Diana's brother reveals impact of her 'unhappy marriage' to King Charles

Charles Spencer is reflecting on the legacy and lasting impact of his late older sister, Princess Diana.

Speaking on Gyles Brandreth’s Rosebud podcast on October 25, Prince William and Prince Harry’s uncle shared that people continue to find pieces of themselves in Diana’s story, especially women who experienced struggles similar to hers.

“It's different things to different people, particularly to women of a similar age. They really invested their lives in hers,” he said, adding that one of those things was her marriage to King Charles III (they tied the knot in 1981, separated in 1992, and finally divorced in 1996 — a year before her death).

“Maybe they had an unhappy marriage, maybe they battled an eating disorder. There's plenty of Diana to look into and take your bit out of — almost like a horoscope, you can make it make sense for you,” Spencer noted.

The 9th Earl Spencer revealed he once discussed Diana’s emotional appeal with Downton Abbey creator and longtime family friend Lord Fellowes, who suggested that her power came not only from her beauty and charisma but also from something much deeper.

“He said ‘like the great film stars, there was something unhappy in there that really triggered an emotional response,’” Spencer recalled.

Prince William recently opened up about his parents’ unhappy marriage as well, although the impact on him and his younger brother wasn’t a good one.

Appearing on an episode of Eugene Levy’s The Reluctant Traveler, the Prince of Wales emphasised the importance of “starting the children off now with a happy, healthy, stable home,” otherwise “you’re setting them up for a hard time and a fall.”

Now dad to three children of his own with Princess Kate — Prince George, 12, Princess Charlotte, 10, and Prince Louis, 7 — the future king has learned from his parents’ “mistakes.”

“You take that and you learn from it and you try to make sure you don’t [make] the same mistakes as your parents,” William, 44, reflected.