana’s hugs, of course, and they would forever be denied him,” he wrote.
But Spencer claims he believed the young prince needed more support during the aftermath of the tragedy.
“Instead of calm and nurture, he was allowed to spin out of control,” he alleged.
Spencer also suggested that the absence of greater emotional support may have had consequences for Harry later in life.
“I have often looked back, reckoning that a more caring hand at such points as this would have helped him enormously in the future,” he wrote.
The account is likely to attract intense attention because Harry has spent much of his adult life discussing the effect Diana’s de@th had on him.
The Duke has previously described the profound impact of losing his mother as a teenager and has repeatedly returned to memories of her in interviews, speeches and his own memoir.
Spencer’s recollection now adds another perspective, suggesting that the vulnerability of the 12-year-old Harry was visible to members of Diana’s family even during the chaos surrounding her funeral.
The Earl also makes claims about the role played by King Charles on the day.
According to Spencer, Charles attempted to “take charge” during the funeral arrangements and had planned to walk between his two sons.
The funeral ultimately saw William and Harry walk behind their mother’s coffin, accompanied by senior members of the Royal Family and members of Diana’s family.
The image became one of the defining moments of the tragedy.
For Spencer, however, the procession was more than a historic royal spectacle.
It was the moment he saw two grieving boys forced to confront an unimaginable loss in front of the entire world.
William appeared outwardly composed.
Harry, Spencer recalls, looked “very alone”.
Nearly three decades later, those memories have returned to the spotlight through Spencer’s memoir.
And his account raises a painful question about the young prince at the centre of that extraordinary day: while the world watched Harry walk behind his mother’s coffin, who was looking after Harry himself?
