Charles Spencer confirms Harry and Meghan's summer stay at Althorp with Archie and Lilibet
Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, has confirmed that Prince Harry, Meghan, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet stayed with him at Althorp House in July.
Spencer, who is Princess Diana's younger brother, gave the details on ITV's Lorraine on Wednesday morning. He was appearing to promote his book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, and he spoke about the summer visit in family terms, Hello! Magazine reported.
The title matters for readers meeting him for the first time. Earl Spencer is a hereditary title in the British peerage, passed down through the Spencer family. Spencer is the current holder, which makes him both host at Althorp and keeper of much of its history.
Diana also had two older sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, People has documented. That wider family helps explain the relationships at the centre of this story. For Archie and Lilibet, Spencer is a great-uncle on their late grandmother's side.
Althorp House is the Spencer family estate in Northamptonshire. It was Diana's childhood home and is her final resting place. A summer visit there is therefore not just a holiday in the country, but time spent where their grandmother grew up.
Spencer described the July stay in simple, warm terms. He called it "lovely". It was brief and private.
He said watching Archie and Lilibet running around the house and grounds stayed with him. The sight brought sadness because Diana was not there to see them. He spoke of her absence as a great-grandmother who would never meet them in person.
He added that Diana would have spoiled Archie and Lilibet rotten. The phrase was affectionate and direct. It painted a picture of the grandmother he remembers, turned up loud for a new generation.
What makes this stand out is the rarity of such confirmation. Details of the Sussex children's time in Britain are not often shared publicly. Here they were shared by family, on daytime television, in the course of talking about Diana's memory.
For fans, this means a small but concrete detail in a story where details are scarce. There is no formal statement to parse. There is just a great-uncle remembering two small children at play in a big old house, and the grandmother they never met.
