Earl Spencer says he has ‘never got over’ the death of Diana

Earl Spencer struggled to hold back tears when asked how much he misses Princess Diana in a newly released TV interview.

Speaking to BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, the earl said he misses his sister “everyday”, adding: “That’s the thing with sibling loss, you never get over it.”

He added: “It really breaks me up, when I look at old photographs of Diana and then think about what happened to her. It’s terribly sad.”

The earl also addressed the explosive accusation in his book that Charles was “in love with his valet”, as he said: “I can absolutely swear that [Diana] said those words to me.”

The earl has made a series of damning claims about the King in a new memoir chronicling his sister’s life that prompted the palace to push back, saying “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason”.

He is also said to have claimed that Diana told him Mohamed al-Fayed had “dropped a hand onto her buttocks and squeezed them”, early in her romance with his son Dodi Fayed.

The earl said Diana “disliked” Fayed, the Daily Mail reports.

According to the Daily Mail, the earl writes: “She (Diana) told me with revulsion how, early in her romance with Dodi, Mohamed had come up to her, dropped a hand onto her buttocks and squeezed them while saying in a leery, suggestive tone, ‘And in Egypt, father-in-law gets first go…’”

It comes after a documentary exposing allegations of rape and sexual abuse against al-Fayed aired on the BBC two years ago.

Two years on, more than 400 allegations of sexual misconduct have now been made against the late Harrods owner and other individuals linked to him, dating between 1977 and 2014 – including sexual assault, rape, sexual exploitation and human trafficking.

The Metropolitan Police is dealing with at least 159 victims who contacted it directly, including 21 who came forward before al-Fayed’s death in 2023 at the age of 94.

Writing in his bombshell memoir, the earl said he named Dodi Fayed in an early draft of his eulogy for Diana’s funeral, “thanking him by name for making Diana happy in her last few weeks”, but removed it before delivering it.

In his highly anticipated memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, the earl has made bombshell allegations about King Charles’ conduct around his ex-wife Princess Diana up to and following her death.

Revelations from the book, currently being serialised by the Daily Mail before it is published next Tuesday, have previously focused on the King’s behaviour, from statements he made to Diana before their marriage to comments he made to the earl before her funeral.

Earl Spencer gave an interview to the BBC ahead of the book’s publication in which he insisted everything he said was true.