Diana shows ugly side

PRINCESS Diana’s relationship with her stepmother Raine Spencer was famously so volatile she would call her “Acid Raine”.

And now it has been revealed how on one occasion the princess pushed Spencer down the stairs.

The bitter conflict between the women has been laid bare by staff at Diana’s ancestral home, Althorp, in a new documentary.

In it, Spencer’s personal assistant, Sue Howe, reveals how Diana flew into a violent rage during a family gathering in 1989. The princess, a 28-year-old mother of-two at the time, believed the then Lady Spencer had slighted her mother, Frances Shand Kydd.

As a result, she reached out and shoved her stepmother down the stairs.

“She was badly bruised and dreadfully upset,” Howe told Channel 4’s Diana’s Wicked Stepmother, which aired in the UK on Thursday night.

Divorcée Raine, daughter of romance writer Dame Barbara Cartland, married Diana’s father, the 8th Earl Spencer, in July 1976.

She was hated by his children, who resented her “hold” over their father.

Diana spoke about the row on the infamous tapes recorded by her voice coach Peter Settelen.

In them, she says: “My stepmother and I ended up having this row. And I pushed her down the stairs. Which gave me enormous satisfaction.” – Daily Mail