Charles Spencer delivered an incredibly moving eulogy at the late Princess Diana's funeral back in 1997. In an emotional speech, he spoke of his late sister's "selfless humanity" while also pledging to protect her two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry. "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.
However, appearing on Gyles Brandreth's Rosebud podcast, the 9th Earl Spencer revealed that he had originally planned to say different words. "I wrote something very different," he told Gyles, who was a friend of the late Diana. "I flew back – I was living in South Africa – I flew back from Cape Town overnight. Very, very sweet stewardess helping me because I was in bits.
"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'."
He continued: "And 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'.
"And then overnight, I must have been chuntering away and I realised 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."
He concluded: "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?"
Fan reaction
Fans were incredibly proud of how the Earl spoke on Gyles's podcast, with one penning: "The way that he delivered that eulogy and the words he chose were perfect. You can hear the pain and anger in his voice, the way it cracked right at the end. It's unforgettable for me," and a second added: "The most phenomenal and eloquent eulogy ever written. Even though at the end, Earl Spencer was choked up, his delivery was extraordinary! Well done, Sir!"
A third said: "An unforgettable eulogy, for an unforgettable person," while a fourth wrote: "The eulogy lifted people's spirits and brought people together. I remember the sound of clapping from those outside and how it had a ripple effect inside the cathedral. Very moving, very poignant," while a fifth commented: "That eulogy came from the heart, and it was the best I've ever heard. I sat in front of the TV, and I am sure the angel Diana was proud of her beloved brother."
Recollections of the event
Back in 2017, marking the 20th anniversary of Diana's death, Charles revealed in an interview with People magazine that he was running out of breath by the time he finished the eulogy. "She'd left me as guardian," he told the publication. "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."
In the run-up to the anniversary, he also spoke out against the decision to have a young William and Harry follow their late mother's coffin at her funeral procession. Speaking on the Radio 4's Today programme, he said: "It was the most horrifying half an hour of my life. It was just ghastly. And it was far worse than having to deliver a speech at the end of it.
"It was the worst part of the day by a considerable margin, walking behind, well, my sister's body, with two boys who were obviously massively grieving their mother. And it was this sort of bizarre circumstance where we told you had to look straight ahead. But the feeling, the sort of crashing tidal wave of grief coming at you as you went down this sort of tunnel of deep emotion, it was really harrowing actually and I still have nightmares about it now."