Harry and Meghan's treatment echoes Diana's, her brother says

The brother of Princess Diana, Charles Spencer, said her son, Harry, and his wife, Meghan, should be given official security.

Earl Spencer said the media now treats the couple the same way they treated Diana in the years leading up to her death.

His upcoming book about Diana is highly critical of the now-King Charles.

The brother of Princess Diana, Charles Spencer, says her son, Prince Harry, and his wife, Meghan, should be given official security as the media now treat them much the same way as they treated his sister in the years leading up to her death.

Diana died aged 36 in a 1997 Paris car crash as photographers pursued her on motorbikes, sparking an outpouring of grief and a reckoning over whether the media bore some responsibility after it splashed details of her life across front pages for years.

Earl Spencer has been speaking to media in the run-up to the publication of his book about Diana, which has been highly critical of her former husband, the now-King Charles.

"From a security aspect, as an uncle who's seen his sister die in very, very preventable circumstances, I would veer towards protection," Earl Spencer told the BBC.

He said the tabloid treatment of Diana, and Harry and Meghan, could be "really, really unpleasant", that it was "beholden on people" to learn from that experience.

Earl Spencer's book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, has made headlines around the world after it accused the now-King Charles of making incendiary comments in the days after the death.

In the book, Earl Spencer accuses Diana's former husband, the then-prince of Wales, of sounding "giddily elated" in the hours after her death and said an angry Charles had told Spencer that the world would forget Diana soon enough .

In a rare move, the palace hit back by saying the king was "mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory in ⁠ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss".

Asked by the BBC how he could prove the conversations had taken place, Earl Spencer said he had included a specific line in his much-lauded eulogy at Diana's funeral to counter the comments, ending it by saying she would "never be extinguished from our minds".

Earl Spencer said he had written the book, ahead of the 30th anniversary of her death, to celebrate her life.

He said their childhood never had a dull moment. "We both have ADHD," he said. "She was never diagnosed, but clearly we did."