Nearly three decades after Princess Diana’s tragic death, her brother Charles Spencer is preparing to offer what may become one of his most personal and consequential accounts of her life. The 9th Earl Spencer has decided to speak at length about his sister in a new memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, after years in which countless books, interviews and documentaries have attempted to explain the woman once known around the world as the “People’s Princess.” Spencer says his decision was driven partly by the approach of the 30th anniversary of Diana’s death and by the continuing requests for him to discuss her publicly. More importantly, he believes too many claims about Diana have been repeated for so long that “untruths” have gradually come to be regarded as established fact. His book is intended to challenge those narratives while presenting Diana through the memories of someone who knew her not simply as a royal figure or international celebrity, but as a sister.

The memoir is expected to explore Diana’s story from childhood through the extraordinary years that transformed her into one of the most recognizable women in the world. It will revisit her upbringing, her relationship with her family, her marriage to the man who is now King Charles III, and the painful collapse of that marriage under intense public scrutiny. Yet Spencer’s perspective promises to be different from many previous accounts because his connection to Diana existed long before royal titles, photographers and international fame became part of her daily existence. Rather than presenting her only as a tragic icon, he hopes to describe the complicated person behind the famous image: a woman he remembers as loving, charismatic and energetic, but also vulnerable and filled at times with self-doubt. In Spencer’s telling, understanding those contradictions may be essential to understanding who Diana really was.

The most closely watched part of the book, however, is likely to concern Diana’s death and the extraordinary days that followed. Diana died aged 36 after a car crash in Paris in August 1997, an event that triggered an unprecedented wave of public grief across Britain and around the world. Spencer’s memoir is expected to recount his memories of that devastating period from inside the family, including the tense week between his sister’s death and her funeral. Those days have been examined repeatedly over the years, yet Spencer’s personal recollections could provide a more intimate picture of the emotions, disagreements and decisions taking place behind closed doors while millions of people mourned outside royal residences and followed every development through the media.

One particularly sensitive issue concerns Princes William and Harry and the decision that they would walk behind their mother’s coffin during the funeral procession. Both were still teenagers, and the question of whether they should participate became the subject of disagreement within the family. Prince Harry later wrote in his 2023 memoir Spare that his uncle Charles Spencer objected to the idea and described it as “barbarity.” Ultimately, William and Harry did walk in the procession alongside their father, grandfather and uncle, producing one of the most unforgettable images associated with Diana’s funeral. Spencer’s new account may provide additional context about what happened during those discussions and why he felt so strongly about protecting his nephews at a moment of overwhelming grief and global attention.

Spencer’s role at the funeral already gave the world a glimpse of how fiercely protective he felt toward Diana and her sons. Delivering his famous eulogy at Westminster Abbey, he spoke defiantly about his sister and pledged that Diana’s “blood family” would help protect William and Harry. The speech was broadcast internationally and even prompted applause from people gathered outside the abbey. Nearly 30 years later, Spencer says his motivation for writing the memoir is similar. He wants to speak for Diana from the perspective of her brother, just as he attempted to do at her funeral, and to present his memories positively without ignoring the painful or complicated parts of her story. Instead of allowing other people’s interpretations to define her permanently, he wants to put his own recollections on record.

Diana’s enduring cultural impact will also form an important backdrop to the memoir. Spencer has previously acknowledged that his sister means different things to different people, particularly women who saw parts of their own struggles reflected in hers. Diana publicly experienced an unhappy marriage, intense media scrutiny and an eating disorder, while simultaneously becoming celebrated for her humanitarian work and unusual ability to connect emotionally with ordinary people. Spencer has suggested that people often identify with particular parts of her story according to their own experiences. That may help explain why fascination with Diana has survived for decades and why speculation surrounding her life continues to attract new generations who were not even alive when she died.

For Spencer himself, however, Diana’s legacy is not merely historical. He has spoken about how difficult the anniversary of her death remains and how uncomfortable he can feel when strangers tell him where they were when they heard that she had died. Diana is buried at Althorp, the Spencer family estate in Northamptonshire, which remains closely associated with her memory. Prince Harry has also continued to maintain a connection with his mother’s family and legacy, and reports have indicated that he has visited the estate with Meghan and their children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet. These continuing family connections underline the distinction at the heart of Spencer’s book: Diana may belong to history in the public imagination, but to those closest to her she remains a daughter, sister and mother whose death created a deeply personal absence.

The publisher has described Swan Song: Diana, My Sister as both remarkably candid and extraordinarily moving, while indicating that it contains revelations likely to attract considerable attention. Spencer, an experienced historian and memoirist, appears determined to use the book not simply to generate new headlines but to correct what he believes has become a distorted historical record. His central argument is that repetition does not necessarily turn speculation into truth, even when a story has circulated for decades. As the 30th anniversary of Diana’s death approaches, the memoir promises to reopen conversations about her childhood, marriage, private struggles, relationships, final days and enduring legacy. For a world that has spent nearly three decades debating who Princess Diana really was, Charles Spencer is now preparing to offer an account from one of the few people who knew her before she became a princess, watched her endure extraordinary fame and stood beside her story after her death. If his promised revelations challenge long-held assumptions, readers may once again be forced to reconsider what they thought they knew about the life, love and tragedy of the English Rose.