Princess Diana Believed King Charles Was 'In Love With His Male Valet,' Her Brother Claims in Explosive New Book
The shocking claims come nearly 30 years after Princess Diana's death.
Sept. 18 2026, Published 3:08 p.m. ET
The late Princess Diana allegedly confided to her brother that she was getting divorced from then-Prince Charles because he was "in love" with his male valet, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
Charles Spencer made the bombshell claim in his upcoming memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, and the Daily Mail's serialized excerpt blows the lid off the longstanding rumors of a gay romance between the future king and his longtime royal valet, Michael Fawcett.
Princess Diana Allegedly Confided in Brother She Was Getting Divorced
Charles Spencer claimed Princess Diana told him her marriage was ending.
In the excerpt published on Thursday, September 17, Spencer recalled meeting his sister for lunch at London's swanky San Lorenzo restaurant, where they used each other's nicknames, "Carlos" and "Duch."
"She looked down at the table and said, 'Carlos, I’m going to get divorced,'" Spencer claims in the tell-all. “I was silent for a moment. I had known things were bad, but not this bad."
"'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,'" Spencer alleged he advised his sister.
Charles Spencer Makes Shocking Claim
Charles Spencer claimed Princess Diana said she was getting divorced because 'my husband is in love with his valet.'
Spencer wrote, "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.'"
The author did not name the valet, saying, "It was not important: the end of her marriage, and of her dreams, was."
Spencer didn't reveal exactly when Diana allegedly made the heartbreaking admission, as she and Charles separated in 1992 but remained legally married until 1996.
Their bitter royal marriage finally came to an end after Queen Elizabeth II urged the warring couple to divorce following Diana's bombshell November 1995 BBC Panorama interview, in which the late Princess of Wales famously declared there were "three of us in this marriage," a barbed reference to Charles' long-running affair with his future wife, Queen Camilla.
King Charles and Michael Fawcett Rumors Were Rampant
Michael Fawcett worked for then-Prince Charles from the late 1980s through 2003.
The Daily Mail reportedly sought to name Fawcett after obtaining information about an alleged "incident" involving him and Charles, but the former royal valet secured an injunction preventing the newspaper from identifying him.
The Royalist podcast host Tom Sykes shed more light on the extraordinary legal battle during his Thursday show, explaining, "The Guardian got an order allowing it to name who issued the injunction. And then basically everybody in the U.K. papers hinted very gently at who it was."
He continued: "For example, that photograph of them shooting was shown a lot next to, you know, headlines: 'Who is the aide who Charles is rumored to have had an affair with?' It was Michael Fawcett. And it's so well known."
King Charles Fires Back at Charles Spencer's Book Claims
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King Charles issued a rare statement about his former brother-in-law's incendiary claims.
At the time, Charles’ private secretary, Sir Michael Peat, issued a rare denial in response in 2003, saying, “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.”
The king also seemingly issued a rare rebuke of Spencer's book on Wednesday, September 26, after he claimed in the first published excerpt that Charles said the royal family would "forget" about Diana after her death.
"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," the statement from Buckingham Palace read.
