Charles Spencer has now revealed how much their parents splitting up took a toll on his sister Diana and him and that his mother just "wasn't cut out for maternity". His father John Spencer, the 8th Earl of Spencer, and his first wife Frances Spencer split up in 1969 and despite promising her daughter that she would come and see her, Frances did not come.
Charles Spencer: "Not her fault, she couldn’t do it"
Charles Spencer told The Sunday Times: "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. 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."
And the 9th Earl of Spencer added that his late mother, who passed in 2004, made a promise to Diana back then which she did not keep. "While she was packing her stuff to leave, she promised Diana [then aged five] she’d come back to see her. Diana used to wait on the doorstep for her, but she never came.”
The brother of the late "People's Princess", who died in a tragic car wreck in 1996, also revealed that it took him a while to get over the pain from his childhood and that he "has been in and out of therapy for 20 years". But while working through it has been "agonizing and horrible", he emphasizes that "the result has been cathartic."
"Coming out the other side has been good,” he added. "The one thing I’ve learnt through all the stuff I’ve tackled is that very few people set out to be destructive." Charles Spencer recently marked the anniversary of his sister's passing with a touching tribute on social media and the historian also has a new book coming out - "The White Ship" will be released September 17.
The late Princess
