Charles Spencer Reveals Queen Elizabeth’s Secret Diana Offer as Palace Braces for More Claims
Charles Spencer has revealed another extraordinary detail surrounding Princess Diana’s funeral claiming Queen Elizabeth offered to restore his late sister’s HRH status after her death an offer he ultimately questioned on Diana’s behalf.
The revelation appears in Spencer’s forthcoming memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which has already reopened painful chapters involving King Charles, Diana and the decisions made following her death in 1997.
Spencer, the uncle of Prince William and Prince Harry, has presented the book as his opportunity to tell his sister’s story and challenge accounts of events that he believes have remained misunderstood for decades.
According to an extract published by the Daily Mail, Spencer claims the late Queen made a significant offer on the day of Diana’s funeral concerning the royal status she had lost following her divorce from Charles.
The memoir states that Queen Elizabeth was prepared to restore Diana’s HRH style posthumously, an extraordinary gesture that would have reinstated a form of royal recognition after the Princess had already died.
According to Spencer’s account, the message was delivered to him by the Queen’s private secretary, Robert Fellowes, who was also connected to Diana’s family through his marriage to Spencer’s sister Jane.
Spencer wrote that he immediately considered how Diana herself would have viewed such an offer rather than simply accepting the gesture because it had come from the monarch.
“I felt that I knew in my bones how she would view this posthumous award,” Spencer writes while recalling his reaction during the intensely emotional period surrounding his sister’s funeral.
He then recalled responding: “That’s very kind of the Queen, of course. But what’s the point, Robert? Now? I mean – Diana’s dead.”
The claim provides another glimpse into Spencer’s account of discussions taking place behind Palace doors after Diana’s death, when the Royal Family was confronting enormous grief alongside unprecedented public attention.
It follows even more controversial allegations involving the then-Prince Charles, including Spencer’s account of a heated disagreement about whether the young William and Harry should walk behind their mother’s coffin.
Buckingham Palace has already taken the unusual step of challenging Spencer’s recollection of one private conversation, saying grief can “cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory” even many years after a traumatic event.
There has been no official confirmation that this latest revelation about Queen Elizabeth has personally “hurt” King Charles. Any suggestion about the monarch’s private emotional reaction therefore remains unverified rather than an established Palace position.
With the full memoir still set to reveal more about Diana and the Royal Family, however, Buckingham Palace could face further uncomfortable headlines. Spencer’s latest disclosure reaches beyond Charles himself, bringing Queen Elizabeth into a story about one of the monarchy’s most difficult periods and revealing what he claims was her final royal gesture toward Diana.
