Nearly three decades after Princess Diana’s death, her younger brother Charles Spencer is preparing to tell her story in a way he says he has never done before — openly, at length and from the perspective of the sibling who grew up alongside her.
The 9th Earl Spencer, 62, will release Swan Song: Diana, My Sister on Sept. 22. The book arrives as the 30th anniversary of Diana’s death in a Paris car crash approaches on Aug. 31.
For Spencer, the project is intended not simply as another account of one of the world’s most famous women, but as an attempt to preserve his own memories of his sister and challenge what he believes are misconceptions that have become accepted over the years.
“The aim of this book is to tell the truth about Diana from her brother’s perspective, just as I attempted to do when speaking at her funeral,” Spencer said. “As with my eulogy, I want to speak on Diana’s behalf and do so in an openly positive way.”
Why Charles Spencer decided to write about Diana now
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Spencer, a best-selling author and historian, said the approaching anniversary of Diana’s death brought a flood of requests for him to discuss her in interviews.
Rather than repeatedly responding to other people’s versions of Diana’s life, he decided it was time to put his own recollections on record.
“This has convinced me to write down my own thoughts and memories, once and for all, rather than having the discomfort of again reading the opinions of others, many of which are based on untruths that have become accepted over time,” he said.
According to the announcement, Swan Song will be the first time Spencer has spoken both “openly” and “at length” about his sister.
His portrait of Diana is deeply personal. Spencer described her as “a one-off, dynamic character, full of love, charisma and self-doubt, who gave life a hell of a go, and left the world a far better place, despite exiting the stage while still so young.”
He hopes the book will resonate not only with people who remember Diana during her lifetime, but also with a younger generation that knows her primarily through photographs, documentaries and accounts written after her death.
“I would be delighted if those too young to remember her in her heyday feel – after reading this – that they ‘get’ who she really was,” Spencer said.
Diana’s own sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, were only 15 and 12 respectively when their mother died.
A story rooted in their childhood together
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Spencer grew up with three older sisters: Lady Sarah McCorquodale, Lady Jane Fellowes and Lady Diana Spencer, who later became Diana, Princess of Wales.
His relationship with Diana was shaped in part by a turbulent period in their childhood following the breakdown of their parents’ marriage.
Their father, John Spencer, was awarded custody of the children after his 1969 divorce from their mother, Frances Shand Kydd.
Spencer has previously described how he and Diana were particularly close during that period because their two older sisters were away at school.
“Diana and I had two older sisters who were away at school, so she and I were very much in it together and I did talk to her about it,” he told The Sunday Times in 2020.
He also recalled the emotional impact of their mother leaving the family home.
“Our father was a quiet and constant source of love, but our mother wasn’t cut out for maternity. Not her fault, she couldn’t do it,” Spencer said.
He remembered his mother promising the then-5-year-old Diana that she would return to see her after leaving.
“Diana used to wait on the doorstep for her, but she never came,” he said.
Those shared childhood experiences form part of a relationship that continued long after Diana entered royal life.
The brother who spoke for Diana at Westminster Abbey
Spencer’s determination to speak on his sister’s behalf became most publicly visible after her death in 1997.
Standing at the pulpit of Westminster Abbey during Diana’s funeral, he delivered a powerful eulogy that became one of the defining moments of the service.
Years later, Spencer admitted that Diana’s death left him struggling with anger, grief and questions about whether he could have done more to protect her.
“I was furious, I wasn’t just angry,” he told PEOPLE in 2017. “[I thought] what could I have done. But you always think, God, I wish I could’ve protected her. It was just… it was devastating.”
“I always felt… intensely protective towards her,” he added.
Nearly 30 years later, Spencer is once again connecting his new book to the role he assumed at his sister’s funeral: attempting to tell Diana’s story as someone who knew her before she became a global figure.
Book promises personal revelations and a lasting tribute
Swan Song: Diana, My Sister will be published in the United States by Penguin Press and translated into 12 languages for international publication.
Publisher Daniel Bunyard described Spencer’s account as “extraordinarily moving, beautifully written and remarkably candid.”
He also indicated that the memoir will contain previously undisclosed material about Diana.
“While these pages contain many revelations that will draw considerable attention, readers will find, for the first time, but also for all time, a fitting tribute to the beloved woman who was Princess Diana,” Bunyard said.
For Spencer, however, the central purpose remains more personal: to leave behind his own account of the sister he remembers — from their childhood together through her extraordinary public life — rather than allowing other people’s interpretations to have the final word.