Charles Spencer claims Prince Harry was ‘allowed to spin out of control’ after Princess Diana’s death

Prince Harry was “allowed to spin out of control” after the death of his mother Diana, Princess of Wales, because of an apparent lack of care for the devastated 12-year-old, his uncle Charles Spencer has claimed.

Charles, 62, describes his concern for Harry, now 42, in his forthcoming memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, as he recalls the aftermath of Diana’s funeral in September 1997.

The 9th Earl Spencer writes about travelling from London to his family estate at Althorp, Northamptonshire, where Diana was buried after the service at Westminster Abbey, and watching his young nephew attempt to deal with his mother’s death.

Charles writes: “My chief memory of that train journey is of being concerned at the lack of obvious care for Harry, as he decompressed from the ghastliness of the morning.

“He needed Diana’s hugs, of course, and they would forever be denied him.

“But instead of calm and nurture, he was allowed to spin out of control.”

Charles writes Harry could have benefited from “a more caring hand” while dealing with the loss of Diana, who was 36 when she died following a car crash in Paris.

Earlier that day, Harry and his brother Prince William, now 44, had walked behind their mother’s coffin as it travelled to Westminster Abbey.

They were joined by their father, King Charles, now 77, their grandfather Prince Philip, who was 99 when he died, and Charles.

The procession became one of the defining images of Diana’s funeral, watched by millions around the world.

Charles writes: “I could not get over how tiny, and slight, and bereft, Harry looked.

“Too small to be doing this, I thought, and wondered how on earth this heartbroken child could bear the ordeal of that moment, or how he could possibly be expected to deal with the agony that the day ahead would insist upon.”

In 2017, he said he did not believe a child “should be asked to do that under any circumstances”.

The funeral also featured prominently in Harry’s 2023 memoir Spare, in which he wrote extensively about the lasting effect of Diana’s death and his childhood within the royal family.