Princess Diana's Brother Paints A Sad Picture Of Her Inner Circle Before Her Death

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Additional details are coming to light about Princess Diana's tragic final days as her brother Charles Spencer looks back on her life and death in his explosive new memoir, "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister." Among them was King Charles III's reportedly callous reaction to her death and Diana's complex relationships with her inner circle, including her sister-in-law, Sarah Ferguson, to whom she wasn't on speaking terms before she died in 1997. In a newly-released excerpt, Spencer recalled Diana openly acknowledging her jealousy of the then-Duchess of York's close relationship with her father, Ronald Ferguson, something the People's Princess seemingly wished she had with her own family. At least, that's how he took it. 

"[She] was trying to establish subtly if I might become more closely involved in her royal life," the 9th Earl Spencer noted in his book, confirming that he refused to engage with the suggestion (via InStyle), reasoning, "I did not want to openly reject the overture, but I knew I would be of no use to Diana in even a semi-official capacity." The siblings had "already had our difficult moments," which at times resulted in the beloved royal refusing to even speak to him for weeks, or months, at a time. In fact, according to Spencer, Diana had a habit of shutting people out over seemingly minor offenses. "The astonishing pressures of her life, and her reactive nature, saw her fall out with each of us fairly regularly," he revealed, adding, "She was on non-speaks with two of our closest relatives for months before her death, over not very much at all." 

Notably, this isn't the first time someone who was close to Princess Diana has painted a lonely picture of the beloved royal's life before her shocking death, at just 36. Sarah Ferguson, who grew up with Diana, also shed some light on her complicated relationship with the late princess in her own tell-all book, "Finding Sarah: A Duchess's Journey to Find Herself," in 2011. "In any sibling relationship, there are ups and downs and peaks and troughs, but we were always steadfast in our friendship," she wrote. But by the time Diana passed away in 1997, she and Fergie had gone a full year without speaking to each other.

"I never knew the reason," Ferguson admitted of their falling-out, "except that once Diana got something in her head, it stuck there for a while." Although the two women were close, Diana was always candid about her jealousy of her sister-in-law for quickly winning over the royal family, confessing that Fergie made her feel "terribly insecure" about herself. "Suddenly, everybody said, 'Oh, isn't Fergie marvelous, a breath of fresh air — thank God she's more fun than Diana,'" Diana shared in personal recordings given to biographer Andrew Morton, which he used to write "Diana: Her True Story — In Her Own Words." 

Even her husband, then-Prince Charles, was quite taken with Fergie and would tell Diana that he wished she were more like her. Sadly, by the end, the People's Princess had become increasingly withdrawn and isolated from the people she once held close, including Ferguson. "She could not trust anyone," royal expert Ian Pelham Turner explained in a 2026 interview with Fox News. "So, in some ways, self-isolation was necessary in her mind, including her friendship with Sarah."