They were seated in the audience alongside Princess Beatrice, and her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, who also appeared to be cheering on Prince William for the evening.
Countless column inches have been dedicated to Diana’s family in recent months.The Spencer clan are among the few free agents able to cross the battlelines between Prince William and Prince Harry, as the brothers’ feud appears to grow ever frostier in the wake of the Duke of Sussex’s firebrand claims about the royals in his biography, Spare.
The Spencer family have remained steadfast in their support of the Prince, throughout his increasingly fractious relationship with the Windsor family. Two of Princess Diana’s siblings, Earl Spencer and Lady Jane Fellowes, received ‘stand out thanks’ in Harry’s autobiography, Spare – an honour noticeably not bestowed upon his father.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s relationship with the royal family grew increasingly estranged after they stepped back from royal duties and moved to Montecito in 2020. So deep was the divide that, when Prince Harry flew to London for a ceremony celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the Invictus Foundation, not one royal joined him at St Pauls. While King Charles and Prince William greeted guests at a Buckingham Palace garden party just twenty minutes up the Thames, Prince Harry was supported by Lady Jane Fellowes and Earl Spencer.
The appearance of Charles Spencer at the event led many to reflect on his own troubled relationship with the royal family. The journalist and historian, who recently hired the lawyer that negotiated the divorce between Princess Diana and the then Prince Charles, is perhaps best known for pillorying the Windsors and the press during an electrifying address at his sister’s funeral. ‘There never was much love lost between the Spencers and the Windsors,’ according to former BBC royal correspondent Michael Cole, who told MailOnline that ‘the divide was shown in its deepest and starkest form’ as events played out on Wednesday.
