Princess Diana's brother, Charles Spencer, recently gave a candid interview on Gyles Brandreth's podcast, "Rosebud." During the appearance, Earl Spencer revealed that it's extremely "difficult" when "total strangers" trauma dump on him about his late sister. He also spoke about realizing he would have to deliver a eulogy for Princess Diana at her funeral, before which he had an "awful feeling."
The 9th Earl Spencer shared that he flew back to the U.K. from South Africa, where he was living at the time, upon learning of his sister's tragic death. "[I had a] very sweet stewardess help me, because I was in bits," Spencer explained on the podcast, via People. "I had a big, thick address book, and I thought, 'I want to find someone who's going to make the speech for her.' And I got to 'Z' and I hadn't found anyone."
Spencer continued, "[I] got off the plane in Heathrow [Airport], called my mother, I said, 'I can't think who's going to give the eulogy. And I've got an awful feeling it's going to have to be me.'" As it turned out, Spencer's family had unilaterally made the decision for him. The earl recounted his mother telling him, "Well, it is going to be you. Your sisters and I have decided it."
Initially, Spencer started writing a "very traditional eulogy," but he soon realized that it would sound "ridiculous" as "that's not who [Diana] was." Instead, the earl recognized that he needed to "speak for" his late sister, instead of simply talking about her.
Knowing that Princess Diana had entrusted her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, to him in the event of her death also hit hard. "[I]t had no legal standing—but I knew she'd left me as guardian of her sons," he explained. "Obviously, the other parent being alive, that meant nothing, but it meant something to me...That sort of duty."
Earl Spencer subsequently wrote his eulogy for Diana "in an hour and a half," which he delivered at Westminster Abbey on September 6, 1997. He has since remained in close contact with both Harry and William.
