Horror as thieves target Diana’s grave
PRINCESS Diana’s brother Earl Spencer has revealed there have been four attempts to break into her grave at her ancestral home.
The Earl, who said all four breakins had failed, still insisted his sister’s body was safest at the family home – Althorp House in Northamptonshire.
Diana is buried in the grounds of the house on an island in an ornamental lake known as The Oval in the estate’s Pleasure Garden.
Charles Spencer was speaking in the run-up to the 20th anniversary of the death of Diana, who was killed in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997.
The 53-year-old told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It seemed natural to want to bury her here. I wanted to keep her safe actually.
“There was such a whipped-up feeling of emotion that I was very worried about where we could safely bury her.
“We’ve had four attempted break-ins and I’m very glad that we’ve seen all of them off.
“There are some odd people out there and keeping her right here is the safest place.”
Lord Spencer, who spoke memorably at his sister’s funeral in a personal eulogy that highlighted her difficulties with the media and the Royal Family, said he still suffered nightmares about the harrowing experience of that day.
He also said it was a “very bizarre and cruel thing” to ask her sons William and Harry, then 15 and 12, to walk behind her coffin in the funeral procession.
He accused officials of lying to him over claims the boys were happy to do it. He said his sister would not have wanted it and told officials of his objection.
“Eventually I was lied to and told they wanted to do it, which of course they didn’t, but I didn’t realise that,” he said.
He said walking behind Diana’s coffin was the “worst part of the day by a considerable margin”.
“The absolute tidal wave of grief coming at you as you went down this tunnel of deep emotion was really harrowing – I still have nightmares about it now,” he said.
“There was the inner turmoil of thinking ‘my God this is ghastly’, but then thinking these two boys are doing this and it must be a million times worse for them. It was truly horrifying, actually. We’d walk a hundred yards and hear people sobbing and then walk round a corner and somebody would be wailing and shouting out messages of love to Diana or William and Harry.”
He said he saw the eulogy as a chance to “speak for somebody who no longer had a voice”.
He said: “I don’t feel I said many pointed things. I believe every word I said was true. It was important for me to be honest.”
The Earl said he had reread the eulogy speech for the first time in 20 years ahead of the BBC interview. Asked if the Queen had said anything to him about the speech, he replied: “Somebody I know very well said to her ‘What do you think?’ and she said ‘He had every right to say whatever he felt – it was his sister’s funeral’.”
He recalled being taken to Westminster Abbey under police escort to rehearse his eulogy.
He said: “As I stood up there was a rather strange moment.
“These people came out of nowhere and suddenly I thought ‘My goodness, they’re trying to hear what I’m going to say’.
Sympathetic
“I didn’t know who ‘they’ were, but I knew they probably weren’t entirely sympathetic.
“So I just said ‘I’ve left the speech behind, so I’ll just read from a hymn book’. I read about three words and they said the microphone was fine.”
He said the personal nature of the eulogy meant he wanted to “protect it before delivering it” so no-one else could have a say in it.
However, he said he did read the speech to Diana’s body in the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace a couple of days before she was buried.
“People will think I’m some sort of fruitcake but I remember hearing some sort of approval, and I realised actually I’d probably got the thoughts in order,” he said.