Inside Princess Diana family rift as brother ‘misses’ wild child daughter’s wedding… after skipping eldest’s last year
PRINCESS Diana’s niece Lady Amelia Spencer married her long-term love Greg Mallett in a stunning South African ceremony on Tuesday – but there was one notable absentee.
It’s believed her dad, Charles Spencer, did not make the trip to Cape Town to walk his glamorous daughter, 30, down the aisle.
It comes after Charles, 58, reportedly skipped his eldest daughter Lady Kitty Spencer‘s wedding to millionaire fashion tycoon Michael Lewis in 2021.
Yesterday This morning father-of-seven Charles tweeted a photo from the Spencer estate, Althorp, captioned: “Early morning March light, at Althorp’s Round Oval lake.”
His failure to feature on the guest list for yet another milestone family occasion – after attending the wedding of his nephew Prince Harry to Meghan Markle in 2018 – has fuelled rumours of a rift within the Spencer clan.
It’s not known who did accompany former wild child Amelia – once arrested during a row in a McDonald’s drive-through in Cape Town – down the aisle; their brother Louis did the honours at Kitty’s nuptials.
Things weren’t always so seemingly-frosty between Charles and his eldest children, who he shares with his first wife, model Victoria Aitken.
The couple were married between 1989 and 1997 and brought up Kitty, 32, twins Eliza and Amelia and Louis, 29, in Cape Town, away from the glare of public attention.
After her parents split amid claims Charles had cheated, Kitty told The Mail on Sunday her dad was “hands-on” while she was growing up, and they had a happy childhood.
Speaking to The Telegraph in 2021, Amelia said: “Growing up, the house would always be busy, full of extended family and friends.”
Despite Earl Spencer travelling regularly between the UK and South Africa, where his children remained, he was only ever a “phone call away”.
He reportedly paid for the waterfront apartment Amelia – known for her wild partying in her teenage years – and Eliza, now both models, moved into when they were older.
He is also said to have gifted them an Audi sports car each for their 18th birthday.
Protection ‘pledge’
Earl Spencer famously made it clear how high he values family loyalty, giving a controversial eulogy at his sister Princess Diana‘s funeral.
He vowed to be there for Diana’s sons, Princes William and Harry, who he was famously pictured walking alongside behind their mother’s coffin in 1997.
It was a speech daughter Kitty previously said she was “proud” of her father for giving.
Since then Charles has been seen in public with the princes a handful of times but did attend both their weddings.
After splitting from Victoria, Charles married second wife, former nursery school teacher Caroline Freud, in a quiet family ceremony in 2001 – but neither Harry nor William went.
The couple, who had met years earlier while students at Oxford, had two children – Edmund and Lara – but Charles is said to have dumped her suddenly in 2006 when their daughter was just five months old.
Kitty, then 18, accompanied her dad to the divorce proceedings, and it’s claimed she branded Caroline “an awful woman”, adding: “I’m glad he’s divorcing her.”
A source at the time told the Daily Mail Kitty and her father were “thick as thieves, even though he had a very difficult divorce with her mother”.
But relations are said to have cooled between Charles and his eldest daughters when he wed third wife, model Karen Gordon – with whom he shares daughter Charlotte Diana – in 2011.
They married in a private civil ceremony at Althorp, attended by close family and friends only – again, the princes were absent.
When Charles failed to attend Kitty’s wedding to Michael Lewis, who is 32 years her senior – in Italy, a source told Mail Online: “Kitty and Charles were very close when she was growing up, but their relationship has cooled and been more distant since his marriage to his third wife Karen in 2011.
“Charles recently suffered an injury and perhaps that will be the reason for him not travelling, but it is just easier for everyone that he is not there.
“The four children are all close to their mother Victoria and get on well with their step siblings, and their Spencer aunts and have forged their own relationships with one another without needing Charles to bind them together.”
Tellingly, Kitty wrote on Instagram following her big day: “The proudest moment of my life, without a doubt, was having my brothers walk me down the aisle.
“Thank you to our family and friends for the most unforgettable weekend filled with more love and laughter and happiness than I have ever known.”
When Amelia got engaged to Greg, 30, whom she met at university, Charles revealed he had asked for his blessing before proposing in 2020.
He tweeted: “So happy for my daughter, Amelia, engaged to her boyfriend of 11 years, Greg – it’s wonderful to hear them both so excited about their future.
“Sending them both love, and every good wish for their life together. I love that Greg asked my blessing before proposing. Very sweet.”
Amelia and Greg, who now live in London, tied the knot at La Cotte Farm, an exclusive venue near the Franschhoek winelands, where Love Island was filmed.
Charles’ notable absences at both weddings have not officially been addressed. The Sun has reached out to Earl Spencer for comment.