New revelations from Earl Spencer’s new book about his late sister, Diana, Princess of Wales, describe his claims about the night that she was killed in Paris and that her husband, then Prince Charles, “sounded giddily elated… like a lottery winner”.
In an extract from his book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, serialised in the , Spencer writes: “I was at my home in Cape Town, alone with my four children, when I learnt that my sister had been killed. The phone next to my bed rang in the middle of the night. On the night Diana died, Charles sounded giddily elated... like a lottery winner.”
He claims Charles later told him: “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough!”
EU announces plan to restrict social media access for under-15s
The EU has announced plans to restrict social media access for under-15s across its member states, in a bid to tackle online safety.
How would it work?
There would be a gradual approach to children using social media which would include banning access for under 13s.
13 to 15-year-olds would be able to access platforms for an hour a day via “mini accounts” set up through their parent’s account.
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A closer look at the detail
The European Commission said social media companies would need to prove platforms were safe by design or face fines of up to 6 per cent of their global sales.
The restrictions would not just affect well-known apps such as TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat but also YouTube and other video sharing platforms as well as AI chatbots and online games.
What did the EU chief say?
Too many children are being exposed too early to an online world they are not ready to navigate – an environment where bullying can follow you home, where every mistake can be recorded forever.
Ursula von der Leyen
The crocodile-ridden river chosen as Olympic rowing venue
A river inhabited by around 500 saltwater crocodiles has been greenlit as the venue for Olympic and Paralympic rowing and canoeing events at the 2032 Brisbane Games.
Seal of approval
The location approved to host the events is on the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton, Queensland.
The independent technical assessment of the waters’ suitability did not take into account the crocodiles but examined how the course would perform under various circumstances and weather conditions.
How safe is the river?
- Olympic officials have previously been assured of the safety of the location, but British representatives are among those to raise concerns.
- The river is already a training and competition venue for flatwater sports, supporting school state championships and national team training camps, the report said.
- Contingency plans are in place and the route has been endorsed by World Rowing and Paddle Worldwide.
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Concerns downplayed
There are sharks in the ocean and we’re still surfing… it’s a can do, not a can’t do – please change the mindset here.
Speaking last year, Brisbane 2032 president Andrew Liveris dismissed concerns about crocodiles.
Nine countries can shelve EES checks for the rest of the year
At least nine European countries have been allowed to delay the full roll-out of controversial border biometric checks until the end of the year, The i Paper’s Joe Palmer and Joe Duggan can reveal.
Brussels has given extensions to several member states after a deadline for full implementation of the Entry/Exit System (EES) for non-EU nationals at Schengen area airports passed earlier this month.
Which countries are they?
At least nine European countries have been allowed to waive the full introduction of EES until the technology required for the necessary facial and fingerprint scans is working effectively.
Countries granted the exemption include:
What is EES?
EES, which launched last October, is replacing manual passport stamping, but has led to queues as long as seven hours at border checkpoints. Some passengers have been forced to miss their flights.
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A closer look at the EES crisis
When asked about the nine countries yet to fully introduce the checks, a spokesperson for the European Commission told The i Paper it was in “close and constructive contact with those few member states where some adjustments are still needed at certain border crossing points”.
On Wednesday, Buckingham Palace issued an unusually strong statement regarding Spencer’s claims.
A Palace spokesperson said: “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 colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss.”
Other revelations include:
Spencer says he fought to stop William and Harry walking behind Diana’s coffin
Public opinion was divided on the decision to have the young princes, then aged 15 and 12, follow their mother’s coffin in procession, accompanied by Earl Spencer and their father, ahead of her funeral in September 1997.
Diana had left her brother as her sons’ guardian – which has limited power while there is a surviving parent – but Spencer said it gave him the impetus to speak up for his sister’s wishes.
Spencer – who claims courtiers wanted William and Harry in the procession partly to protect Charles from public abuse – called the decision “utterly barbaric, and quite out of the question”.
He claims some people inside the Palace were “relieved – indeed, pleased” that Diana had died.
Diana allegedly tried to call off her engagement to Charles
“Diana had grown up with a clear objective in mind: to marry for love,” Spencer writes, citing their own parents’ divorce as a key factor that would help her to sustain a happy marriage and raise her children. However, when she raised concerns to their father, Spencer claims that he made it clear that breaking off the engagement was out of the question, as it would bring shame on the Royal Family.
Spencer says Diana learned immediately before the wedding that Charles did not love her, having had several unpleasant suspicions. A month after their engagement, she found a bracelet that he had bought for Camilla, and at Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s 21st birthday party, Charles showed no interest in her despite his having just returned from a trip to New York.
He says a comment by Charles about Diana being “a bit chubby” around the time of their engagement devastated her, and that she revealed to Spencer on her wedding day that she had been in the throes of an eating disorder for five months to lose weight.
Spencer writes: “Only much later would I discover that, as she confided to a close friend, her husband-to-be had told her [the day before their wedding] that she needed to know he was very happy to marry her, but he was not actually in love with her.”
Spencer says he is convinced Diana had ADHD
Palace doctors allegedly took over Diana’s medical care against the wishes of her longstanding GP.
Spencer says Diana contemplated suicide at Beachy Head more than once.
Spencer was diagnosed with ADHD – a condition primarily caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors – in 2024, by a colleague of his podcast co-host, and now wife, Cat Jarman. The Earl is certain that Diana shares the emotional dysregulation known as “rejection sensitive dysphoria” that he himself has experienced.
Moreover, behaviour associated with ADHD was identified in her school reports from a young age, Spencer claims.
He writes: “Her kindergarten teacher noted that she had difficulty focusing, and at primary school, Miss Lowe repeatedly noticed Diana’s ‘flibbertigibbet’ mind.
“This issue was noted again after she started at prep school aged nine: ‘Diana has great difficulty in concentrating for any length of time,’ her first report from Riddlesworth Hall said, ‘and tends to become very restless during lessons’.”
He describes how Diana’s youth, compared with her older husband, meant that she was more inclined to take suggestions as reproaches.
“I am convinced now that Diana had ADHD, and that as part of that condition, she suffered from Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (as do I). This is an intense emotional pain in the face of others’ rejection or criticism, which amplified her wounded response to her husband’s suggestions.”
Diana told Spencer an American suitor believed marrying her could make him US president
After separating from Charles, Diana was courted by a number of eligible men – but who was the one who told her that he was convinced he could attain the US Presidency if she became his wife?
Spencer claims that one of his sister’s “many powerful, ageing American suitors” was keen to secure her as the ultimate trophy wife.
He says: “The idea of the position titillated her rather more than the elderly would-be husband: there was, I could see, a mischievous attraction to reinventing herself in a role that would make her enemies in the British Royal Family sick with jealousy, while ushering in an era of glamour in the White House that would surely have surpassed even that of the Jackie Kennedy years.”
This is a breaking story and is being updated.