Charles Spencer Tears Into Royal Family Over 'Lack of Care' for Prince Harry After Princess Diana's Death: 'He Was Allowed to Spin Out of Control'
Charles Spencer clains the royal family had a 'lack of obvious care' for Prince Harry;
Sept. 18 2026, Published 7:10 p.m. ET
Charles Spencer has blasted the royal family over what he claims was a shocking "lack of obvious care" for Prince Harry in the devastating aftermath of Princess Diana's 1997 death, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Diana's younger brother, 62, claims Harry was effectively allowed to "spin out of control" after losing his mother in the horrific Paris car crash when he was just weeks away from turning 13. Spencer levels the incendiary accusation in his explosive new memoir about his late sister, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister.
Spencer recalled how Prince Harry looked so 'tiny and slight' to be taking such a daunting task at his mother's funeral.
In the latest excerpt from the book that the Daily Mail released on Friday, September 18, Spencer appeared fiercely sympathetic toward Harry, 42, while striking a cooler tone when it came to Diana's eldest son, Prince William, 44, who had just turned 15 several months before his mom died.
Spencer recalled Diana's September 6, 1997, funeral, when the carriage carrying her casket arrived at St. James' Palace, and he joined then-Prince Charles, Prince Philip, William and Harry in walking behind it for the rest of the route to the funeral at Westminster Abbey.
"I could not get over how tiny, and slight, and bereft, Harry looked. Too small to be doing this, I thought, and wondered how on earth this heartbroken child could bear the ordeal of that moment, or how he could possibly be expected to deal with the agony that the day ahead would insist upon," Spencer sympathetically recalled in his book.
Charles Spencer Compares Brothers William and Harry on the Day of Their Mom's Funeral
Spencer didn't worry about Prince William as much on the day of Princess Diana's funeral as he had 'greater composure and maturity.'
Spencer remembered seeing the bouquet of flowers with "the agonizing word 'Mummy' on its card, in a young hand," from Harry atop the casket for the first time.
"That, for me, remains the searing image of the day: a son's silent, written cry of desolation to a mother, gone," he wrote.
The 9th Earl Spencer then turned his attention to the teenage heir to the throne.
"William, although doubtless suffering equally terribly, looked more self-possessed. He was the image of his mother then: tall and handsome and dignified. Although I cared deeply about what he must be going through, his greater composure and maturity made him my secondary concern that morning," he shared.
A hearse carrying Princess Diana's coffin reached the royal train, where her body was taken to its final resting place at Althorp.
Spencer recalled taking great care to look after Harry during the procession and subsequent funeral.
"I was anxious that I could not look sideways to check how Harry was doing. But at one point I found us marching briefly out of sight, under a massive arch," he wrote. "Relieved that nobody could see us here, I quickly leant across to Harry, and gave him an encouraging hug. 'Well done, Harry!' I said. ‘You’re doing bloody brilliantly!'"
Spencer's mood then turned against the royal family after the funeral on the train to Althorp, the ancestral home that would be Diana's final resting place.
Charles Spencer Claims Prince Harry Was 'Allowed to Spin Out of Control'
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Spencer felt Prince Harry was 'very alone in his despair and torment.'
"My chief memory of that train journey is of being concerned at the lack of obvious care for Harry, as he decompressed from the ghastliness of the morning," the author recalled, seemingly referring to the royal family.
Spencer shared, "He needed Diana’s hugs, of course, and they would forever be denied him. But instead of calm and nurture, he was allowed to spin out of control," although he didn't go into greater detail on whether he meant Harry's self-admitted struggles with alcohol and drugs later in his life.
"I have often looked back, reckoning that a more caring hand at such points as this would have helped him enormously in the future. Instead, he seemed so very alone in his despair and torment."
The Duke of Sussex has spoken candidly about shutting down his emotions in the painful years following his mother's death, eventually turning to substance use in an attempt to numb his grief. Harry later sought therapy to confront his buried trauma, but has admitted the devastating loss of Diana at such a young age remains a deeply painful wound.
