Princess Diana’s HRH title was offered back to her on the day of her funeral, according to a memoir by her brother, Earl Spencer.
Charles Spencer writes that Queen Elizabeth II proposed restoring the style after Diana lost it following her divorce from the then Prince Charles in August 1996. Diana was instead known as Diana, Princess of Wales.
The offer was relayed to Earl Spencer by Robert Fellowes, the Queen’s private secretary and his brother-in-law, as they travelled by Royal Train to Diana’s private burial at Althorp, the Spencer family estate in Northamptonshire.
Writing in Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, Earl Spencer says his sister had been “dreadfully hurt” by what he called the “petty and vindictive” removal of the title.
He recalls that, after travelling some distance, Mr Fellowes beckoned him to a quiet part of the carriage and said: “I have just received a call from Her Majesty …and she would like to offer Diana her HRH title back.”
Earl Spencer says he decided to reject what he regarded as a posthumous consolation, believing he knew how Diana would have regarded the gesture.
“That’s very kind of the Queen, of course. But what’s the point, Robert? Now? I mean – Diana’s dead,” he writes.
He later questioned whether he had made the right decision, suggesting that “maybe Diana would have seen some point in having HRH carved on her tombstone”. But he adds that he had “no doubt that the consolation prize was hollow, however well-meaning the Queen’s gesture”.
“The title should never have been removed during her life, in which case it would not have been necessary to offer it to her in death,” he writes.
Earl Spencer’s account of Diana’s title
The revelation appears in Earl Spencer’s memoir, which examines Diana’s unhappy 15-year marriage and her relationship with the Royal Family.
Elsewhere, he claims Diana told him she could not go through with her marriage to Charles a month before the wedding, but that he told her it was “impossible to pull out”. He also writes that Charles told Diana the day before their wedding that he was happy to marry her but was not in love with her.
Earl Spencer says Diana was so unhappy that she considered suicide and drove herself “more than once” to Beachy Head in East Sussex. He also recalls that Charles appeared “giddily elated – like a lottery winner” shortly after Diana’s death.
The memoir has prompted a rare response from the Palace after Earl Spencer alleged that, days after Diana was killed in a car crash, Charles said: “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough.”
A statement said King Charles was mindful that “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss”.
A royal aide subsequently described the claim as “demonstrably untrue”, while Julian Payne, the King’s former communications secretary, said Charles had instructed staff never to criticise Diana after her death.
Mr Payne said Charles had been “absolutely emphatic” that staff were to respect Diana’s memory and not undermine it. The Palace declined to comment on Earl Spencer’s further claims.
