EXCLUSIVE: Princess Diana's Secret Funeral Eulogy Finally Revealed By Tragic Royal's Brother
Princess Diana’s brother has finally revealed the touching secret eulogy he wrote for her funeral.
Oct. 29 2025, Published 3:00 p.m. ET
Charles Spencer has revealed for the first time the deeply moving eulogy he delivered for his late sister, Princess Diana, at her 1997 funeral was not the one he originally wrote – admitting he had planned "something very different," RadarOnline.com can reveal.
The 9th Earl Spencer, 61, opened up about his private memories on Gyles Brandreth's "Rosebud" podcast", sharing new details about how he came to write the speech that became one of the most powerful tributes in modern royal history.
A Brother's Lasting Promise
Charles Spencer revealed he originally wrote a very different eulogy for Princess Diana.'
His eulogy, delivered at Westminster Abbey in front of a global audience of millions, spoke of Diana's "selfless humanity" and included his pledge to protect her two sons, then‑Prince William, 15, and Prince Harry, 12.
"And beyond that, on behalf of your mother and sisters, I pledge that we, your blood family, will do all we can to continue the imaginative way in which you were steering these two exceptional young men so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition but can sing openly as you planned," he said at the time.
Grief Forced Him To Speak
Spencer pledged during the eulogy to protect Diana’s sons, William and Harry.
Speaking on the podcast, Spencer said: "I wrote something very different," describing how the emotional turmoil of his sister's sudden death had left him numb and searching for words that would truly represent her. Living in South Africa at the time, he recalled his overnight flight home from Cape Town to London.
"Very, very sweet stewardess helping me because I was in bits," he said. "And I'm sure everyone listening to this has had to deal with very profoundly emotional moments. I like to keep busy. In those days, I had a big, thick address book and I thought, ‘I want to find someone who's going to make the speech for her'. And I got to ‘Z' and I hadn't found anyone. I got off the plane in Heathrow, called my mother, I said, 'I can't think who's going to give the eulogy. And I've got an awful feeling it's going to have to be me."
Guided By Love And Responsibility
Spencer removed a reference to Rupert Murdoch before delivering the speech.
According to Spencer, his mother's response settled the matter.
He added: "She said, 'Well it is going to be you. Your sisters and I have decided it.' And on the Tuesday night, I jotted a few things down. It was a very traditional eulogy, almost. You know, 'She was very good at this as a child' and all that. And then I thought, 'Well, this is ridiculous, that's not who she was.'"
By the following morning, the Earl said his approach had changed completely.
He said: "Then overnight, I must have been chuntering away and I realized that my job actually wasn't to do that, but it was almost to speak for her. And I knew I'd been left at that stage – it had no legal standing – but I knew she'd left me as guardian of her sons. Obviously, the other parent being alive, that meant nothing, but it meant something to me. That sort of duty, I think. And then I wrote it in an hour and a half and, yeah, that was it, really."
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The Eulogy That Shaped History
The eulogy aired live to more than two billion viewers around the world.'
Spencer revealed he had made one final edit before the funeral, explaining: "I did take one bit out, actually, because I did give a rather unnecessary name check to Rupert Murdoch and I thought, 'Why bother? Why give him the publicity?'"
The eulogy, broadcast live to more than two billion viewers, became one of the most talked‑about moments of the 20th century.
In 2017, marking the 20th anniversary of Diana's death, Spencer reflected on that day in an interview, saying: "She'd left me as guardian. I was looking directly at William and Harry across her coffin. In the final paragraph I had run out of energy, almost out of oxygen. I had to punch each syllable out of the base of my stomach."
He later told BBC Radio 4's Today program walking behind his sister's coffin with his nephews had been "the most horrifying half an hour of my life," adding the experience still left him haunted with nightmares.
