EXCLUSIVE: Queen's 'Secret Offer to Restore Princess Diana's HRH Title' Was 'Driven by Guilt or Regret'

Queen Elizabeth's alleged extraordinary offer to restore Princess Diana's HRH title after her death was driven partly by "guilt" over how the princess had been treated following her divorce, royal sources have told RadarOnline.com.

The late Queen, who died aged 96 in 2022, allegedly made the private gesture in the days after Diana, 36, was killed in a Paris car crash in August 1997.

Diana's brother Charles Spencer, 62, claims in his memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, that the monarch's private secretary Robert Fellowes, who died aged 82 in 2024, relayed the offer as they traveled toward Althorp, the Spencer family's Northamptonshire estate where Diana would be buried.

A royal source claimed: "There was undoubtedly an enormous amount of soul-searching taking place after Diana died. The scale of the public grief took everyone by surprise, and there was an awareness that decisions made after the divorce, including removing the HRH, had caused Diana considerable pain.

"Whatever you call it, the Queen's reported secret offer to restore it after Diana's death suggests she wanted to put something right, and it was most probably driven by guilt or regret, or both."

They continued, "It was an extraordinary gesture because Diana was already dead and restoring the title could no longer change what she had experienced while alive.

"The Queen was dealing with an unprecedented situation. She was trying to balance the institution, Diana's family, William and Harry, and an extraordinary national outpouring of grief. There would inevitably have been questions about whether the monarchy had understood Diana's importance quickly enough."

Diana lost the Her Royal Highness style following the finalization of her divorce from King Charles, now 77, in August 1996.

Spencer wrote that his sister had been "dreadfully hurt" by what he described as the "petty and vindictive" removal of the title.

He added the Queen's subsequent proposal was "well-meaning," but believed accepting it after Diana's death would amount to little more than a "consolation prize."

"I felt that I knew in my bones how she would view this posthumous award," he noted. "That's very kind of the Queen, of course. But what's the point, Robert? Now? I mean – Diana's dead."

Diana was given a ceremonial funeral at Westminster Abbey before being buried privately at Althorp.

The revelation comes amid a wider dispute between Spencer and Buckingham Palace over his account of Charles' behavior following Diana's death.

Spencer claims he argued with Charles about whether Prince William, now 44, and Prince Harry, now 42, should walk behind their mother's coffin.

William was 15 and Harry 12 at the time.

According to Spencer, Charles "went nuts" during their telephone confrontation before allegedly making a devastating remark about Diana.

Spencer wrote: "Prince Charles continued his stream of anger, without me interrupting. Then he stopped.

"I assumed the pause signalled an effort to bring himself under control, but then he unleashed down the phone what I have always taken to be his pent-up contempt for Diana, and his horror that the world was so bowled over by her death.

"'Rest assured,' he hissed, 'we'll forget her soon enough!'"