Princess Diana’s Brother Says He Cut Rupert Murdoch ‘Name-Check’ From Her Eulogy: ‘Why Give Him the Publicity?’ | Video
Princess Diana’s brother Charles Spencer originally planned to give a much different eulogy following her unexpected death in 1997 — and it would have mentioned Rupert Murdoch.
Spencer explained in an interview with the Rosebud Podcast that he ultimately nixed the name-drop and added, “Why bother? Why give him the publicity?”
“I flew back [to the U.K.] – I was living in South Africa – I flew back from Cape Town overnight. [I had a] very sweet stewardess help me, because I was in bits,” Spencer said in the Friday interview.
He also revealed that he didn’t initially think he could handle delivering the eulogy himself.
“I had a big, thick address book, and I thought, ‘I want to find someone who’s going to make the speech for her.’ And I got to ‘Z’ and I hadn’t found anyone,” Spencer said.
Once he landed in London, he spoke to his mother, who also told him and she and his sister had already determined he needed to be the one to speak about Diana.
He continued, “[It was a] very traditional eulogy, almost … ‘She was very good at this as a child’ and all that. And then I thought, ‘Well, this is ridiculous, that’s not who she was.'” Spencer realized that he needed to reflect on the life his sister lived, as well as on her sons, who were young at the time.
“I did take one bit out, actually, because I did give a rather unnecessary name check to Rupert Murdoch and I thought, ‘Why bother?’ Why give him the publicity?” he added.
Murdoch’s News Group Newspaper was forced to issue an apology to Diana’s youngest son, Prince Harry, in January as part of Harry’s settlement with The Sun. “[We offer a] full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex for the serious intrusion by The Sun between 1996 and 2011 into his private life, including incidents of unlawful activities carried out by private investigators,” the settlement read, per The AP.
“NGN further apologizes to the duke for the impact on him of the extensive coverage and serious intrusion into his private life as well as the private life of Diana, Princess of Wales, his late mother, in particular during his younger years,” it continued. “We acknowledge and apologize for the distress caused to the duke, and the damage inflicted on relationships, friendships and family, and have agreed to pay him substantial damages.”
In turn, Prince Harry shared a statement of his own through his attorney, David Sherborne: “This represents a vindication for the hundreds of other claimants who were strong-armed into settling without being able to get to the truth of what was done to them.”
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