22/09/2026
“I have always felt so very sorry for the Prince of Wales, marrying somebody quite as stupid as you,” Raine said.
Princess Diana’s brother reflects on her tumultuous relationship with their stepmother in his new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, out on September 21. Charles Spencer wrote about “the worst” argument Diana ever got into with their father John Spencer’s second wife, Raine Spencer, leading her to “shove” her stepmom down the stairs.
“The worst of Diana and Raine’s relationship took place long after childhood and tended to reach particularly low points around major family events,” Charles wrote. “On the day before my first marriage, in 1989, everyone involved in the wedding rehearsal was invited back to tea at Althorp. But as my mother entered the house, she was approached by an embarrassed member of staff who whispered in her ear before leading her off to sit by herself.”
After discovering this, Charles claimed, Diana “confronted Raine with incredulity.”
“‘This is Charles’s mother, Raine,’ she said, ‘and she has to be included with the rest of us—not sent to a separate room like some naughty child! Do you really have no idea how to behave?’” Charles continued. “Raine replied coldly, ‘Diana, you simply do not understand how much pain your mother has caused your father.’”
As their argument “unfurled at the top of Althorp’s main staircase,” Charles says that Raine “went low” by making the following comment to Diana: “I have always felt so very sorry for the Prince of Wales, marrying somebody quite as stupid as you.”
“Diana paused for a second, surprised at the intensity of the spite. She then took a step forward, hooked a long leg round Raine’s calves before shoving her down the carpeted staircase,” Charles wrote. “Raine fortunately landed flush on her buttocks, rather than on bone, and got up.”
