Prince William is embroiled in another royal family feud after his uncle – Princess Diana’s brother Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer – reopened deep emotional wounds in his explosive new book.
“With Prince William, there is an added sense of betrayal because it comes from his own uncle,” royal commentator Kinsey Schofield exclusively told Page Six.
In the book “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister,” released last week, Spencer wrote that he strongly opposed King Charles III’s wish that William and Prince Harry walk behind their mother’s coffin in the 1997 funeral procession.
Spencer, 62, claimed to have fought with Charles in an “undercurrent of anger” but to no avail, and Harry and William eventually joined their father behind Diana’s coffin from Kensington Palace to Westminster Abbey.
“Charles Spencer was present at Diana’s funeral and publicly promised that his blood family would protect William and Harry,” Schofield said.
“Nearly three decades later, William watches this same uncle reopen some of the most traumatic events of his childhood while making very damaging allegations against his father,” she added.
The broader issue for William, Schofield said, is that he is not just Charles’ son, but the future king of England.
“The institution that is damaged by another round of wars between Charles and Diana is the institution that William will ultimately inherit,” she said. “I think there is a very real question in William’s orbit about how the resurrection of the controversial private conversations of 1997, the attack on the current king and the reopening of one of the ugliest periods in the family’s history is meant to benefit either of Diana’s sons.”
The host of the “Kinsey Schofield Unfiltered” podcast believes Spencer isn’t revealing family secrets for the benefit of her late sister.
“Does anyone really believe that Diana would sacrifice the peace of her adult children to have that one sentence spoken to the world?” » she asked rhetorically.
William, 44, spent much of his adult life trying to “draw a line” around his mother’s memory, Schofield said.
He also tried to “resist the endless digs and commercialization of his life and death,” she added.
“The fact that this boundary is now being crossed by Diana’s own brother makes this particularly painful for William,” she said.
Schofield also hears from sources that there is “considerable frustration and anger” for both William and Charles, but for “different reasons”.
“For the king, there is real anger at what is seen as a defamation based on an alleged private conversation from almost 30 years ago,” she said. “But Charles also spent decades living as the villain of Diana’s story.”
“He endured the hostility of the 1990s, the collapse of his marriage and the public backlash after Diana’s death,” Schofield continued. “Being portrayed as the villain in someone else’s account of this period is, unfortunately, familiar territory for him.”
As for Harry, Page Six exclusively reported that the Duke of Sussex will stay on Spencer’s good side.
Royal journalist Tom Sykes exclusively told Page Six last week that he believed Harry had “wooed” Spencer amid rumors that he and Meghan Markle were producing a documentary about Diana.
“There’s no denying that (Spencer) is a big name, and he will give credibility to the documentary. So (the Sussexes) need to woo him and get him on board,” Sykes said. “What Harry and Meghan are actually doing in the UK is finally revealed: They’re making a movie about Diana, and Spencer will likely star.”
William and Harry haven’t seen eye to eye for some time now. The brothers began feuding in 2020 when Harry and Markle stepped down from their royal duties and moved to the United States – only to later launch into several public rants tearing apart the British monarchy.
The ‘Spare’ author and his wife shocked the world when they decided to return to the UK last month after living in Montecito, California, for six years.
Despite their return, Harry and William have yet to make amends – even as the ice slowly melts between the renegade royal and his father.
Page Six reached out to William’s rep for comment.
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