Prince William has been drawn into yet another family conflict after his uncle, Charles Spencer, the brother of Princess Diana, revisited painful chapters of the past in his new and controversial memoir.
“In the case of Prince William, there is an added sense of betrayal because all of this is coming from his own uncle,” royal commentator Kinsey Schofield told Page Six.
In his book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, 62-year-old Charles Spencer revealed that he strongly objected to King Charles III’s decision to have William and Prince Harry walk behind their mother’s coffin during her funeral procession in 1997.
Spencer wrote that he had an emotional confrontation with Charles and tried to persuade him to reconsider the decision. His arguments ultimately failed, however, and William and Harry walked behind Diana’s coffin alongside their father from Kensington Palace to Westminster Abbey.
“Charles Spencer stood at Diana’s funeral and publicly promised that her family would protect William and Harry,” Schofield noted.
“Nearly three decades later, William is watching that same uncle reopen some of the most traumatic events of his childhood while simultaneously making deeply damaging allegations against his father,” she added.
According to Schofield, William’s situation is complicated further by the fact that he is not only Charles’ son but also the future king of the United Kingdom.
“I think there is a real question within William’s circle about how reviving disputed private conversations from 1997, attacking the current king and reopening one of the darkest periods in the family’s history is supposed to benefit either of Diana’s sons.”
Schofield said that the 44-year-old William has spent much of his adult life trying to “draw a boundary” around the memory of his mother. He has also sought to push back against the endless discussion and commercialization of her life and death.
“The fact that that boundary is now being crossed by Diana’s own brother makes the situation particularly painful for William,” she said.
At the same time, Schofield said she has heard from sources about “significant frustration and anger” on both William’s and Charles’ sides, although their reasons are different.
“The King is angry because he sees it as an attempt to destroy his reputation based on an allegedly private conversation that took place nearly 30 years ago,” she said.
“But Charles has also lived with the image of being the villain in the Diana story for decades. He endured the hostility of the 1990s, the collapse of his marriage and the brutal public reaction following Diana’s death. Being cast as the villain again in someone’s version of events from that period is, unfortunately for him, a familiar scenario,” Schofield added.
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