Princess Diana Claimed King Charles ‘Is in Love with His Valet,’ Her Brother Charles Spencer Reveals in Bombshell Book
Princess Diana Claimed King Charles ‘Is in Love with His Valet,’ Her Brother Charles Spencer Reveals in Bombshell Book
Meredith KileThu, September 17, 2026 at 6:47 PM UTC
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Prince Charles and Princess Diana board the royal yacht Britannia as they prepare to depart on their honeymoon cruise on Aug. 1, 1981Credit: Anwar Hussein/Getty -
The first excerpt from Charles Spencer’s upcoming book about Princess Diana includes a conversation between the brother and sister ahead of Diana’s divorce from Prince Charles
The 9th Earl Spencer writes that his sister said the future King was “in love with his valet”
Spencer wrote that his sister did not name the staffer. “It was not important: the end of her marriage, and of her dreams, was”
Charles Spencer’s new book about his late sister, Princess Diana, includes the conversation they had in which she revealed her impending divorce from the future King Charles.
The Daily Mail published the first excerpt of the 9th Earl Spencer’s upcoming memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, on Thursday, Sept. 17, including the conversation that Diana and her brother had when she told him she planned to divorce then-Prince Charles.
Over lunch at San Lorenzo in London — and using their nicknames for each other, Duch and Carlos — Spencer wrote, “She looked down at the table and said, ‘Carlos, I’m going to get divorced.’ “
“I was silent for a moment. I had known things were bad, but not this bad,” Spencer continued. “ ‘Well, Duch,’ I carefully replied, ‘you of course have my full support… I know you’ll have thought this through. But my main worry is the public. I fear they won’t forgive you. They’ve bought into a fairytale, and I reckon they may well — wrongly — blame you for destroying their fantasy.’ ”
“She looked up at me, nodded, and said quietly: ‘But, Carlos, my husband is in love with his valet.’ I gulped. ‘Well, I guess, in that case, you really don’t have a choice,’ “ he continued.
Spencer wrote that his sister did not name the staffer. “It was not important: the end of her marriage, and of her dreams, was.”
PEOPLE reached out to Buckingham Palace, which declined to comment. One day prior, the palace issued a rare statement on the King’s behalf regarding another passage from Spencer’s book, in which Diana’s brother claims the King told him “we’ll forget her soon enough” shortly after her death.
A statement from a palace spokesperson shared shortly after the excerpt was released said, “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.”
Prince Charles, Prince of Wales with his fiance Lady Diana Spencer during a photocall before their wedding while staying at Craigowan Lodge on the Balmoral Estate in Scotland.Credit: Tim Graham Photo Library/Getty
Rumors of Prince Charles and an “incident” involving a staffer circulated in 2003, based on the claims by the former royal servant, and a former aide to the royal won an injunction to stop the Mail on Sunday from printing the allegedly libelous story, per CBS News. Prince Charles’ then-private secretary, Sir Michael Peat, issued a rare denial in response: “The allegation is becoming common currency, and there’s a lot of speculation and innuendo about it. That’s why I want to make it entirely clear, even though I can’t refer to the specifics of the allegation, that it is totally untrue and without a shred of substance,” per the outlet.
Another former servant, Simon Solari, spoke out in Prince Charles’ defense at the time.
Spencer, himself thrice-divorced, goes on to note in his book, “I am not hypocritical enough to judge or criticize anyone else’s marital record. I am merely recording how my sister felt and am not assessing whether she was right or not.”
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He added, “She told me that things became very difficult indeed in the marriage early on, and I am sure that both spouses despaired of the other at times.”
In his book, Spencer also recounts other claims made by his sister about her marriage to the future King Charles.
“She believed that her husband was sometimes too busy for her, and on other occasions that he was critical,” he writes. “She told me he had married a 20-year-old but seemed always to wish she was nearer to 35, in character and outlook.”
Spencer accused Prince Charles of criticizing his sister’s weight and attempting to dictate her clothing choices and hobbies, words that “were taken as reproaches by a young wife who felt that she was trying her very best.”
Spencer recalls seeing his sister sitting quietly by herself on the morning of her wedding.
“Only much later would I discover that, as she confided to a close friend, her husband-to-be had told her the previous day that she needed to know he was very happy to marry her, but he was not actually in love with her,” he says.
Princess Diana and Prince Charles on their wedding day, July 29, 1981Credit: Anwar Hussein/WireImage
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Swan Song: Diana, My Sister was announced last month. The book marks the first time Spencer speaks “openly” and “at length” about his late sister, and he said he was inspired to write it after being “inundated” with requests for interviews as the 30th anniversary of Diana’s death approaches.
“The aim of this book is to tell the truth about Diana from her brother’s perspective, just as I attempted to do when speaking at her funeral,” Spencer said in a press release. “As with my eulogy, I want to speak on Diana’s behalf and do so in an openly positive way.”
After recording the audiobook, Spencer recounted the experience in an Instagram media post, calling Swan Song the “most personal” book he’s ever written.
“At heart, this is a brother’s simple tribute to an extraordinary sister,” 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.’ ”
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
