Diana’s niece: It’s right my little brother gets Althorp
PRINCESS Diana’s niece Lady Kitty Spencer claims it is right for men to inherit stately homes – even if they are not the eldest child.
The 24-year-old insists she is ‘quite happy’ that her brother Viscount Louis, 21, will take over the ancestral seat at Althorp house – the Northamptonshire stately home dating back to 1508.
She said: ‘In general, I’m totally pro-gender equality. But I’m quite happy that that’s [going to be] my brother’s responsibility. I just think it’s the correct way.’
Lady Kitty added: ‘I like that the house stays within the same family with the same surname. I wouldn’t want it any other way for the Spencers. And I just know my brother is going to do an impeccable job.’
earlier this year her father earl Spencer, Diana’s younger brother, said his son will inherit the 90- room property rather than any of his three older daughters. Lady Kitty is the oldest,
‘It’s just the correct way’
with twins Lady Amelia and Lady eliza a year younger.
earl Spencer said the english system of handing everything to the eldest boy was ‘ruthless and rigid’ but argued that the concept of male primogeniture ‘works’.
‘I would be totally relaxed about Kitty inheriting it, but that was the structure written by the person who first built this place,’ he told The Mail on Sunday.
‘If I chose Kitty, it would be against all the tradition that goes with Althorp. It’s just the way it is.’
earl Spencer has held on to this view despite 2013 changes to the royal succession, meaning that younger sons no longer jump ahead of their female siblings.
This means that had the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s first child been a girl, she would be third in line to the throne even if she had younger brothers.
Lady Kitty, Lady Amelia, Lady eliza and Viscount Louis are the children from earl Spencer’s 1989 marriage to his first wife, Victoria Lockwood, a former fashion model. They divorced in 1997.
Lady Kitty made her comments in an interview published in December’s issue of Tatler magazine, on sale from Thursday.