BREAKING: Earl Spencer shares Harry’s shocking question after he told Duke about Diana’s memoir
Earl Spencer has revealed how Prince Harry reacted after being told about his forthcoming memoir on Princess Diana, including the unexpected question the Duke asked about what might appear in the book.
The 9th Earl Spencer is preparing to release Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, a deeply personal account of his late sister’s life and the events leading up to her death in 1997.
Speaking in an interview with PEOPLE, Spencer said both Prince William and Prince Harry were informed about the book at the same time as his sisters, Sarah and Jane Spencer.
“I told them at the same time,” he explained, referring to all four family members.
According to Spencer, Harry’s immediate concern was whether anything embarrassing about him had been included.
“I can say that Harry is completely fine about it,” Spencer said.
“He said, ‘I hope there’s nothing embarrassing about him in it.’ I said, ‘There isn’t.’”
Harry and William Were Told Together
Spencer said he understood why William and Harry might have been apprehensive when they first learned he was writing a book about their mother.
Both brothers have spent much of their lives under intense public scrutiny, and Spencer suggested it was natural that they would wonder how they might be portrayed.
“I think they were actually worried where I was going up to with the book,” he said.
Spencer explained that the memoir largely stops with Diana’s death in 1997, aside from a brief postscript connected to her grave.
“So I think there was this, ‘Gosh, what’s he written about?’” he said.
“And I think it’s natural that people so in the public eye are concerned how they will come across in the book.”
He insisted that neither William nor Harry’s privacy had been compromised.
Spencer Says Princes Appear as ‘Two Little Boys’
Diana’s brother explained that the princes do feature in the memoir, but primarily through the lens of their childhood relationship with their mother.
“I could reassure both of them that they’re of course in the book, but really as examples of two little boys who had the most exceptional mother,” he said.
“I’m not in any way compromising their privacy at all.”
That reassurance appears to have been particularly important given the sensitivity surrounding Diana’s personal life and the continued public interest in William and Harry’s memories of her.
Spencer’s comments suggest he wanted the memoir to focus on Diana rather than turn into a broader account of her sons’ private lives.
Concern Over Portrayal of King Charles
Spencer was also asked whether he worried about how William and Harry might react to his portrayal of their father, King Charles.
He admitted that this had been a concern.
“Yeah, that was a concern,” he said.
Spencer then suggested that he had deliberately left out significant amounts of material that could have made the book far more sensational.
“I mean, I don’t want this to sound loaded, but there was an awful lot I could have put in and I didn’t,” he said.
He went further, saying: “If I wanted to write a scandalous book about Prince Charles or King Charles as he is now, it would really be a jaw-dropper, but I’m not here to do that.”
His comments echo earlier remarks in which he claimed to know “lots of things” about the King that were not included in the memoir because he considered them irrelevant.
Memoir Focuses on Diana’s Story
Despite the controversy surrounding extracts from Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, Spencer continues to insist that his aim is not to produce a scandal-driven book about the monarchy.
Instead, he has presented the memoir as his account of Diana’s life from the perspective of a younger brother who experienced many of the same family events alongside her.
The book nevertheless contains claims about Charles that have already generated significant attention and prompted a response from Buckingham Palace.
That makes Spencer’s revelation about William and Harry particularly notable.
Both princes knew about the memoir before publication, and according to Spencer, Harry’s reaction was less about the book’s claims concerning Charles and more about whether he himself might be embarrassed by anything included.
Spencer says he reassured him there was nothing to worry about.
And while he acknowledges that both William and Harry may have been understandably cautious about what the book would contain, he insists their role in the memoir is limited to showing them as two young boys who shared an extraordinary bond with their mother.
