Princess Diana Was 'Genuinely in Love' With Charles Despite His Alleged Wedding-Eve Confession, Brother Says

Princess Diana was 'genuinely in love' with then-Prince Charles when she married him in London in July 1981, her brother Earl Spencer has said, even after Charles allegedly told her the day before the wedding that he was not in love with her but would marry her 'anyway'.

Earl Spencer said Diana told him that, on the eve of the ceremony, Charles had told her: 'I'm not in love with you, but I'm going to marry you anyway.' Spencer did not hear the alleged exchange himself, and his account is based on what his sister told him and cannot be independently verified.

The 9th Earl, 62, set out the claim in a US television interview on CBS Mornings, broadcast on 28 September, while promoting his memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister. The couple married at St Paul's Cathedral in London on 29 July 1981, when she was 20 and he was 32. Diana died in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997.

'She Led With the Heart', Says Earl Spencer

Earl Spencer, who was 17 at the time of the wedding, said he felt reassured then because Diana appeared so committed to the marriage. 'She was clearly, genuinely in love with Prince Charles, you see,' he told CBS host Gayle King. He said his sister had 'no romantic experience at all' and regarded Charles as her 'first big love'.

He added that Diana had also voiced doubts to their father before the wedding, but still went ahead. 'I think, with Diana, she was very much somebody of the heart,' Earl Spencer said. 'She led with the heart, and she was really her own person, and maybe she thought it would be okay.'

Memoir Swan Song and Buckingham Palace Response

The book, published in the UK by Penguin Michael Joseph, a division of Penguin Random House, on 22 September, revisits the breakdown of the royal marriage and the aftermath of Diana's death. It includes a series of allegations about the King's private remarks and conduct, some of which prompted a rare public response from Buckingham Palace.

'While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss,' a Palace spokesperson said.

Earl Spencer rejected that implication. He told CBS that officials 'have to sort of pretend there's something wrong with my mind or my memory. There's nothing wrong with either.'

He said that, as a historian, his role was 'to lay down facts'. 'There's no viciousness. I'm not resentful or bitter or any of those things,' he said. He also said he kept the book secret from Prince Harry, who stayed at Althorp, the Spencer family home in Northamptonshire, with the Duchess of Sussex and their children in July.

'I decided not to have anyone involved in the book, so nobody knew about it except my wife and the publishers,' Earl Spencer said. Harry later asked whether anything in it might embarrass him, he recalled. Earl Spencer said he replied, 'Absolutely not', adding that he was very specific about people's privacy.

The 30th anniversary of Diana's death falls next August.