Earl Spencer says press treatment of Harry and Meghan echoes Diana
Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, has said media treatment of Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, carries “echoes” of the press attention faced by his late sister Diana, Princess of Wales.
He spoke to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg at Althorp, the Spencer family estate in Northamptonshire. The interview was recorded there and was due to air on the evening of 20 September, according to HELLO! Magazine.
Earl Spencer said Diana was “really brought low” by media criticism. He called it a “pity” to see echoes of that in coverage of the Sussexes.
He described the press attention around Harry and Meghan as a “cancerous influence in their life”. He said people should learn from Diana’s experience. His exact words were that it would be beholden on people to learn from her example.
He also addressed where he stands between Diana’s two sons. He said he is not solely “on Harry’s side”. He is on the side of both of his sister’s sons, Harry and William, Prince of Wales.
The interview follows a dispute over Earl Spencer’s forthcoming memoir about Diana. At issue is his account of a conversation with the then Prince of Wales, now King Charles III, after Diana’s death in 1997, as reported by the BBC.
Earl Spencer has written that the then prince unleashed down the telephone what Spencer took to be pent-up contempt for Diana, according to the BBC. In the book he also claims Charles sounded “giddily elated” in a call after Diana’s death, a claim reported in BBC live coverage, and alleges Charles told him “rest assured, we’ll forget her”, as reported by Reuters.
Buckingham Palace has denied Earl Spencer’s claim that he argued with the then Prince Charles after Diana’s death, according to the Associated Press. The denial runs directly beside the claim. Neither side has published a transcript of the call.
What makes this stand out is the pairing. Earl Spencer linked a historical dispute to a present argument about press conduct.
Prince Harry, and possibly Meghan, were preparing in September 2026 to attend a number of charitable events as the memoir approached publication, Reuters reported. The Palace has not commented on Earl Spencer’s latest remarks about media coverage.
