Princess Diana not only struggled with her marriage to Prince Charles, but she suffered from loneliness while living at Kensington Palace. Former palace press secretary Dickie Arbiter, who worked with the late princess in the ‘80s and ‘90s, recently revealed that Diana took on some secret charitable work that was fueled, in part, “out of boredom.”

Speaking to the Daily Mail’s “Palace Confidential” podcast, Arbiter said that Diana’s friends “were reluctant to go through the security hoops” to spend time with the princess. “She had to give security her friends' names, addresses, car numbers, what time they were coming and when they were leaving,” he explained. “It was a bit of a rigmarole.”

Since Diana “was always desperate to find things to do” at night, Arbiter said that she’d drive around London seeking out people in need and giving them money.

“She would try to escape, telling her protection officer: 'I'm not going anywhere tonight. You can have the night off,’” Arbiter recalled. “Lo and behold, the car would come anyway and she'd drive around Paddington. Not just to hand money to sex workers, but to drive past and see how the homeless were coping.”

Although Diana was passionate about charity work and helping others, Arbiter said the outings were partly motivated by her loneliness. “It was something she felt she had to do, but it was also something that she was doing out of boredom,” he said.

Her interest in preventing homelessness, however, wasn't a passing whim. She served as the royal patron for multiple organizations related to the issue, including The Passage, a role now taken over by Prince William. Today, the Prince of Wales has passed his passion for helping the unhoused on to Prince George, bringing him along for a Christmas visit to The Passage in December 2025.

When Prince William and Kate Middleton got engaged in 2010, rumors buzzed about which designer would get one of the biggest wedding dress commissions of all time. But instead of a member of the Royal Family or a stylist, the future Queen was directed to a different source for advice: the then-editor–in-chief of British Vogue.

"When Catherine and William got engaged, somebody from her office got in touch with me and said she'd love to have a conversation about potential wedding designers," Alexandra Shulman revealed in her new book, Black Coffee and Red Lipstick: Notes on Living.

The former editor-in-chief added that she "was absolutely thrilled to bits” about being a fashion mentor for Kate’s wedding, but wasn’t allowed to reveal her role in the big day at the time.

"I didn't know how designer-literate she was, because at this point she wasn't wearing McQueen or Erdem," she said. "Try as I might, I couldn't find a single picture of a British designer who had a lovely conventional white dress.”

After speaking with Kate, Shulman said the future princess “asked me who I thought would be best." However, the decision involved quite a lot of diplomacy, and Shulman revealed that there actually “wasn’t a surefire person” for the job.

"I thought Vivienne Westwood would be great, but I thought Vivienne's personality might be hard to marry with the formality of dealing with the royal household,” she admitted.

Shulman said other options were turned down because they were so strongly associated with Princess Diana. "There were the whole tranche of designers who would have been the traditional choices, like Bruce Oldfield or Catherine Walker, but I knew they would be associated with her late mother-in-law, so that probably wasn't going to work," she shared.

Eventually, Shulman decided Sarah Burton, who was the creative director for Alexander McQueen at the time, was the best choice "because she was a woman, and she's got a very strong, but a very gentle personality." After delivering her suggestion, Shulman said "Catherine just nodded and said, 'Thank you'"—and the rest was history.

Prince Harry is taking part in a new MasterClass conversation about grief, and in the video, the Duke of Sussex reveals that he pushed down his feelings so much that he actually forgot certain things about his mother, Princess Diana. Through therapy, he found himself able to reconnect with his memories, and that involved one unexpected tactic.

The Duke of Sussex joins Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor, neuroscientist and professor of psychology at the University of Arizona, in the MasterClass titled "Redefining Grief: Building Resilience Through Loss." Per People, Harry revealed that he “shut down” and didn’t even cry when he found out his mother had died in August 1997.

“The defense mechanism for the mind and the body was to shut down the emotions and shut down the memories,” he said. “Not just the bad memories, the good memories as well. I forgot what my mom sounded like. I forgot her laugh. I couldn’t really visualize what she looked like without looking at a photograph of her.”

One way he was able to reconnect with his mother was through scent. When his therapist told him to spray Princess Diana’s favorite perfume, Prince Harry found himself “unlocking” the feelings he’d been pushing down.

Harry shared “it was like being transported to another time” when he sprayed the scent. He added “it unlocked everything that had been locked previously" and felt "almost like knocking certain bricks through so that I could see through and certain memories and experiences could start seeping through.”

As for the perfume in question, the Duke of Sussex wrote about bringing a bottle of First, his mother's favorite perfume by Van Cleef & Arpels, to a therapy session in his memoir, Spare.

In Prince Harry's MasterClass, launched ahead of World Mental Health Day on Saturday, he also admitted that he suppressed his grief so much that he found it difficult to cry about his mother.

"I didn’t cry when I was told my mom died, only at her burial, and then not again for nearly two decades,” he said. “I was convinced that was strength, but it wasn’t. I was a 12-year-old boy with no permission to fall apart and no roadmap for how to heal.”

Princess Diana is buried at her family’s ancestral home, Althorp, and when it came to selecting a gravesite, privacy and protection came first. Her brother, Charles Spencer, decided to bury Diana on an island in the middle of the property’s Oval Lake that’s inaccessible to the public, and he tells Marie Claire about the “incredibly peaceful” spot.

Earl Spencer, whose book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, was released on September 22, says that he visits Diana “quite a lot.”

“I’ve got this cheap and cheerful little plastic boat that I'm quite a master of paddling over with one oar to the island,” he shares. “And I find it is very sad being over there, but it's also incredibly peaceful and beautiful.”

From the shore, the island where Princess Diana is buried appears to be completely overgrown with trees, but Spencer reveals there’s a secret feature of her gravesite.

“On the island, there's a small maze, you know, a grown up maze, and going through that is almost like shedding the real world and getting to this, I hope, really beautiful graveside spot, and communing with Diana,” he shares.

While a small bridge was set up to transport family members to the island for her 1997 burial, Spencer chose to leave Diana’s grave accessible only by boat for privacy reasons. In Swan Song, the earl writes about one time when he broke the bridge rule for Nelson Mandela, who was visiting Althorp and didn't feel physically able to climb into a boat.

As for when he rows across to Diana’s grave, Spencer says “it goes in phases.”

“You know, sometimes I find I need to go across, and obviously, I go across on her birthday and the anniversary and lay flowers, but sometimes I just go across anyway,” he says.

Speaking about Swan Song, Earl Spencer says that his eulogy at Diana’s funeral provided a through line to tell the story of his relationship with his sister. “What I wanted to do in a way, this book is a 350 page version of my eulogy at the funeral,” he says. “To tackle—first memoir, and it's half history— to pull that together, it needed a strand, and I found the eulogy did that because it covers both sides of my personal take and setting things down for history.”

At the end of the day, Spencer says he hopes his book serves as tribute to Diana's memory. “I've said this before, but it's—without wishing to sound emotional—when you lose a sibling, part of your childhood's gone forever,” he says.

Reflecting on his two older sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, he notes that because of the “British upper class lunacy of sending people off to boarding schools,” he didn’t grow up alongside them. “By the time I was a toddler, those two sisters were gone, you know?” he notes.

“Obviously, I'm in my sixties now, so it's no surprise that my parents and stepparents are gone,” he added. “But to lose the one person who shared your childhood as well, at quite an early age, does leave you slightly on your own.”

Sites like Kensington Palace, Windsor Castle and Westminster Abbey are highlights of any tour of the U.K., and for royal fans, they’re on the top of most people’s bucket lists. Finding a guided tour that’s entirely royally focused is tough to find, but Princess Diana’s former butler, Paul Burrell, is partnering with Great Rail Journeys in 2027 to provide the ultimate royal experience.

Offered monthly from April through October 2027, "Premium London and Scotland" is a seven-day luxury U.K. vacation featuring a talk with Burrell and other private royal experiences that will give travelers the inside stories behind iconic buildings.

“I am looking forward to showing these palaces to people for the first time through my eyes,” Burrell tells Marie Claire. “I know these buildings intimately as they were my home too, and I can share special stories which took place behind closed doors.”

The trip is capped at 24 guests per group, providing a more intimate way to experience the places that shaped the Royal Family’s lives—including Diana’s former home, Kensington Palace.

After touring the palace, guests on the tour will be treated to a private talk with Burrell, who says he’s excited to share stories "of our Royal Family from my personal experience of over 21 years.”

“I will bring you a personal and unique insight of this journey whether serving Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle, living with Princess Diana at Kensington Palace or sailing around the world on HMY Britannia,” Burrell says.

Along with visiting Kensington Palace, travelers will experience Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London and Windsor Castle before heading north to Edinburgh, Scotland. Exclusive experiences include early morning access to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the Royal Family’s official Scottish residence, a tour of the Royal Yacht Britannia and a private gala dinner at the five-star Balmoral Hotel.

When asked what his favorite royal residence is, Burrell notes that while Buckingham Palace “is the seat of the British Royal Family” and served as his home for more than a decade, Scotland has his heart. “Balmoral has always been my favorite and is the favorite of many in the family including the late Queen, who spent her last days here,” he says. “It is a very special and magical place with a unique atmosphere—a fairytale castle set amongst the heather-covered mountains of the Scottish Highlands.”

The vacation includes five-star hotel accommodations, guided excursions, daily breakfast, five dinners and first-class rail travel, with itineraries starting at $6,999 per person.

October is a prime time (pun intended) to stock up on your fall wardrobe essentials, and Amazon Prime Big Deal Days are here once again. Running October 6 and 7, this year’s sale is full of fashion and beauty steals, including one of the Royal Family’s favorite accessories.

A good pair of rain boots are a necessity when it comes to rainy English days, but you don’t have to live in the U.K. to appreciate Hunter’s classic wellies. Everyone from Princess Diana to Meghan Markle has worn the British brand’s trusty boots, and several pairs are included in this year’s Big Day Days event.

Diana sent women around the world searching for their own pair of olive green wellies when she was photographed in a pair of Hunter boots ahead of her 1981 royal wedding, and the brand's waterproof styles remain a rainy day staple. While the Original Tall is one of Hunter's most beloved designs, its newer Play Tall boot featuring a wedge heel is $40 off in Amazon's sale.

While the royals are most often spotted in a traditional knee-high wellie, Hunter also offers shorter styles, like the short version of its beloved Original boot or the brand’s Original Chelsea Boot, both included in Prime Big Deal Days.

Originally priced at $154.99, the Chelsea style is a massive 60 percent off and features a chunky half-inch heel, while the Original Short, marked down to $105, is a more traditional rain boot silhouette with a buckle strap at the ankle. At 36 percent off, Hunter's Play Short boot is also included in the sale and includes a 1.5-inch wedge heel and a ribbon loop at the back for easy on-and-off.

Think of these as the wellies to grab when you're wearing wide-leg jeans and can't necessarily tuck your pants into your rain boots without that awkward bunching, or pair them with a skirt and tights.

If you're hoping to splash out on a new pair of boots, act soon—the deals go away on October 8.

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Carole Middleton has been a strong sense of support not only for her daughter, Princess Kate, but for Prince William, too. The 71-year-old mother of the future Queen has proven to be a trusted member in royal circles, and based on her affectionate outing with Queen Camilla and Princess Anne in March, she’s a true part of the family. It’s a stark contrast to the relationship Princess Diana’s mother, Frances Shand Kydd, had with Queen Elizabeth, and royal author Ingrid Seward says there’s a key reason why.

In Seward’s new book, Catherine & Diana, the Majesty magazine editor-in-chief wrote that Middleton used a tactic that was very different from Princess Diana’s mother.

"Put simply, Carole used her head, not her heart, when dealing with the phenomenon of becoming mother-in-law to the Prince of Wales,” Seward explained.

"Carole's wiliness was in her silence—it's what has made a woman from truly humble beginnings such a successful royal mother-in-law,” the author added.

Frances Shand Kydd, on the other hand, was the “opposite” of Middleton, per Seward, and her public comments about Diana didn’t go over well with the late Queen. "The Queen liked Carole very much; she didn't like Frances,” Seward wrote.

Earlier this year, royal author and journalist Robert Jobson told Hello! that Carole’s discretion earned her a spot in the inner circle. “Trust is the thing with Carole,” Jobson said. “She has been inside this world since William and Catherine first got together, and nothing has ever come out: not a conversation, not a confidence, not a whisper.”

“The Middletons aren’t guests any more,” he added. “They stopped being guests a long time ago. They’re family.”

Charles Spencer has been open about his own late-in-life ADHD diagnosis, and says he believes Princess Diana was also neurodivergent in his new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister. Speaking to Marie Claire, the 9th Earl Spencer shares that while his sister struggled with certain aspects of royal life, he thinks potentially having ADHD actually gave her a leg up in some ways.

“I think it enhanced the natural empathy in her,” Spencer shares. “I think that's where I see her ADHD explaining some of her extraordinary public life.”

In the book, Earl Spencer writes about how Diana had trouble concentrating or sitting still in school. Her learning difficulties were frequently pointed out by teachers, but since “such things were poorly understood in England” in the ‘60s and ‘70s, she “was never even tested," Spencer notes.

People with ADHD are able to focus on their special interests intensely, and when asked if he thought Diana was able to hyperfixate on her charity work Earl Spencer replies, “I think yes, she did.
I don't know if it's hyperfocused, but certainly she had an ability to really focus in on the minutiae of the causes that would be very challenging to a normal person from a royal heritage, if you see what I mean.”

“I think she cut through the conventional way of looking at causes to see the bits that really mattered,” he adds.

Spencer notes that getting his own diagnosis as an adult helped life "make more sense," and he reflects on whether his sister's story could have been different if she'd received treatment for ADHD.

"Well, all I can say about that is that having a late diagnosis for myself, I found it incredibly helpful to understand life better,” he shares. “And the reactions that you feel as an ADHD person, without explanation, can be quite overwhelming. And I think if you can just pause and think, ‘Okay, I have this neurodivergence and maybe that's why I'm feeling this,’ I'm sure that's helpful to most people.”

Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria (RSD) is a sudden emotional pain triggered by a real or perceived rejection, and it's something most people who have ADHD experience. When asked if he thought Diana suffered with RSD, Spencer tells Marie Claire that one area of royal life Diana particularly struggled with was the overwhelming press attention she received, especially in the late '90s when the coverage turned negative.

“It's interesting, actually, because I’m only using myself as an example with Diana in mind—this is not about me,” Spencer says. “But in the past, when I was slaughtered in the press for a day or a week, it felt like a bereavement, which, of course, is illogical. But it cut to the bone.”

Earl Spencer recalls that people would try to console him, but it didn’t work. “And friends would say, ‘Oh, why bother, you know…today's newspapers, tomorrow's fish and chip wrapping,’ which is a very English idea that, you know, it's something that's going to be absolutely irrelevant the next day.”

“But I think for somebody with ADHD, like Diana, to be roundly criticized in the worst sections of the media really, really hurt her very badly indeed,” he shares.

Charles Spencer has been busy promoting his new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, in the United States this week, and on the latest episode of the “Next Question With Katie Couric” podcast, Couric told Earl Spencer about one of her personal encounters with Princess Diana.

While attending a charity luncheon for breast cancer research held in Chicago in 1996, the journalist found herself sitting “two seats away” from Diana. “She complimented my lipstick. I was very flattered,” Couric recalled.

The broadcaster shared how she remembered Diana being “really lovely and easy to talk to,” and said the royal even asked her for some parenting advice.

Couric, who had two very young daughters at the time, recalled Diana “was asking how to keep William and Harry from watching too much telly, because I think they were young teenagers.”

The boys, who were 11 and 13 at the time, were splitting their time between their mother and Prince Charles, whose divorce would be finalized later that summer. The former Today show host said she remembered the sad response Diana gave when asked about returning home to London.

“I said, ‘This must be exhausting, you know, traveling all over the country.’ I don’t know how many cities she was going to, but you know, just exhausting, shaking hands, making small talk, meeting person after person after person,” Couric told Earl Spencer.

“I said, ‘You must be so excited to go home.' And she kind of looked at me and said, ‘Yes, but I’ll be going home to an empty house,’” Couric shared.

Earl Spencer admitted that he didn't realize how unhappy his sister was after her separation from Prince Charles, telling Couric, “I regret to say I was probably just so busy getting on with my own life. And I think Diana spoke more about her marital problems to our mother and sisters than to the younger brother."

“It was amazing she coped as well as she did, given the huge amount of pressure on her," Spencer said. "Unprecedented pressure.”

Princess Diana and her younger brother, Charles Spencer, had a difficult relationship with their father’s second wife, but the late princess developed a curious friendship with Raine Spencer in her later years. It’s a decision Earl Spencer didn’t quite understand at the time, and as he tells Marie Claire, it points to his sister’s “complex” personality.

In Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, the earl writes about his childhood with Princess Diana and the shock they experienced when his father married socialite Raine McCorquodale. The siblings called her “Acid Raine” and Diana even pushed her down the stairs in a shocking incident detailed in the book, yet the princess seemed to warm to her stepmom in the late ‘90s.

When asked about one story where Diana held hands with Raine at their father’s funeral, Spencer tells Marie Claire that he wanted to “touch on how complex Diana was” in Swan Song—and that includes how she played Raine against their mother, Frances Shand Kydd.

“You know, Raine was, in many ways, a classic unfortunate stepmother for us,” Spencer says. “And yet, for Diana, she was something to almost be played with, you know, at the end.”

In Swan Song, Earl Spencer recalls his surprise at seeing how kindly Diana treated Raine at their father’s funeral, writing that he felt his sister was “playing to the gallery at the cost of integrity.”

Princess Diana would go to lunch with Raine and the royal was photographed laughing with her stepmother at the auction of her famous dress collection in June 1997, just two months before her tragic death. But Spencer says he feels there was a hidden motivation behind Diana’s sudden chumminess with Raine.

“I actually, genuinely—this is not because I, as it is clear, I don't like Raine—I don't think Diana ever liked Raine," Earl Spencer shares. “But she was having trouble with our mother. Diana and my mother had fallen out. So, Diana knew that sort of publicly befriending Raine would be very painful to my mother.”

He adds, “I think that is complex, but it is an honest look at the whole of Diana, really.”

Ironically, Raine was the one who introduced Princess Diana to Dodi Fayed, as she was working for his father, Harrods boss Mohamed Al-Fayed, at the time. "I think Raine had this grifter quality to her. So exchanging a date with her stepdaughter with the man who was effectively employing her and his son was the sort of way she operated, you know?" Earl Spencer says.

Although Raine was responsible for connecting the duo, who died in a car crash when they were visiting Paris, Earl Spencer says he doesn't blame his late stepmother. "I think that would be unfair on Raine, to be honest," he shares.

When Charles Spencer began promoting his new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, his comments about King Charles made headlines around the world, but especially in the British media. Princess Diana’s brother tells Marie Claire that he’s had an interesting—and rather different—reaction to his book in the United States, and Spencer feels part of that comes down to what he sees as the Royal Family’s influence on the U.K. media.

"I think it's surprising to people to know quite how powerful, in real terms, the Royal Family remain today," the 9th Earl Spencer says. Aside from the "pageantry and charming dressing up and having palaces and all of that sort of thing," Spencer says he feels the monarchy does wield a "very serious power."

"When somebody steps outside what [the Royal Family] would consider acceptable norms, they do galvanize sections of the U.K. media to take vengeance on their behalf," the Swan Song author shares, adding he's "certainly felt that" response.

In the book, Spencer recalls a heated conversation he had with King Charles (then Prince Charles) shortly after Diana died, writing that the then-Prince of Wales sounded "giddy" and told Spencer that Diana would be forgotten “soon enough." He also notes that Diana once told him she thought Prince Charles was "in love with his valet."

An early serialization of the book prompted Buckingham Palace to issue a rare statement, with a spokesperson for The King writing, "While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss."

Numerous royal commentators have come to The King's defense, claiming that the remark about forgetting Diana is something he'd never say. But Earl Spencer has stood by his comments, and he tells Marie Claire "there's simply nothing about the Royal Family that's not entirely in context."

Spencer compares the British media's reaction to his book to the negative press he received after Diana’s death. He says, “Twenty-nine years ago when I gave the eulogy at Diana's funeral, I was pummeled very much by the U.K. media who did not want me saying things about them to the world. So, there's been a reflex reaction to that again in the U.K.”

He spoke passionately against the paparazzi and tabloid journalists in his eulogy at Diana's funeral, calling his sister "the most hunted person of the modern age." In Swan Song, Spencer writes about how he became a target for his comments, and today, the earl says he's seeing a similar response from certain royal experts and journalists.

However, Spencer noted there's been a more positive response during his United States book tour, especially since he's been promoting Swan Song after its release as opposed to the pre-publication interviews he did in the U.K.

"I find Americans have a broader view of the world and the Royal Family than in the U.K.," Earl Spencer shares, adding he thinks U.S.-based royal fans "have been much more rounded in their view of not only the book, but my intention."

Aside from the comments about his conversation with Prince Charles, Swan Song reads more as a memoir about the days between Diana's death and funeral, peppered with stories about their childhood and brother/sister relationship. "It's not setting out to be revengeful or point scoring as it was portrayed before the book was out in the U.K.," Earl Spencer says.

He adds there's "been a different dynamic" during this part of his book tour, admitting, "I've always had a much better ride in the U.S. anyway."

At the end of the day, the author says Swan Song has never been about trying to bring the Royal Family down, and he's glad "people have had a chance to see the book for what it is, which is a brother's heartfelt celebration of a much loved sister and not an attack on an institution."

Next August will mark 30 years since Princess Diana died, and although it’s been reported that Prince Harry is planning a documentary to mark the milestone, a new report in the Daily Mail claims that a service of thanksgiving is being planned to honor the late royal's life.

Per columnist Ephraim Hardcastle, King Charles has “raised no objection” to the religious service, which would follow in the footsteps of the 10th anniversary event that was held at the Wellington Barracks Guards’ Chapel in London.

Prince William and Prince Harry remain estranged, but Hardcastle noted, “While the boys seem to have rejected any chance of working together, the religious event might help heal the rift.” Now the Daily Mail’s diary editor, Richard Eden, has spoken to another source who confirmed “a service including both brothers is being seriously considered.”

Prince William is said to have rejected participating in any kind of documentary for the anniversary, but the service would give him the chance to publicly remember his mother in an "inspirational way," Eden reported.

“William could celebrate his mother’s life by giving a reading," the insider told Eden. "That would be far more dignified than appearing in a television programme that would inevitably be portrayed as a rival to whatever Harry might make. And it would also serve to bring the brothers together.”

A spokesperson for the Prince of Wales denied to comment on how William will mark the anniversary next year.

The news comes after Princess Diana's brother, Charles Spencer, released his new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, last month. Earl Spencer recently told Marie Claire how Diana gave the monarchy “an injection of relevance and glamour.”

“For many people before Diana came along, the Royal Family was a totally acceptable, benign relic from the past, and relics from the past can soon lose all relevance,” he noted.

Working with the British Royal Family is likely a coveted job for many. However, the role often comes with some very specific drawbacks. And according to one of Princess Diana's former employees, being a royal butler could be pretty stressful sometimes.

In his book The Royal Insider: My Life With The Queen, The King, and Princess Diana, ex-royal butler Paul Burrell opened up about some of the former Princess of Wales's fears.

"Diana was convinced that someone was eavesdropping," Burrell wrote.

He continued, "We took down every wall mirror in the palace, having been told that a beam from a satellite could be bounced from a mirror to listen to conversations in the room."

Burrell wrote, "At times, it felt like I was living in a James Bond movie."

In an attempt to put Princess Diana's mind to rest, Burrell claimed that he "rolled up carpets and pulled up floorboards."

Per the former butler, "I even removed a panel in the bathtub to look in the void behind, but we found nothing."

Despite never finding any evidence of eavesdropping, Burrell revealed that he often wondered if someone might have been listening in.

"We have no proof that anyone hacked Princess Diana's phone but they may well have done," he explained.

The ex-butler shared, "She was, at the time, arguably the most famous woman in the world and a person of significant interest to national and international newspapers. We can only speculate as we will never know the truth. She could also have been listened to by secret services."

Considering the press intrusion Princess Diana experienced throughout her life, it's hardly surprising she feared being wiretapped.

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Prince William and Prince Harry were only 15 and 12 when their mother died, but Princess Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, tells Marie Claire that he sees his late sister’s influence on both of his nephews.

Earl Spencer, whose new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, was released on September 22, shares that like Princess Diana, William and Harry display an “independence of thought” from the rest of their family.

“Times have changed,” Spencer says, adding he thinks it’s “huge progress” that Prince William and Princess Kate spent some of their Christmases with the Middleton family before he was the Prince of Wales.

“You know, it really hurt Diana, family Christmases were a very, very big deal for us growing up, whether they're with my father or mother, and then we did those alternately,” Spencer shares. Instead of seeing her family, Princess Diana wasn’t given a choice other than to spend the holidays with the Royal Family—an experience she hated.

Spencer continues that it was sad for his family to have their Christmas celebrations continue on without Diana, especially since she “was only 20 when she got married.”

He says it “just seemed so thoughtless” that his sister could never celebrate Christmas with the Spencers, praising William for spending holidays with his in-laws when he could. “I think that would be the sort of independent, logical thinking that Diana would have imparted into her sons,” Spencer shares.

As for Prince Harry, Earl Spencer says his nephew has inherited one of Diana’s best qualities. “It’s very interesting to me to watch Harry with people,” he tells Marie Claire. After “chatting with Elton John at a charity event,” Spencer says they both agreed that other than Diana, Harry was the only high-profile person they’ve seen “instantly connect on sort of a joyful level with members of the public."

“He also has this incredible connection with kids, which, you know, you can’t fake that,” Spencer adds of the Duke of Sussex, praising the “incredibly easy way” he relates to children, just like his mother.

Spencer has made his feelings on King Charles known in the book (and in numerous interviews), but when asked what type of King he thinks Prince William will be, Spencer takes a moment to consider it.

"That's such a tricky question," he says after a beat. "I'm not avoiding the question, but I'm sure he'll be a successful one. I've never thought about it, to be honest."

Touching on how the Prince of Wales has been open about wanting to make some changes to the monarchy, Spencer adds that he thinks his nephew will combine "the obvious duty of the role with a thoughtful take on what is expected in the modern world from a monarch."

Despite William's potential plans for modernization, Spencer notes that his nephew "would never impose any of those thoughts on the world when his father is the monarch," adding, "I'm sure it will be very considered when the time comes for him to take over."

In Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, Charles Spencer shares a brother’s account of the days between Princess Diana’s death and funeral while weaving in stories of their sibling relationship. The late royal, who died in August 1997, did much to modernize the British monarchy, and the 9th Earl Spencer tells Marie Claire that her brand of star power wasn’t always welcomed.

“I think that people would be most surprised if they knew how competitive the Royal Family have always been with each other,” Spencer says. “I know it sounds mad because from the outside world they’re one brand and they should support and celebrate each other, but 30, 40 years ago, Diana’s huge popularity globally was seen as really irksome by some of the Royal Family.”

Spencer adds that some of the royals found Diana’s modern approach to be “wrong” and” in some way threatening,” even though she was adding a much-needed dose of relatability to what many saw as an outdated institution.

“I think this is really sad because I think I said it in the book, she wasn’t a problem, she was actually a protection for the Royal Family,” Spencer shares. He explains that before Diana married Prince Charles in 1981, much of the British public viewed the Royal Family as “a sort of backdrop to the nation’s silhouette” but “there was no warm connection” aside from “huge respect” for Queen Elizabeth.

“There wasn’t much more of an emotional connection than that,” he continues. “Diana brought that to the Royal Family for the first time, probably ever.” With her unique ability to connect with people from all walks of life, the late princess gave the monarchy “an injection of relevance and glamour,” Spencer says.

“For many people before Diana came along, the Royal Family was a totally acceptable, benign relic from the past, and relics from the past can soon lose all relevance,” he notes.

Spencer shares that there was an element of jealousy within the Royal Family about “this incomer who’s hijacking the headlines,” but the competitiveness also extended to members of the royal household—or the men in gray suits, as Diana called them.

In Swan Song, Spencer writes about how Diana was "wary of any form of palace advice" since she viewed courtiers as prioritizing the interests of blood royals over "the people who dared to marry into it."

After being asked about how that culture continues today when members of the Royal Family have competing events, Spencer shares that there's an element of behind-the-scenes maneuvering. “There is an incomprehensible mixture here of—it’s not just members of the Royal Family that get caught up in this. It’s their teams.”

“The more I push my principle, the better it is for me and my career,” he says of royal aides. “It’s office politics. That’s what it is.”

After joining the Royal Family, Princess Diana became known the world over. Even after her divorce from King Charles, the former Princess of Wales continued to be beloved by people everywhere. But according to one former employee, Diana struggled with weekends for a devastating reason.

In his book The Royal Insider: My Life With The Queen, The King, and Princess Diana, former royal butler Paul Burrell opened up about his experience working with the ex-Princess of Wales.

"Saturday evenings were always a nightmare for Diana," Burrell wrote. "She had no idea what would appear in the now defunct News of the World [tabloid newspaper] on Sunday morning."

As for why the royal was allegedly concerned about what might be printed, Burrell wrote, "It was then Britain's biggest-selling newspaper with millions of readers. They had the 'loudest shout,' as Diana would say."

Burrell continued, "I would go by taxi at midnight on Saturday evening to Victoria station to buy the first editions of all of the Sunday newspapers. On the taxi ride back to Kensington Palace, I would look through every one."

According to the butler, "Sometimes stories screamed from the front pages and I was taking an incendiary device back to apartments 8 and 9 as Diana would certainly shoot the messenger if she didn't like the contents."

"This continued for years," the former butler shared. "I can't begin to tell you how devastated the princess was at times, or how many stories nibbled away at her confidence and character."

Tragically, invasive tabloid stories seemingly haunted Diana throughout her life, which must have been incredibly difficult to deal with.

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Charles Spencer digs into his relationship with Princess Diana in Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, and in a new interview, he reflects on the reactions of his family while sharing how it was “really important” to make sure the public knew Prince William and Prince Harry weren’t involved.

The 9th Earl Spencer spoke to Gayle King on CBS Mornings on September 28, sharing that he didn’t want his family to be associated with the project. When King said she was “curious about their reaction,” Spencer told her he was intentional about how and when he told his loved ones.

“I decided not to have anyone involved in the book, so no one knew about it except my wife, obviously, and the publishers,” he shared.

Spencer explained why he chose not to tell Harry, William or his sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, until the last minute.

“I didn’t tell any of the family until just before it was released publicly as a thing because I didn’t want anyone to think—particularly with Harry, who people know I had to stay in the summer—that he was in any way involved in this,” he said. “It was really important for me that they weren’t.”

The Duke of Sussex visited his uncle at the Spencer family's ancestral estate, Althorp, before he moved back to England in August, with wife Meghan Markle sharing some sweet Instagram photos of their children playing on the grounds.

King questioned if the Prince of Wales and Duke of Sussex "approve" of Swan Song's contents, and Spencer noted that he's spoken with both of his nephews after the book's release, although he didn't share any specific details of the conversation.

As for their approval, he admitted, “I don’t know. I haven’t asked about approval," adding that "Harry was sort of like, ‘Is there anything in there that would be embarrassing to me?’"

Stressing that he's "very specific about people’s privacy," Spencer said he told the Duke of Sussex there was "absolutely not" anything embarrassing in the book, which was released last week.

As a mother of four, Queen Elizabeth II had her work cut out for her, particularly when her children got married. When it came to welcoming Princess Diana into the family upon her engagement to King Charles, The Queen was apparently cautious about one thing in particular.

In his book Elizabeth II: In Private. In Public. Her Story., royal author Robert Hardman wrote about The Queen's approach to being a mother-in-law to Princess Diana.

After King Charles and Princess Diana's engagement was officially announced in February 1981, Queen Elizabeth reached out to the future royal bride.

"The Queen immediately invited her future daughter-in-law to move in to Buckingham Palace to prepare for the wedding and offer her some respite from the press camped out on the doorstep of her London flat," Hardman explained.

However, Queen Elizabeth II was reportedly acutely aware of her role as a mother-in-law, and she apparently didn't want to overstep any boundaries.

"The monarch was naturally delighted by the engagement but determined not to be an interfering mother-in-law," the royal biographer shared.

Hardman continued, "She had also assumed, naively perhaps, that a girl who knew her way around Sandringham and Balmoral could simply slot into [palace] life."

Princess Diana was just 19 years old when the 32-year-old then-Prince Charles proposed. As a result, her sudden introduction to royal life must have been pretty overwhelming. Luckily, it sounds as though Queen Elizabeth attempted to welcome the young woman into the Royal Family with her kind gesture.

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In Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, Charles Spencer shares what happened in the days between Princess Diana’s 1997 death and her funeral, and while one aspect of the historic church service is now legendary, it almost didn’t happen.

Sir Elton John was a close friend of Diana’s, and although they had sadly fallen out the month before she died, he was chosen to perform a song at her September 6, 1997 funeral. This was a notable move, as the 9th Earl Spencer wrote, explaining that because of Diana’s “modern outlook” the palace veered from “the same ‘dusty old plan’” for a royal funeral.

Aside from Diana’s brother’s moving eulogy, John’s performance of “Candle in the Wind” is perhaps the most memorable part of her funeral, but Spencer wrote that the pop star had originally chosen a different song.

“Originally, as can be seen in the first draft of the funeral’s Order of Service, circulated on 2 September, Elton John was going to perform another hit, ‘Your Song,’ for Diana,” Spencer wrote. “But Richard Branson seems to have stepped in.”

The Virgin Group founder—another friend of Diana's—contacted John with an idea to change the lyrics to “Candle in the Wind” to be about the princess, as he revealed decades later. As Earl Spencer wrote, Branson shared that he “rang Elton” and said: “How about rewriting ‘Candle in the Wind’ and I’ll try to get the archbishop to accept it into the funeral service?"

According to Spencer, the Organist and Master of the Choristers at Westminster Abbey backed the idea, sending a fax to the palace and “urging ‘boldness’” as he thought the song “would add greatly to the inclusivity of what was going to be a service for the people.”

Songwriter Bernie Taupin then faxed over the reworked lyrics to John in Windsor, and as Spencer explained, “from there it went to Richard Branson in London, then arrived with my eldest sister Sarah, in Lincolnshire. She sent it quickly on, and I read it through in my study at Althorp.”

Spencer said that his “approval was immediate” and he found the song “so deeply moving,” that during the funeral’s rehearsal, he had to make “a mental note” about the performance.

Earl Spencer’s eulogy took place following John’s song, and he made a plan to “not listen to the song too intently on the day in case it overwhelmed me.”

With the release of Earl Spencer's new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, Princess Diana is making headlines once more. As a result, royal experts have been sharing their own insights into Diana's relationship with King Charles and how the princess really felt about her marriage.

During Hello! magazine's live episode of "A Right Royal Podcast," royal expert and editor Ingrid Seward opened up about her friend Princess Diana.

"He did love her," Seward said of King Charles's feelings for Diana. "He may not have loved her in the very beginning, and he may not have loved her by the end, but he felt so bad that he couldn't make the marriage work."

According to the royal expert, "[Charles] was plagued by guilt because he knew he was the one who should have made it work. But her intense jealousy and many, many other things...they were just not suited at the time."

According to Seward, Princess Diana allegedly believed that one particular thing could have made a huge difference in their relationship.

According to the royal expert, "But Diana also said to me she thought if they'd met when they were older, they probably would have made it work and conquered the world; that's what she loved to say."

Seward also noted, "She actually told me that she really loved Charles. He was the one she would always love."

The royal editor claimed that Diana told her, "It's very important to me, Ingrid, that my boys know that their father loved me. It's really, really important."

Seward also shared that Diana thought of Charles as "the one that got away."

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Princess Diana will always be associated with her short haircut, and in the ‘80s and ‘90s, hordes of women rushed out to copy her signature shaggy ‘do. Although she sometimes wore her hair slightly longer or more tousled, there were very few occasions when she deviated from wearing it down. One of those was the 1984 State Opening of Parliament, which Diana attended alongside Queen Elizabeth and King Charles (then Prince Charles).

Princess Diana had been married to Prince Charles for just three years at the time, and she tested out a swept-back updo with the Spencer Tiara and a long, ruffled dress for the ceremony. In his new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, Princess Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, detailed the incident that resulted from her new hairstyle at the event.

“Her hair stylist, RIchard Dalton, swept Diana’s hair into a ‘chignon’—a bun pinned at the nape of the neck, as favoured by some movie stars a generation earlier,” Earl Spencer wrote. He added that fans let out “gasps of admiration” when she got out of her carriage since the public was “used to her trademark look” and “surprised that this had been replaced by something so ravishing.”

Diana chose the Spencer family's diamond tiara—the same style she wore on her wedding day—for the opening of Parliament, and her brother noted that it "looked magnificent atop her sweeping hair, while her bone structure was shown off to great effect."

Although Diana’s updo was a hit with the public and the press, Earl Spencer wrote that Queen Elizabeth “was not amused” by the scene-stealing moment. Instead of covering the late monarch’s address to Parliament, all of the headlines “were about Diana’s new hairstyle.”

“Diana was told off, and she—ever respectful of ‘the boss,’ as she called the Queen—from that point on, always wore her hair more simply at events that they both attended,” Earl Spencer wrote.

In Charles Spencer’s new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, he gives a sibling’s perspective on the life and death of Princess Diana. Along with sharing stories about their childhood and some controversial comments about King Charles, the 9th Earl Spencer wrote that Diana once told him she was given an incredible proposition by an American politician.

"Carlos, do you think I would make a good American First Lady?" she asked the earl one day, using her nickname for her brother. Earl Spencer, a.k.a. Carlos, wrote that he was shocked, responding, “Christ—where's that come from?"

Diana, who had recently separated from The King (then Prince Charles), “explained that one of her many powerful, aging American suitors” was eager “to secure her as the ultimate trophy wife.”

The unnamed American went as far as to tell the late princess that “he was sure he could win the presidency if she would marry him."

Earl Spencer admitted that “the idea of the position” was more attractive to Diana than “the elderly would-be husband.”

"There was, I could see, a mischievous attraction to reinventing herself in a role that would make her enemies in the British Royal Family sick with jealousy,” he wrote, adding that Diana as First Lady would have ushered “in an era of glamour in the White House that surely would have surpassed even that of the Jackie Kennedy years.”

Whomever the suitor was, his offer had obviously been rejected, but the appeal of potentially living in America was something Diana held on to until the end of her life.

As author Edward White wrote in his book Dianaworld: An Obsession, the princess had a genuine appreciation for American culture and "long looked upon America as a place of immense glamour and excitement."

She went as far as "reportedly considering whether to purchase Julie Andrews's house in the Hollywood Hills" shortly before her tragic 1997 death, the author penned.

Now that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are living in England again, they have more opportunities to spend time with family and friends, including Princess Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer. The 9th Earl Spencer recently appeared on the Lorraine show in the U.K. to promote his book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, and he spoke about his nephew’s recent visit with him for the first time.

"Harry came to stay in the summer with his family, and that was lovely,” Earl Spencer said. The Duchess of Sussex shared some glimpses of their trip on Instagram, including a snapshot of kids Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, walking through the grounds of the earl’s estate, Althorp.

However, Spencer admitted that he did feel a sense of “sadness” during their visit because of one family member who wasn’t there.

"Although when I look, you know, it’s so sad,” he shared. “I saw the two little kids running around, and the sadness of not having…Can you imagine what a great grandmother Diana would’ve been?”

He added that his older sister would have been “spoiling them rotten."

Princess Diana is buried on an island at Althorp, and in one of the photos Meghan shared, Prince Harry and Archie are carrying bouquets of flowers, with many speculating that they were bringing them to her gravesite.

In his book, the earl wrote about how he admired watching Diana in action with Prince William and Prince Harry. “She set thoughtfulness and good manners as the goal, with sensitivity to others also at a premium, he wrote, adding, “I have never, in my life, come across a better mother.”

With the publication of Charles Spencer’s new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, there’s been renewed attention surrounding Princess Diana’s marriage to Prince Charles. When the couple got engaged in 1981, she selected what would become one of the most famous rings in the world, but there’s a second, never-before-seen piece of jewelry that’s associated with the final day of her life.

Princess Diana’s iconic engagement ring, which is now worn by Princess Kate, features a massive Ceylon sapphire surrounded by a halo of diamonds, but shortly before her death, Diana's boyfriend purchased a much different diamond style.

During the summer of 1997, Diana was dating Harrods boss Mohamed Al-Fayed’s son, Dodi Fayed, who was killed alongside the princess in a Parisian car crash. While they were traveling that summer, Fayed purchased a domed gold band from famed Parisian jeweler Repossi—and according to the inquest into her death, it was an engagement ring.

The ring, known as the Dis-Moi Oui, or “tell me yes,” was certainly not what anyone would expect when imagining an engagement style. The Repossi design was worth £11,600 in 1997, per the Guardian, and featured a wide gold band set with an emerald-cut central diamond and four triangular diamonds in a sort of starburst shape.

In season six of The Crown, Fayed proposes to Diana with the Dis-Moi Oui and tells her, “You said you liked it in Monte Carlo.” Of course, the Netflix drama is a fictional retelling of royal events, and it's unknown if Diana ever saw the ring or if he proposed.

According to a 2007 report in the Guardian at the time of the inquest into Diana’s death, Fayed was pictured looking at rings in CCTV footage from Repossi’s Paris store on August 30, 1997, a day before they died. On August 31, Claude Roulet, the assistant to the president of the Ritz Paris hotel, was seen bringing a bag from the shop into Diana and Dodi’s suite.

Per Roulet, he showed two rings to Fayed, who chose the Dis-Moi Oui and brought it to his nearby apartment for safekeeping.

Princess Diana was not wearing the ring when she was involved in the deadly car accident, and it was later found in Dodi's apartment. “A ring bearing the inscription ‘Dis-Moi Oui’ (‘Tell me Yes’) was recovered from the flat after the couple's death,” the Guardian reported. “A receipt dated August 30 1997, the day before the crash, listing a ‘bague de fiançaille’ (engagement ring), was also recovered.”

However, at the time of their death, Fayed’s spokesperson told the media, “what that ring meant we shall probably never know,” even though Fayed’s father claimed that Dodi was planning on proposing the night that they died in the inquest.

Per the Guardian, Diana’s friends “denied that the couple were engaged or that Princess Diana was thinking of marriage to Dodi Fayed.”

“We know the ring existed and that Dodi purchased it, but we cannot definitively say that Diana accepted it as an engagement ring or that an engagement had been agreed,” says jewelry expert Nilesh Rakholia, founder of Abelini.

“From a jewelry perspective, that uncertainty makes the piece particularly fascinating,” he adds. “It is a design that looks more like a statement piece than a conventional engagement ring, and we may never know exactly what it was intended to represent.”

The Dis-Moi Oui ring caused such a stir in the media that Repossi actually stopped creating the design, going as far as to destroy the models and drawings of the jewelry. Rakholia estimates that, if its provenance were fully authenticated, the piece could be worth between £200,000 and £500,000 today.

As for the ring Diana likely never received, it sat inside a memorial display at Harrods before being returned to Dodi's father, who died in 2023. Its current whereabouts are unknown.

Charles Spencer dropped plenty of royal bombshells in his new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, but one of the sweeter details involves a story about Princess Diana and their father, John Spencer.

Charles, who became the 9th Earl Spencer after his father’s death, wrote that when his parents were still together, they had many “points of difference.” Diana and Charles’s mother, Frances Shand Kydd, “preferred to be at home,” Earl Spencer said, but John loved to travel—and after one solo trip, a young Diana “snapped.”

Their father had been traveling in Turkey on his own, since Charles was sick and Frances decided to stay back with him. Explaining that the late earl “chose not to shave during his time away,” the Swan Song author continued that the family was surprised to welcome him home “with a reddish beard and moustache.”

“Diana pointed at the facial hair and snapped: ‘Take that thing off!’” Earl Spencer wrote.

Ironically, Princess Diana’s reaction to facial hair would be repeated by her granddaughter, Princess Charlotte, decades later. When Prince William debuted his own beard, he admitted that it didn’t go down well with his only daughter.

The Prince of Wales first showed off his facial hair in an August 2024 video for the Paris Olympic Games, but when he attended a church service later that month, his fan-favorite beard was gone. By September he was back to being team beard (and has been since), and the Prince of Wales explained why he briefly went clean-shaven.

“Well Charlotte didn’t like it the first time,” Prince William said, sharing that there were “floods of tears” from his then-9-year-old daughter. The princess was so upset about his makeover that William decided to “shave it off,” but later had a change of heart.

“I thought, hang on a second, and I convinced her it was going to be okay,” he shared. As for John Spencer, it seems that he might have gone the same route as Prince William’s knee-jerk reaction, as he remained clean-shaven in photos through the years.

Charles Spencer has revealed behind-the-scenes details from one of the most difficult days of his life. In his new book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, the 9th Earl Spencer shares some of his most intimate memories of Princess Diana, and he also shared the one member of the Royal Family who “did really well” handling the late royal’s 1997 funeral.

Speaking to People magazine about his controversial new book, Spencer said that Prince Philip instructed Prince William, Prince Harry and the now-King about what they “must not” do during Diana’s funeral procession.

“Prince Philip took charge, quite rightly,” Spencer told the media outlet. “He was brilliant that day. I mean, he’s a controversial figure, but he did really well that day.”

“He was a military man and he said, ‘Just look straight ahead. You must not look left and right,’” Spencer continued. Diana’s brother joined The King (then Prince Charles) and his young nephews William and Harry to walk behind her coffin, and Prince Philip offered to take part in the procession alongside the boys, who were just 12 and 15.

Spencer noted that they listened to the late Duke of Edinburgh’s advice, “but that made for a very bizarre experience, actually, because you could feel this tsunami of grief coming in from both sides and the crowd reacting differently as we walked along.”

He explained it was “very hard to feel that amount of emotion and not to look at it,” adding “you’d walk through maybe 100 steps and you’d just hear sobbing. And then another stretch where people would be shouting out really lovely but sad things to William and Harry, or about Diana.”

Earl Spencer revealed that he pushed for his nephews to be left out of the funeral procession, but received pushback from Prince Charles at the time. In Swan Song, the earl wrote that words were exchanged during a heated phone call, and the now-King told him, "we'll forget her soon enough."

The comments caused Buckingham Palace to issue a rare rebuttal, with The King's statement reading, "While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss.”

In the end, the boys were made to walk behind their mother's coffin. In his memoir, Spare, Prince Harry noted that his uncle "raised hell" over the matter, but Earl Spencer told People how he regretted not being able to do more for his nephews.

"I just remember Harry was so small, this tiny dot of a boy walking in public behind his mother’s coffin," he recalled in his interview with People. "It’s monstrous. It was awful at the time, and there was so little I could do."

Charles Spencer might be more closely associated with Prince Harry these days—especially since the Duke of Sussex and his family visited Earl Spencer over the summer. But in a new interview with the BBC, Princess Diana’s brother shared some surprising thoughts on his nephews’ estrangement.

“I think there is a perception in the media that I am on Harry’s side,” he said. “Well, I’m on my deceased sister’s sons’ side, both of them. And if either of them wanted anything, then I’d be equally there for them.”

The 9th Earl Spencer, whose book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, will be released on September 22, added that while he avoids taking sides in the feud, he knows it’s not what Princess Diana would have wanted.

“I never get involved in one camp or the other, except as a benign figure, I hope,” Spencer said, admitting that he doesn’t “know all” about the nitty gritty details of their ongoing feud, but there are a “lot of reasons on both sides.”

However, he shared, “I certainly don’t know what’s been done in the finer detail and so I would feel intrusive if I got more involved than to say of course a mother would want her two sons to be happy together and love each other.”

Prince William and Prince Harry have not spoken in several years, with royal sources pointing to the publication of Harry's memoir, Spare, and his controversial Oprah Winfrey interview as two particular sources of betrayal for the Prince of Wales.

Regarding the explosive comments made about King Charles in his book, Earl Spencer said the remarks about The King acting "giddy" after Diana died won't be shocking to his nephews.

"I don't like to talk about what I've been speaking about to William and Harry, but this will not be a surprise to them," he shared. "I will tell you that these words will not be a surprise to them."

Princess Charlene of Monaco is known for her chic style, which runs the gamut from extravagant gowns to smart workwear. For her attendance at U Cavagnëtu, a traditional Monégasque picnic hosted by the royal family, on September 19, Princess Charlene drew inspiration from two British royals.

Charlene was photographed at the picnic alongside her family members, husband Prince Albert, and their twin children, Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella.

For the occasion, Charlene wore Erdem's Printed Flutter-Sleeves Midi Dress in Cabinet of Curiosity Ivory, which originally retailed for $1,895 and features a print of delicate flowers and romantic insects and butterflies.

Princess Kate has worn floral Erdem outfits on numerous occasions, and it seems that Princess Charlene favors the very same aesthetic.

The former Olympian accessorized her outfit with a Princess Diana-inspired bag. She carried a Christian Dior Mini Lady D-Joy Bag in Latte Cannage Lambskin, which retails for $4,700.

Many celebrities have been spotted carrying versions of the Lady Dior bag, including Jennifer Lopez and Priyanka Chopra, with Charlene opting for the 2025 release featuring a rectangle silhouette.

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Earl Spencer, Princess Diana's brother, has written a new book—Swan Song: Diana, My Sister—about his sister's relationship with the Royal Family, the general public, and the tabloid press. In a new interview with the BBC, Charles Spencer, the 9th Earl Spencer, is set to discuss the treatment his nephew Prince Harry has received in the public eye.

In his interview with the BBC, which will air on September 20, Earl Spencer shared (via Hello! magazine), "If you look at an article in a tabloid about Diana or the couple that you were mentioning, [Prince] Harry and Meghan [Markle], you know, they can be really, really unpleasant."

The earl continued, "And I think it would be really beholden on people to learn from Diana's example."

As for why he wanted to speak up about press intrusion, Earl Spencer explained, "I'm not here to speak for Harry and Meghan, but for anyone who's being destroyed in this way daily, it must be such a cancerous influence in their life."

Spencer also wanted to make it clear that he supports both Prince Harry and Prince William.

"I'm on my deceased sister's sons' side, both of them and if either of them wanted anything, then I'd be equally there for them," he told the BBC.

As for how Harry and William might be feeling regarding the release of Earl Spencer's new book, royal expert Katie Nicholl told Hello! magazine, "It's hard to know how [William and Harry are] feeling because ultimately, [Earl Spencer's book bombshell is happening...] at a moment in time nearly 30 years on, when they want their mother's memory laid to rest, they want her legacy honored, and continued in their charity work."

Nicholl continued, "To have it overshadowed with arguments, fallouts, rifts...that are now resurfacing three decades on, can surely not be what any of them want."

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The drama surrounding Earl Spencer's new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, is far from over. After Buckingham Palace released an unprecedented statement regarding allegations made in the book, Princess Diana's brother has responded with his own comments. Clearly, King Charles and Charles Spencer have very different recollections of their shared history.

Speaking to the Mail on Sunday, Earl Spencer said, "It is not every day you wake up to find you've been gaslit by The King."

The author continued, "It was astonishingly provocative and below the belt because it was essentially trying to say I'd lied without The King being able to deny what I'd said."

Referencing a previous disagreement between the palace and Prince Harry, Spencer noted, "I also thought it was a rather poor imitation of the 'recollections may vary' quote, which was a much more elegant way of putting things, but in these circumstances entirely out of place."

Earl Spencer further told the publication, "I am a historian—I appreciate that a lot of the public don't know that—and my primary responsibility as a historian is to tell the truth."

As for why he decided to pen the new tome, the earl shared, "My motivation in this book has been to tell the truth about Diana and all she had to put up with in her public life through the eyes of the brother who grew up with her."

He also noted, "Along the way I've been able to deal with various myths that have grown up which needed to be dealt with once and for all."

Basically, the beef between Earl Spencer and King Charles appears to be far from over.

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Earl Spencer's new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, has already created waves due to some of the allegations it contains about the Royal Family. As Princess Diana's brother, Charles Spencer had a front row view to his sister's relationship with the royals. And according to a new excerpt from Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, published by the Daily Mail, King Charles found himself being "overruled" by Prince Philip at Diana's funeral.

Princess Diana's funeral took place at Westminster Abbey in London on September 6, 1997. Recalling the emotionally devastating day, Spencer writes in the new book, "Prince Philip was there, his usual gruffness replaced by a calm and quiet kindness. He was clearly determined to help his motherless grandsons in their walk to the funeral, and he did so with grace."

According to Spencer, "Prince Charles tried to take charge, having seemingly thought hard about the formation that the five of us chief mourners would adopt behind Diana." Earl Spencer famously walked behind Diana's casket with her sons, Prince Harry and Prince William, her ex-husband King Charles, and ex-father-in-law, Prince Philip.

Remembering the proceedings, Spencer said of King Charles, "When he said, 'Now, I will walk in the center, with William on my right and Harry on my left,' Prince Philip overruled him, in an even voice that closed down any possible dissent."

Spencer continued, "No, that isn't how we will do it,' [Philip] said. Then, nodding towards me, he continued: 'Charles is representing his sister and their family, so he will walk in the middle, with William and Harry either side of him, and you and I will be on the outside flanks.'"

According to Earl Spencer, "Prince Charles looked pained but capitulated to his father's authority without a word."

King Charles has already denounced some of the allegations made in Earl Spencer's new book. After the publication of one Daily Mail excerpt, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson issued an extremely rare response, saying, "While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment, and color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss."

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Content warning: This story contains references to death by suicide. Call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

Earl Spencer’s new book about Princess Diana isn’t set to be released until September 22, but it’s already causing a stir in royal circles. King Charles issued a rare rebuttal after an unflattering excerpt from the book was published, and now the Daily Mail has published a serialization of Swan Song: Diana My Sister that contains more shocking claims.

Along with alleging that The King (then Prince Charles) “sounded giddily elated” when Diana died and that Charles was “in love with his valet,” Earl Spencer wrote that his sister experienced suicidal ideation in the 1990s.

“It is a sad fact that, in her later years, Diana drove herself more than once to Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in England, while contemplating ending it all,” Earl Spencer wrote, adding, “Her love for her sons stopped her from going further.”

Although Diana never discussed driving to the cliff, she did admit to self-harm in the heartbreaking recordings she made for royal biographer Andrew Morton. While discussing a long stay at Balmoral, she noted, "I got terribly, terribly thin. People started commenting: 'Your bones are showing.' By October, I was in a very bad way."

The princess continued: "I was so depressed, and I was trying to cut my wrists with razor blades. It rained and rained and rained. I came down early [to London] to seek treatment, not because I hated Balmoral, but because I was in such a bad way."

In his book, Spencer notes that his sister felt “isolated and trapped” in her marriage and “believed that her husband was sometimes too busy for her, and on other occasions that he was critical.” According to the earl, Princess Diana felt that Prince Charles, who was nearly 13 years older than her, “seemed always to wish she was nearer to 35, in character and outlook.”

King Charles is said to be "incandescent" over some of the allegations in the book, including the idea that he told Earl Spencer "we'll forget her soon enough" while arguing with him about Diana's funeral.

In reply to the claims, Buckingham Palace released a statement reading, "While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss.”

Although the 9th Earl Spencer is critical of his ex-brother-in-law in the book, the Swan Song author—who is thrice divorced himself—also admits that the marriage was extremely difficult for both parties.

Writing that Charles and Diana were forced to live up to an impossible standard, Spencer adds, “the world was demanding a narrative of make-believe perfection when the reality could only be different.”

“I feel huge sympathy for them both,” he added. “It must have been intolerable.”

Prince William was all smiles on September 15 when he met fans gathered in Princetown, England after announcing the launch of a £250,000 community-led fund. While greeting members of the public, the Prince of Wales appeared to be using the same trick that his mother, Princess Diana, once employed while speaking to people—and body language expert Darren Stanton says it creates “a stronger sense of connection.”

William, who inherited the title of Duke of Cornwall from King Charles, is using funds from the Duchy of Cornwall to support projects delivering lasting social, economic and environmental benefits for local people across Princetown and the surrounding Dartmoor area. Stanton says that “what really stands out” from the event is how Prince William interacted with members of the public.

Speaking on behalf of Betfair Casino, the body language expert shares that 6’3 William takes after his mother, who was also exceptionally tall at 5’10. “He has a naturally tall frame, but what’s interesting is that he often reduces his height when speaking to people,” Stanton says.

“It’s a very subtle gesture, but it’s something Princess Diana was also known for doing, lowering herself slightly so that people feel more comfortable and creating a stronger sense of connection rather than towering over them,” Stanton adds.

At 5'9, Princess Kate also uses the same trick when speaking with people, and she's often spotted leaning over or kneeling down when interacting with the public.

Reflecting on William's appearance in Princetown, Stanton says that the future King appeared "relaxed and open," noting that the prince is "very comfortable moving through the crowd without creating a physical barrier between himself and the public."

LikeDiana, Stanton says that Prince William shows "a real sense that he is happy to engage with people directly."

Just a month ago, Princess Diana's youngest sibling, Charles Spencer, announced that he was releasing Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, a book that promises to “to tell the truth about Diana from her brother’s perspective.” But on Tuesday, September 15, several copies of the title, which will be released on September 22, were stolen from a truck in the Netherlands as a driver slept.

Copies of the book were being brought to a warehouse ahead of its publication date, and the driver—who had parked in the Dutch countryside and went to sleep on his way to deliver them—discovered that his truck had been broken into overnight. Despite the books being wrapped in dark plastic to disguise the title, four copies were taken from the thousands packed into the vehicle.

Dutch police are investigating the break-in incident, which was called "extremely suspicious" by a publishing industry insider. "Nothing like this has ever happened before,” the source told the Daily Mail. “This is probably the biggest book of the year and the security surrounding it has been incredibly tight.”

Typically, advance copies of books are released to members of the media, bloggers and influencers, but Swan Song has been kept tightly under wraps.

As the insider noted, “Every possible precaution has been taken to prevent it from being leaked ahead of its serialization. Therefore this unprecedented incident is being taken extremely seriously.”

Earl Spencer's book is expected to deliver multiple bombshells about the Royal Family's reaction to Diana's 1997 death. A publishing source noted, "Earl Spencer has kept his silence for nearly 30 years and what he has to say about the King's reaction when Diana died is utterly devastating."

In an Instagram post, Earl Spencer wrote that he'd recently completed recording the audiobook of Swan Song. After completing the task, he shared, "That is exactly what I wanted and needed to say - and she would, I reckon, have approved of every word."

It's hard to believe that Princess Diana died almost 30 years ago, on August 31, 1997, following a devastating car crash in Paris. Following her divorce from King Charles, Diana's relationship with the Royal Family reportedly wasn't always straightforward. And according to one royal expert, Queen Elizabeth became "furious" with the former Princess of Wales after one particular conversation.

According to respected royal author and editor Ingrid Seward, the allegedly tense conversation between Queen Elizabeth, King Charles, and Princess Diana took place on February 28, 1996, before the divorce was finalized.

"The discussions were supposed to be private, but immediately afterwards Diana issued a statement saying she had agreed to the divorce, that she would continue to be involved in all decisions pertaining to William and Harry—and that under pressure she would be giving up her HRH [title]," Seward shared in the Daily Mail.

According to Seward, "The Queen was furious at Diana leaking details of their private conversation." As a result, the monarch decided to share her own version of events with the public.

"She immediately countered with a statement of her own," Seward noted. "Her press secretary, Charles Anson, announced: 'The decision to drop the title is the princess's and the princess's alone. It is wrong that [Queen Elizabeth] or [King Charles] asked her. I can state categorically it is not true."

The statement continued, "The palace does not say something specific on a point like this unless we are absolutely sure of the facts."

In spite of Queen Elizabeth's statement, Princess Diana "continued to insist she had been pressured into relinquishing her title," Seward wrote.

Unfortunately, this appears to have been one instance in which Diana and Elizabeth couldn't agree.

Princess Diana's brother, Charles Spencer, has continually kept his late sister's memory alive following her untimely death in August 1997. Now, Earl Spencer has written a new book, which he believes Diana would have liked.

In an Instagram post shared on September 11, Spencer revealed the cover of his new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister.

"Always an amazing, and exhilarating, moment for an author to hold the first physical copy of a new book—and even more so for me with 'Swan Song,' the most personal of the ten books I've written over the past three decades," Spencer wrote in the caption.

He continued, "At heart, this is a brother's simple tribute to an extraordinary sister."

Earl Spencer also revealed that he narrates the audiobook version of the forthcoming book.

"A month ago I read 'Swan Song' out, over three days, for a recording so that it could be available on audiobook," he wrote. "When I finished the recording, I thought: 'That is exactly what I wanted and needed to say—and she would, I reckon, have approved of every word."

Swan Song's synopsis reads, "Beautiful. Beloved. Hunted. The extraordinary life and death of Diana, as told by her brother, Charles."

The synopsis continues, "In childhood, Charles and Diana, the youngest Spencers, were inseparable—secretly calling one another Duch and Carlos. As each other's closest confidantes, they roamed the family estate, endured extremely challenging boarding schools, survived terrifying nannies, and helped each other through the agony of their parents' divorce."

The synopsis further notes, "In Swan Song, Charles Spencer provides the most intimate, loving, and honest portrait yet of his sister."

SHOP BOOKS ABOUT PRINCESS DIANA

When Princess Diana died in a 1997 car crash, she was with her then-boyfriend Dodi Fayed, who was also killed in the tragic accident. But less than two months before her death, Diana was dating another man, heart surgeon Hasnat Khan. Their under-the-radar relationship provided a dose of normalcy for the princess, and during an inquest into her death, Khan shared some rare insights into their time together.

In Edward White’s book Dianaworld: An Obsession, the author notes that Diana’s involvement with Khan “was more mundane, uneventful, and enriching than any that she ever had.” The couple met when she was visiting a friend’s husband in a London hospital, and for nearly two years, they carried on with their “discreet” relationship. But “Khan had no taste for the glare of global publicity in which Diana lived,” as White wrote.

According to the surgeon, the late princess broke up with him just over a month before her August 1997 death, as he wrote in a statement shared during the official death inquest. Diana had recently returned from a vacation with Dodi and his father, Mohamed Al-Fayed, and although Khan wasn’t aware of her connection to Dodi, he worried about her association with Al-Fayed's family.

"I remember saying to her at the time, 'You are dead,' meaning her reputation was dead,” Khan stated. “I said this because I was sure that it was someone from Mohamed Al Fayed's group and that was how I felt about anyone involved with him."

Even then, the Harrods owner—who was posthumously accused of sexually assaulting hundreds of women after a 2024 documentary aired—had a questionable reputation. However, Khan said that because of Dodi’s family wealth and connections, he felt that Princess Diana “finally realized that Al Fayed could give her all the things I could not.”

"He had money and could provide the necessary security,” Khan added in his statement. “You never see Al Fayed without six or seven bodyguards."

Sadly, the security she had the night of her death failed her, as Princess Diana’s former bodyguard recently told Marie Claire.

Ken Wharfe, who resigned from his role protecting the princess in 1993, said he feels her lack of proper police security "ultimately led to the appalling accident in Paris in 1997."

“She was then relying on security which, in my view, was unprofessional and lacked the level of planning, coordination and communication that would have provided the best possible protection," he said. "Sadly, it simply wasn't there.”

Meghan Markle might be the most famous royal with American roots, but as the Sussexes settle into their new life back in Britain, there’s another member of the Royal Family who has American blood. Stephanie Green, author of American Crown, tells Marie Claire that Prince William will be the first British monarch with American ancestry—and he could even become an honorary U.S. citizen one day.

Green, who is active with the Daughters of the American Revolution, says that she was surprised to learn how Princess Diana “could have been a member” of the organization due to one of her patriot ancestors. The discovery sent Green down a rabbit hole of “sleuthing and discovering,” and the author found herself amazed with the story of Diana’s American ancestors, including her great-grandmother, Frances “Fanny” Burke Roche.

“She was one of the most celebrated beauties of the Gilded Age,” Green says. “She was born in New York in 1857 and I don't know if you watch the show The Gilded Age, but she is right out of that show.”

Much like Gladys Russell on the HBO period drama, Fanny Burke Roche married into the aristocracy, although her relationship with James Burke Roche, the son of an Irish lord, ended in divorce, as did her second marriage. Fanny died in 1947, and her granddaughter, Frances Shand Kydd, would give birth to the future Princess Diana in 1961.

Green says that she drew multiple parallels between Fanny’s life and Diana’s. The late princess's cousin, Lord Formoy, let Green borrow Fanny's diaries, and the author said the more she read about Diana's great-grandmother, the more she "realized how much she and Diana were alike."

"Diana, as you know, suffered from bulimia, from depression. So did Fanny. She's writing in her diary and she's covering every little margin of the diary page with just spilling her guts out about how unhappy she is, how trapped she is in these marriages that didn't work out, how trapped she is by her father," Green shares.

"So as I say in the book, despite all of their beauty, their clothes, their fabulous homes, their jewelry, these two women are just proof that you can be miserable and still have all of these things."

Like the late Princess of Wales, Diana’s great-grandmother also was the mother of two sons, and she says that twin brothers Maurice and Francis had “so much in common with Harry and William.”

“They both had glamorous mothers,” the author shares. “They both were the product of divorce. They both were subject to media speculation, and they both served their country in the military. They had transatlantic separations for a lot of their lives, but yet they remained very close brothers and they were always there to support each other.”

Green adds it makes her “very sad” to think about the comparisons between the two sets of brothers and see how Harry and William’s “relationship has deteriorated.”

As for Harry and Meghan's recent move back to the U.K., Green calls it "another twist to William's American story."

"The book is really about William because he's going to be King one day," she says, adding there's an "irony in having a King with all of this American blood, but having a brother whose wife is American who's going back and forth across the pond."

Diana’s American family ties don’t stop with the Gilded Age. Green says that the future King William’s family can be traced all the way back to the American revolution with his patriot ancestor, Benajah Strong, who was the uncle of famed spy and American martyr Nathan Hale.

Green visited Strong’s grave in Connecticut, which reads “food for worms,” and she said it struck her how ironic it was that his ancestor will become the future King.

“I have a chapter called ‘Food for Worms,’” she tells Marie Claire. “So you think, okay, this is William’s six-times great-grandfather who risked his life and his fortune to fight in the American Revolution to get rid of a King. And then in 2026, his sixth-time great-grandson is going to be King of England and he's going to be buried at Windsor Castle in this huge, ornate tomb.”

When asked what she'd like the U.S. public to know about Prince William's American connections, Green says she'd like to stress "How much closer we are than we think," adding, "And I'd like the British people to know that their future monarch is much closer to our country than we think."

"Having a royal family is within our DNA," she adds. "And so my hope is that someday Prince William will receive honorary American citizenship like Winston Churchill did. I just think it's a wonderful twist of history and I think it shows that families and countries are much closer than we than we think—and that story is still unfolding."

August 31 marked the anniversary of Princess Diana's death, and 29 years later, her former royal protection officer, Ken Wharfe, is reflecting on the special relationship she had with her team.

Wharfe, who stepped down as Diana’s bodyguard four years before her 1997 death, shared that it could be tough to forget you weren't "part of the party" because of the late princess’s warm personality.

Speaking on behalf of Casino.org, Wharfe tells Marie Claire that he found it “sometimes difficult balancing security because you could very easily be drawn into a private gathering or family occasion and begin to feel as though you were part of the party.”

“And I'll tell you why that was difficult,” he continues. “Because Diana herself would often draw you into it.”

Wharfe shares that Princess Diana always made sure to acknowledge people with gifts and handwritten notes, and praised her “wonderfully entertaining, wicked sense of humor.”

“She loved telling jokes, and listening to them—in fact, the riskier the joke, the better,” he says. “But that was part of who she was. Diana lived very much in the real world, like it or not. Many people would argue she didn't, but she always had this desire to be normal.”

Because of her warmth, Wharfe admits there “were times when it was quite difficult to remove yourself from what had become a very personal and very private occasion.” However, he says that being so close to Diana meant that he was able to be even better at his job.

The former royal protection officer said that being “drawn in” by Diana “actually worked in your favor because, if you were accepted as part of that environment, you were in the best possible position to provide effective protection.”

He notes that sometimes he sees protection officers "positioned on a street corner, some distance away," and explains that even if there are "good operational reasons for that," he finds that being in the mix with Diana was always the best for her protection.

“If, in Diana's case, she said, ‘Come and eat with us, Ken,’ or, ‘Come and sit in here and join the conversation,’ then that's exactly what I, and my colleagues, would do,” Wharfe adds.

Reflecting on the anniversary of Diana's death, Wharfe says that he feels her lack of royal security "led to the appalling accident in Paris."

The princess gave up her 24-7 police protection in December 1993, a year after her separation from Prince Charles. Fearing that her team members were leaking information about her to the Royal Family, she relied on private security when necessary and only allowed police protection when she was traveling with Prince William and Prince Harry.

"She was then relying on security which, in my view, was unprofessional and lacked the level of planning, coordination and communication that would have provided the best possible protection," Wharfe says of her 1997 accident. "Sadly, it simply wasn't there."

Monday, August 31 marks 29 years since Princess Diana tragically died in Paris, and her younger brother, Charles Spencer, shared that it was his "least favourite day" of the year in a new Instagram post.

The 9th Earl Spencer posted three new snapshots of his home Althorp House, the historic estate where he grew up alongside Princess Diana, and in the photos, its flag flies at half-staff. "31 August. My least favourite day," Spencer wrote.

Diana is buried on an island in the middle of Althorp's Oval Lake that's only accessible by boat, and in 2024, Earl Spencer told Good Morning Britain, "I go pretty much every day."

Prince Harry noted in his memoir, Spare, that there used to be a bridge to the island, but it was eventually "removed, to give my mother privacy, to keep intruders away."

To make his trips to the gravesite a little easier, Earl Spencer told Good Morning Britain that a friend "handmade a canoe" for him as a 60th birthday gift.

Althorp is open to the public for just two months a year, and August 31 marks the final day of its summer season. Although visitors can't access Diana's grave, they can visit a Grecian-style temple dedicated to Diana's memory.

September will mark a major milestone for Earl Spencer. While he's already a prolific author, he's never written about Princess Diana, and on September 22, the earl will release Swan Song: Diana, My Sister.

Princess Diana never met her sons’ wives, but her legacy lives on in some of the extraordinary pieces of jewelry that were passed down to Princess Kate and Meghan Markle. While the Princess of Wales received the most iconic piece from Diana’s collection, her sapphire and diamond engagement ring, the Duchess of Sussex also was given a number of the late royal’s jewels.

One of the diamonds in her three-stone engagement ring comes from Diana’s collection, and Meghan also regularly wears the princess’s Cartier tank watch, but the Duchess of Sussex has worn several of her late mother-in-law’s other earrings, bracelets and rings. Now that Prince Harry and Meghan have moved back to the U.K., Princess Diana’s jewelry will once again return to Britain.

“The notion of seeing Meghan on U.K. soil wearing Diana’s jewelry again would be significant because these pieces are now living quite distinct lives,” jewelry expert and Abelini founder Nilesh Rakholia tells Marie Claire.

“We remember them on Diana, but Meghan has been wearing some of them for years too,” he adds. “They are no longer simply pieces associated with one woman.”

Asprey Cocktail Ring

The most memorable jewelry moment from Harry and Meghan’s wedding came when the couple left Windsor Castle to head to their reception, with Meghan wearing Princess Diana’s enormous aquamarine cocktail ring on her right hand.

“The aquamarine is probably the piece I’d be most excited to see back in Britain because it now belongs to two very recognizable jewelry moments,” Rakholia says.

“For Diana, it became associated with a period when she was stepping into a new chapter of her life and making choices on her own terms,” he shares of the Asprey ring. “Then, years later, Meghan wore it on her wedding evening with that very clean Stella McCartney dress.”

As the Duchess of Sussex starts her own new chapter in the U.K. after six years in California, the ring feels like a fitting piece to bring out once again.

Cartier Watch

When Meghan was starring in Suits, she treated herself to the special two-tone Cartier Tank Française watch she’d always wanted, but little did she know that she’d one day inherit the same timepiece owned by Princess Diana.

The former Suits star told Hello! in 2015 that she had her watch engraved “to M.M. from M.M.,” sharing that she planned to pass it down to her future daughter. “That's what makes pieces special, the connection you have to them,” Meghan said.

Fast-forward to 2020, and the Duchess of Sussex was pictured wearing Diana's all-gold version of the Cartier Tank Française for the first time, and she’s worn it almost constantly for the past six years.

“For me, this is one of the most fitting pieces Meghan could have inherited,” says Rakholia. “She already had a relationship with Cartier before she ever met Harry.”

He adds, “This is what makes Diana’s watch feel like a particularly natural heirloom for Meghan. She wasn’t introduced to the design through the Royal Family. She had already independently chosen the same watch for herself because it suited her own taste.”

Butterfly Earrings

Princess Diana owned a pair of diamond butterfly earrings featuring blue gemstones, famously wearing them during a 1986 tour of Canada. Decades later, the Duchess of Sussex debuted the sparkling studs during her first major royal tour with Prince Harry in October 2018.

She's gone on to wear the earrings on several other occasions over the years, and Rakholia notes that although the studs "feel distinctly of their period," the Duchess of Sussex "has worn them in a way that stops them feeling like costume jewelry from the 1980s.”

The timing of Meghan’s first public wear has since given the butterfly earrings another association. "Diana wore them as a young princess. Decades later, Meghan wore them at the beginning of a tour when the world had just learned she was expecting Diana’s grandson," Rakholia says. "That connection didn’t exist when Diana owned them; Meghan created it simply by wearing them."

"That is exactly how heirloom jewelry accumulates meaning," he adds. "The physical object hasn’t changed, but the stories attached to it have."

On August 18, Princess Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, announced he’s releasing Swan Song, a new book about his late sister’s life, and there’s still time to explore Diana’s childhood home ahead of the tell-all’s publication in September. Although Althorp House is typically closed to the public, the 9th Earl Spencer opens his doors for two months each year, and the historic Northamptonshire estate will welcome guests through August 31.

Althorp is where Diana was raised alongside her younger brother and two older sisters, Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes, but the history of the property dates all the way back to the 1500s. Charles Spencer inherited the roughly 13,000-acre estate when his father, the 8th Earl Spencer, died in 1992, and it remains a family home for the earl and his new wife, Cat Jaman.

Notably, it's also where Princess Diana was buried. Although Diana's grave sits on a small island that's inaccessible to the public, visitors can explore the nearby grounds and a temple set up in her memory.

The property was purchased by the Spencer family in 1508 and extensively remodelled in the 18th century by renowned English architect Henry Holland. During Althorp’s rare tours, visitors are invited to view 17 of the home’s rooms housing an extraordinary private collection of artwork and furniture, including works by van Dyck, Stubbs, Reynolds, Rubens and Gainsborough.

Nestled among the priceless works of art are portraits of the Spencers themselves, including one of Diana that sits next to a painting of her brother, Earl Spencer.

Highlights include Wootton Hall with its striking black-and-white checkered floor, which Princess Diana was fond of tap dancing on in her youth, and the impressive library, which at one point, held up to 100,000 books collected by the 2nd Earl Spencer.

Although it's down to 10,000 titles on its shelves today, the room is frequently used by the current earl as he works on his various projects, including Spencer's upcoming Diana book.

In addition to exploring the house, Althorp guests can book an afternoon tea picnic to enjoy on the grounds—but time is running out before the estate closes its doors for another year.

As Princess Diana’s former bodyguard, Ken Wharfe witnessed the ups and downs of the late royal’s life in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. When reflecting on Diana’s legacy, he tells Marie Claire that fans didn’t get to see some of the sides of the princess he remembers the most—and that she shared one big thing in common with King Charles.

The King is an obsessive letter writer, and in 2022, it was revealed by the palace that he writes more than 2,400 letters a year, including notes to members of the public. Speaking on behalf of Casino.org, Wharfe says that although Diana’s marriage was falling apart, she always took time to recognize others, just like her husband.

“Diana was a prolific letter writer,” he shares. “I used to encourage her not to write quite so many letters, but I think it was part of her aristocratic upbringing. She'd been brought up to believe that if somebody showed you kindness or hospitality, you always wrote to say thank you.”

“She wrote constantly, and her letters were wonderfully warm and often very funny,” Wharfe adds.

Several of Diana's cards and letters have gone up for auction in recent years. In 2025, a touching note she sent to a footman at Buckingham Palace went on the auction block, with the royal thanking him for his support in the days leading up to her 1981 wedding.

In addition to her writing hobby, Wharfe says that Diana “was also very interested in current affairs,” adding that “she always wanted to know what was happening in the world and what was going on in politics.”

Along with constantly sending thank you notes, Wharfe says that she’d frequently give small gifts to people she met in her travels, calling her "incredibly generous.”

The former royal protection officer recalls one detective who Diana “was very fond of” who'd been targeted by the IRA. “Whenever we traveled over, she'd ask me, ‘What shall we get your friend? He's such a nice man,’” Wharfe shares. “I said, ‘Well, he likes his Irish whiskey.’”

He notes that every time they headed to Northern Ireland after that, Diana would make sure they had a bottle to bring for the detective.

Wharfe also recalls a time when a Secret Service agent helped Diana walk down some stairs when she was blinded by photographers’ flashes at a fundraising gala in Washington, D.C. “She said, ‘Oh, he was very nice, Ken. Perhaps I should give him a present tomorrow for being so helpful.’”

The next day, Diana brought a signed photograph to give to the agent, but he’d “hidden himself behind one of the bushes outside the White House.”

It turns out Wharfe had mentioned to the man that people don’t typically touch members of the Royal Family, and he was too embarrassed to show his face. ”In the end I had to persuade him to come out so she could give him the signed photograph,” Wharfe shares. “It's perhaps a slightly unusual story, but it perfectly sums up the way she treated people.”

“Whether it was a police officer in Northern Ireland, a Secret Service agent in Washington or someone she'd only just met, she wanted them to leave with a happy memory,” Wharfe says.

The first thing that comes to mind when most people picture Princess Diana going to the gym is her iconic biker shorts and sweatshirts, but former royal chef Darren McGrady said that she had a lesser-known morning routine.

According to McGrady, Diana, who was frequently photographed at London gym the Chelsea Harbour Club in scrunchy socks and lycra, had a slightly odd favorite breakfast that helped fuel her workouts.

“I used to cook beans for breakfast at Buckingham Palace and Princess Diana loved them,” the chef said in a video on his YouTube Channel. “She'd actually eat a whole tin of beans for breakfast.”

“Sounds crazy, but when you think about it, there's only seven grams of sugar in the English-style baked beans, they're rich in protein, high in fiber, very low in fat,” McGrady explained.

He continued that beans were “perfect” for the late princess to get “that really big carb boost ready for going to the gym and doing a workout.”

Another fiber-packed favorite of Diana's was overnight oats, and McGrady noted that his former boss was way ahead of the trend. “She actually went to a Swiss health clinic, and there she had these overnight oats,” McGrady said on YouTube, adding that they "were actually called bircher muesli, they were invented by a Swiss nutritionist.”

“She stole the recipe, came back, and said Darren, I want these for breakfast every day,” he recalled.

Before Instagram and TikTok analyzed every detail of the Royal Family’s lives, the public had to rely on daily newspapers to get their royal fix. For Princess Diana, the news coverage was “relentless,” per her former bodyguard Ken Wharfe, and he tells Marie Claire how the late royal was able to handle the level of interest in her life.

Wharfe, who protected Prince William and Prince Harry before becoming Diana’s protection officer in 1987, shares that the princess “was constantly pursued by the media.”

“I always remember Diana would go down to the kitchens at Kensington Palace, where the chef would lay out the morning's newspapers across the deep freezer,” he says, speaking on behalf of Casino.org. “Inevitably, if she wasn't on the front page, she'd be on pages three, four or five. There would always be a story about Diana—hopefully, and thankfully, about her work—but just as often about the state of her marriage, what her children were doing, and so forth.”

Wharfe shares that even though Diana read all of the stories about her deteriorating marriage, “she lived with it” and “understood it was part and parcel of her job.”

“To read those headlines first thing in the morning, then get into a car or a helicopter, fly somewhere like Manchester, Nottingham, or anywhere else in the world, and immediately perform, that takes a remarkable level of professionalism,” he adds.

Diana kept up a steady stream of royal engagements every week when she was married to Prince Charles, and Wharfe says he “often wondered” about the “toll that constant barrage of newspaper coverage took on her.”

Wharfe recalls traveling with the late princess and wondering if she was “really going to be able to pull this off?” when Diana was going through a tough time, noting that officials “all want their part in the occasion, and if the star of the show isn't performing, the whole thing falls apart.”

However, for Princess Diana, the show needed to go on, even after a tough day.

“The Royal Family is a bit like a traveling theater,” Wharfe shares. “You move from one place to the next, and the moment that door opens, you're on stage. You're only as good as your performance. The more professional your performance, the more popular you become. And in that respect, Diana was exceptional.”

One driving motivation for Diana was not disappointing Queen Elizabeth. “At that particular time, despite the unhappiness of her marriage, her commitment was to Her Majesty the Queen,” Wharfe shares, adding that Diana “was loyal to the workings of the British Royal Family and would never let them down, despite her personal unhappiness.”

As Princess Diana’s bodyguard, Ken Wharfe had his share of tough days protecting the late Princess of Wales. He recently told Marie Claire that she “didn’t always welcome” having a royal protection officer, but when it came to carrying out her royal duties, there was one major reason why Diana never backed out.

Wharfe, who served as Diana’s bodyguard from 1988 to 1993, shares that even when the princess didn’t want him around, she never actually refused protection. “I think possibly, on some occasions, if we'd had a difficult day the night before, she might have said, ‘Oh dear, you know, I can't cope with this. I don't want you today.’ But thankfully, that never happened,” he says, speaking on behalf of Casino.org.

Wharfe continued, “And I'll tell you why I don't think it ever would have happened. At that particular time, despite the unhappiness of her marriage, her commitment was to Her Majesty The Queen.”

He adds that even though Princess Diana's relationship with Prince Charles was falling apart, “She was in a position where she was loyal to the workings of the British Royal Family and would never let them down, despite her personal unhappiness.”

Even on days when she’d say, “I don’t think I can do today, Ken,” Diana would soldier on and carry out her commitments. Wharfe says he’d suggest, "Well, okay, you don't have to. What do you want to do about it? We can find a reason not to do it. You can be ill, or we can come up with some excuse.”

“But the answer would always be, ‘Well, I can't let my mother-in-law down,’” he shares. “So there was a real sense of duty on her part.”

Wharfe stepped down from his role in 1993, and he admits that he's not sure what would have happened if Diana had ever refused his protection. “Quite how I would have dealt with that, God knows,” he shares.

Throughout her life, Princess Diana was well-known around the globe. As a result, it's entirely unsurprising that she reportedly had a private meeting with talk show legend Oprah Winfrey, which led to a "friendly tug-of-war."

In his book A Royal Duty, former royal butler Paul Burrell opened up about Princess Diana's meeting with Oprah Winfrey.

Burrell shared in his book, "The princess was really nervous about meeting [Winfrey] because, she said, 'She is such a big name.' It didn't cross her mind that perhaps Oprah would be nervous too."

According to the former butler, Diana "made her typical confident entrance" to meet Winfrey. "'Sorry to keep you waiting, sorry, sorry,' [Diana] said," Burrell recalled. "I served lunch in the dining room and soon became part of the proceedings as conversation turned to America."

Sharing the private conversation, Burrell explained, "We love America, don't we, Paul?' the princess said. 'He goes there every year for a holiday.' Cue Oprah to the princess: 'So, would you ever consider living in the United States?'"

According to Burrell, he pitched in with a joke: "I would pack my bags and go and live in America tomorrow."

The butler continued, "I looked at the princess and winked. Oprah saw her opportunity. 'We could do with a butler. Why don't you come to Chicago and look after me?'"

As documented in his book, Burrell recalled Princess Diana bristling at the thought of Winfrey poaching her royal butler.

"The princess suddenly straightened in her chair," Burrell wrote. "'Look, Oprah,' she said, laughing, 'he's my butler and he's staying here.'"

Per Burrell, "It became a friendly tug-of-war all the way through to coffee: Oprah kept returning to it to embarrass me."

The joke apparently continued right up until the moment Winfrey left Kensington Palace.

"Just before she pulled away, Oprah opened the window, leaned forward and said: 'This is your last chance, Paul,'" Burrell shared. "The Boss stood beside me at the front step, threw a possessive arm round me and shouted out: 'Hey, he's mine—and he's staying here with me.'"

Luckily, the meeting reportedly ended in "laughter." Basically, Princess Diana and Oprah Winfrey appeared to develop quite the rapport during their alleged meeting.

Shop Books About Princess Diana

As the daughter-in-law of the late Princess Diana, Meghan Markle regularly wears special pieces of jewelry from the royal's collection. To attend a gala in honor of the 40th anniversary of the David Foster Foundation, Duchess Meghan paired a long black dress with a rarely-seen pair of Princess Diana's earrings.

On August 7, Meghan walked the red carpet with husband Prince Harry, and also posed alongside close friend Katharine McPhee. For the occasion, the Duchess of Sussex wore Canadian designer Greta Constantine's Fabrizio Gown, which features a caped gown draped from one shoulder. The dramatic little black dress was the perfect choice for the star-studded gala.

Notably, Meghan accessorized the stunning gown with Princess Diana's butterfly earrings.

The iconic earrings are reportedly constructed from "gold, diamonds, and dark blue gemstones," per The Court Jeweler. The late Princess of Wales wore the jewels during a visit to British Columbia in Canada in May 1986, and they've since been given to Prince Harry's wife, who has worn them on a handful of occasions.

Meghan's decision to pair Diana's butterfly earrings with a sleek little black dress was most definitely the perfect choice for a night out with Harry.

Shop Outfits Inspired by Duchess Meghan and Princess Diana

Ken Wharfe was responsible for guarding Princess Diana’s life from 1988 to 1993, and he says that one of the toughest parts of being a royal protection officer was that the late royal “didn’t always welcome” his presence.

Speaking to Marie Claire on behalf of Casino.org, Wharfe—who is now retired from the Metropolitan Police—admits that it’s “impossible to provide 100 percent security for anybody.” However, he stresses that as a bodyguard, “You can only protect someone if they're prepared to accept that protection.”

“That wasn't always easy because, like all of us, Diana was an individual who didn't always welcome it,” he shares. “I could clearly see there were times when she became frustrated with the protection because, in part, it was an invasion of her privacy.”

Wharfe, who also served as a personal protection officer to the Duke of Kent before his retirement from the police force, shares that Diana isn’t the first person to struggle with the invasiveness of having a bodyguard.

“People do occasionally push back against that, and you learn to live with it,” he says. “Whenever there was an opportunity to discuss those frustrations, she understood the necessity of protection in her particular case and accepted it throughout her very short life.”

He shares that part of the way he provided an effective protection program was that Princess Diana would give him “a detailed program of what she was doing, both publicly and privately.”

“With that information, she allowed me and my team to maintain regular contact with the friends she was seeing so we could make sure the protection we provided was the very best it could be,” he says. “I think that approach proved itself time and time again.”

Wharfe—who was made a Member of the Victorian Order by Queen Elizabeth after Diana's 1997 death—shares that he believes a breakdown in security eventually led to her tragic demise.

“The one occasion where that continuity disappeared was when she gave up her security in December 1993, which ultimately led to the appalling accident in Paris in 1997,” Wharfe shares. “She was then relying on security which, in my view, was unprofessional and lacked the level of planning, coordination and communication that would have provided the best possible protection. Sadly, it simply wasn't there.”

Like any kids, the Wales children have been compared to a number of family members over the years. Prince Louis bears a strong resemblance to his paternal grandfather, Michael Middleton, while Princess Charlotte looks a lot like dad Prince William, as well as the late Queen and Princess Diana. But the Spencer genes are coming out strong in Prince George these days, as displayed in one video from the Wales family's trip to the Commonwealth Games on August 1.

In the clip, shared by a William and Kate fan account on Instagram, George is seen speaking with Commonwealth Games athletes alongside his family. At one point, the 13-year-old looks just like Princess Diana as he glances down before looking shyly to the side at Princess Kate and giggling.

"He definitely looks a lot like his grandma Diana here so he looks like his dad too.. that shy look! So Diana 🥹🥹" content creator Larissa captioned the post.

Royal fans couldn't help but agree, like one who wrote, "It was very brief, but the lip gesture had his Granny Diana's look!" Another commented, "He is Diana wow the resemblance uncanny 🥰👏."

"I 💯 saw Dianna 🫶🫶🫶🧡" a third Instagram user wrote.

Prince George isn't the only member of the family to bear a strong resemblance to the People's Princess. Fans have also pointed out that Princess Charlotte has inherited Diana's iconic "Spencer Stare."

Along with giving Diana energy with his mannerisms, George channeled his late grandmother a bit more literally with his outfit. Both Prince George and Prince Louis wore button up Ralph Lauren oxford shirts to the Commonwealth Games, a look Diana wore in the '90s.