Charles Spencer, Princess Diana. Getty Images (2)
Charles Spencer, brother of Princess Diana, visits his sister’s grave at the Spencer family ancestral home of Althorp “nearly every day,” he revealed during the Tuesday, October 15, episode of Good Morning Britain.
Diana died at age 36 in a 1997 car accident in Paris and was interred on a small island near the Round Oval lake at Althorp. Charles, 60, has been custodian of the estate since 1992 following the death of his father, John Spencer.
“And of course, she’s buried at home,” Charles said. “Yes, she is, and I go pretty much every day. Last week, one of her closest childhood friends came and was on the island. And that was so nice.”
When Diana died, her funeral was one of the most-watched programs in the history of the U.K., with tributes pouring in from all over the world. Today, the island where Diana is buried is accessible only by boat, cut off from the general public.
The People’s Princess always and forever. The British royal family has kept Princess Diana’s memory alive since her untimely death in August 1997. The mother of Prince William and Prince Harry died at the age of 36 after a car accident in Paris that resulted from her driver, Henri Paul, fleeing the paparazzi. Paul and […]
There was, at one point, a bridge that connected the island to the rest of the estate, but it was removed to protect the family’s privacy, Diana’s son Prince Harry wrote in his 2023 memoir, Spare.
“The bridge had been removed, to give my mother privacy, to keep intruders away,” he wrote.
“I’m sure pretty much everyone watching this program has had trauma in their family at some point,” Charles said. “And, like everyone else, you sort of get used to it without it ever going away.”
Harry, who was days away from his 13th birthday at the time of Diana’s death, brought his wife, Meghan Markle, to visit his mother’s grave for the first time in 2022, marking the 25th anniversary of the accident.
It’s been 25 years since Princess Diana’s death, but her memory lives on through her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry; their wives, Princess Kate and Meghan Markle; and even their children, Diana’s five grandchildren. Harry and William shared memories of their famous mom in the 2017 HBO documentary Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and […]
“No visit to this place was ever easy, but this one … 25th anniversary,” Harry wrote in Spare. “And Meg’s first time. At long last, I was bringing the girl of my dreams home to meet mum.”
“We hesitated, hugging, and then I went first. I placed flowers on the grave,” he continued. “Meg gave me a moment, and I spoke to my mother in my head, told her I missed her, asked her for guidance and clarity. Feeling that Meg might also want a moment, I went around the hedge, scanned the pond. When I came back, Meg was kneeling, eyes shut, palms against the stone.”
As the pair walked back to the boat that brought them to the island, Harry asked Meghan what she was praying for at that moment.
“Clarity, she said. And guidance,” he wrote.