BOMBSHELL: Earl Spencer makes huge new Prince Harry and Meghan statement – ‘cancerous influence’
Earl Spencer has spoken out in defence of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, claiming their treatment by sections of the press bears troubling similarities to the way his late sister Princess Diana was covered.
The Earl made the comments during a BBC interview in which he also addressed the growing controversy surrounding his new memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister.
Speaking about Harry and Meghan, Spencer said he believed hostile tabloid coverage could have a deeply damaging effect on those subjected to it.
“If you look at an article in a tabloid about Diana or the couple that you were mentioning, Harry and Meghan, you know, they can be really, really unpleasant,” he said.
“And I think it would be really beholden on people to learn from Diana’s example.”
Spencer stressed that he was not attempting to speak on behalf of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
“I’m not here to speak for Harry and Meghan,” he said, “but for anyone who’s being destroyed in this way daily, it must be such a cancerous influence in their life.”
Spencer Says Diana Was ‘Really Brought Low’
The Earl went on to reflect on the effect he believes intense media criticism had on Diana.
He said his sister had been “really brought low” by the level of criticism directed at her and described it as a “pity” to see what he regarded as echoes of that treatment in coverage of Harry and Meghan.
His comments come after the Sussexes returned to the UK from the United States on August 26.
Harry and Meghan have long criticised sections of the British press, with Harry telling Oprah Winfrey in 2021 that tabloid coverage had created what he described as a “toxic environment”.
The Duke has also pursued several legal cases involving newspaper publishers.
According to the source, Harry and six other claimants, including Sir Elton John and Liz Hurley, lost a privacy case against the publisher of the Daily Mail in July, while Harry had previously secured legal victories involving Mirror Group and News Group.
Fresh Comments Come Amid King Charles Row
Spencer’s defence of Harry and Meghan comes as he remains embroiled in a separate dispute with King Charles over claims contained in his memoir.
One of the most controversial allegations concerns an alleged conversation after Diana’s death.
Spencer claims Charles told him: “We’ll forget her soon enough.”
Buckingham Palace responded by saying that “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss”.
Spencer has strongly rejected the suggestion that his memory is unreliable.
He accused the King of “gaslighting” him and described the Palace response as “astonishingly provocative and below the belt”.
“It is not every day you wake up to find you’ve been gaslit by the King,” he said.
Spencer Compares Palace Response to ‘Recollections May Vary’
Spencer also compared the Palace statement with the late Queen Elizabeth II’s famous “recollections may vary” response following Harry and Meghan’s Oprah interview.
He described the latest Palace wording as a “rather poor imitation” of that phrase.
Spencer argued that the earlier formulation had been more elegant, but said he believed such language was inappropriate in the current dispute.
He has also claimed that Diana “would be cheering from the rafters at this book”.
Those comments reflect Spencer’s own view and recollection, while Buckingham Palace has publicly questioned the reliability of his account.
Earl Spencer Insists He Is ‘Telling the Truth’
In another extract from the BBC interview, Spencer was pressed directly on whether his claims about Charles could be substantiated.
He described an alleged argument concerning whether William and Harry should walk behind Diana’s funeral cortege.
According to Spencer, Charles became extremely angry during the discussion.
“(The King) went ballistic, would be the right term,” Spencer claimed.
He alleged that Charles criticised his family’s sense of duty and continued for what Spencer described as a significant period.
Spencer then claimed that after the outburst stopped, Charles said: “We’ll forget her soon enough.”
Asked whether he had evidence supporting that account, Spencer said he had told close friends and family about the alleged conversation immediately afterwards.
“I told friends and family straight away, close friends and family, about what had been said, because it was so monstrous,” he said.
He then insisted: “I’m telling the truth.”
Diana’s Legacy Again at Centre of Royal Debate
Spencer’s interview has now placed several strands of the wider royal dispute together.
His criticism of the press echoes longstanding complaints made by Harry and Meghan, while his allegations about Charles have reopened arguments about Diana’s death and funeral.
The memoir also returns attention to the decision for William and Harry, then still teenagers, to walk behind their mother’s coffin.
For Spencer, the issues remain deeply connected to his belief that Diana was badly treated during her lifetime and that lessons should have been learned from what happened to her.
His comments about Harry and Meghan therefore go beyond simply defending his nephew.
They form part of a wider argument from Spencer that the consequences of sustained public and media pressure should not be underestimated — particularly when, in his view, history has already shown how damaging that pressure can become.
