August Annotations

Spencer Speaks:
Insults Royal Family and Nephews

Earl Spencer’s latest remarks against the Royal Family are quite tasteless. This man has proven time and again that he is merely a limelight hog and one who likes to - how do I say it diplomatically - ‘embellish the truth’. Not only is he making unwelcome comments towards the Royals, this time he takes a shot at William and Harry.

When his sister died, Spencer declared he disliked the media and that the paparazzi caused her death. He said the family needed privacy. Soon after, he appeared on American TV!

Charles Spencer has written two books about Althorp, opened a big memorial to Diana on the grounds, went on American TV shows ‘Oprah’ and ‘Larry King Live’ soon after her death, and has always been ready and eager to take a shot at Charles or the Royal Family. Spencer is not some wounded English gent as he likes to portray, just as his sister was not a shy ‘English Rose’. He has spoken his mind and done so in the most public ways possible, proving once again how contradictory the Spencers can be with the media.

The latest comments demonstrate Earl Spencer’s thoughtlessness.

Princes William and Harry ‘may not be encouraged to stay in touch with their mother’s side of the family’, according to their uncle, Earl Spencer. ‘I haven’t seen William for a while,’ he concedes.
But then the Earl continues: ‘I have seen Harry very regularly. There are also text messages, e-mails…they are two young men who have very full social diaries and an active life with their father’s family and I understand all that.’

Perhaps when their uncle has lived all this time way down in South Africa, it is very difficult to see him! And with their busy lives of school and royal duties, perhaps they don’t really have time to see grandmother Frances Shand-Kydd, who lives a reclusive life on the Isle of Seil in Scotland? As for their aunts, Sarah McCorquodale and Jane Fellowes, William and Harry do see their Spencer cousins so I am sure the two women are somewhere near. As you can see, even Earl Spencer himself admits that the boys have very full schedules. So why act as though ‘The-Cold-Hearted-Windsors’ are keeping them from you?

He [Spencer] believes William will be allowed to marry who he chooses. ‘I think he’s got it in him to choose who he wants to marry. I don’t think he’ll be told.’

‘Got it in him’ meaning his Diana genes? Well sir, when it comes to the future of the Monarchy, one must carefully choose one’s mate according to their heart, but also the suitability of the person to the institution. We have been made painfully aware of how wrong things can be if a royal personage marries someone who cannot handle life in the monarchy.

Earl Spencer also suggests he was tricked into allowing the young princes to walk behind Diana’s coffin en route to the Abbey. He said, ‘I was told that they wanted to do it and that they would like it if I were there; I now know that’s not true. I thought that was where tradition and duty went too far against human nature.’

Such dramatics. The Earl is probably annoyed because he wanted to be the only one who walked with the cortege. He was tricked into ‘allowing’ them? Allowing whom? They are all her family. Her sons have a place in her procession to honor her. Spencer even said that ‘I think there is a much greater finality if you see somebody’s body’ [ after they die.] To come to terms with her death and finalize everything, taking part in the ceremonial laying to rest is the most logical thing. William and Harry’s participation in the event should not even be a question.

‘Champagne Charlie’ need not tell the Royal Family, especially Prince Charles, how to live their life and how to conduct themselves. The Earl has had scores of mistresses, one particular flavor-of-the-month seated in the congregation at Westminster Abbey during Diana’s funeral whilst Spencer lectured about humanity. He is also a man who publicly humiliates people, saying once that his estranged wife could ‘buy herself a house on the Isle of Dogs’.

I find it amusing that the Earl always seems to have something to complain about every year around this time, right between Diana’s birthday or the anniversary of her death.

‘I won’t give another interview about this stuff,’ he says. ‘I think the time has come for me to put a line under being the man who made the speech at his sister’s funeral.’

I guess when the summer of 2003 rolls around, we’ll see if he is going to do just that.

©2002 Mandy’s British Royalty”