Princess Diana told her father ‘if you loved me, you wouldn’t leave me here’ when she was sent away to boarding school, her brother Charles Spencer has revealed.
Earl Spencer, 59, shared the heart breaking remark during his appearance on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on BBC One this morning.
He said ‘it was so incredibly impactful’ seeing Diana tell their father how she felt about leaving for boarding school and that ‘I was so proud of her for saying that’.
Charles also reiterated his own stance on boarding schools, telling Ms Kuenssberg: ‘Personally, any child under 13, I don’t think they should be sent away. They can’t understand what is going on.’
Earl Spencer released his memoir, A Very Private School, last week, revealing horrific details about the physical and sexual abuse he suffered during his childhood, while he was educated at Maidwell Hall boarding school in Northamptonshire the 1970s.
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Earl Charles Spencer, during his appearance on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg on BBC One this morning, revealed that Princess Diana told their father Edward John Spencer, ‘If you loved me, you wouldn’t leave me here’ when she was sent to boarding school
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Diana told her father that she did not want to go to the boarding school, but he instead took this photo of his daughter sat on a trunk in her pleated skirt and red cardigan school uniform
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Charles, pictured with Diana in 1967, said ‘it was so incredibly impactful’ seeing his older sister tell their father how she felt about leaving for boarding school and that ‘I was so proud of her for saying that’
Diana was sent to Riddlesworth Hall, in Norfolk, at the age of nine after her mother, Frances Roche, left her father John for wallpaper millionaire Peter Shand-Kydd.
The boarding school first opened as an independent girl’s school in 1946, before it was forced to close due to facing ‘unprecedented financial challenges’ in April last year.
Diana was sent to the prep school in 1970, three years after her parents separated, and stayed at Riddlesworth Hall, which lies between Thetford and Diss in Norfolk, between the ages of nine and 12.
Young Diana initially told her father that she did not want to go to the boarding school, but he instead took a photo of his daughter sat on a trunk in her pleated skirt and red cardigan school uniform.
Although at first unhappy, she later settled in to life at at the school and became a popular pupil, while dealing with the aftermath of her family breakup.
She left Riddlesworth Hall in 1973 and went to West Heath Girl’s School in Sevenoaks the following year.
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Diana was sent to Riddlesworth Hall, (pictured) in Norfolk, at the age of nine after her mother, Frances Roche, left her father John for wallpaper millionaire Peter Shand-Kydd
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Although at first unhappy, she later settled in to life at at the school and became a popular pupil, while dealing with the aftermath of her family breakup. Diana is pictured during a visit to the school in 1989
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Excerpts from Charles Spencer’s new memoir revealed he had been sexual assaulted at boarding school
In addition to sharing how Diana pleaded not to go to boarding school, Earl Spencer told Ms Kuenssberg that their childhood nanny would ‘crack our heads together’ whenever the two had been naughty.
Charles said the violence would not just be ‘a tap on the wrist’ but a ‘cracking crunch’ that ‘really hurt’.
The Earl also revealed that his older sisters had been piled with laxatives as a punishment from a different nanny.
‘A different nanny was punishing them by ladling laxatives down them, and my parents couldn’t work out why they were constantly ill,’ he said.
Charles made it clear that he did not blame his parents: ‘They did their best, like 98 per cent of parents do’, and lamented that they ‘did not know.’
Although he remained firm in his defence of his parents, he did highlight that this showed the ‘disconnect’ between parents and children in these privileged families.
‘It was just normal. You leave it to the nanny to deal with this,’ he said.
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In addition to sharing how Diana pleaded not to go to boarding school, Earl Spencer told Ms Kuenssberg that their childhood nanny would ‘crack our heads together’ whenever the two had been naughty
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Earl Spencer with Princess Diana. He added that the violence would not just be ‘a tap on the wrist’ but a ‘cracking crunch’ that ‘really hurt’
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Earl Spencer with Diana and their mother. Charles has also revealed that his older sisters had been piled with laxatives as a punishment from a different nanny
The interview comes just days after Charles released his memoir and warned that young children should not be sent to boarding school.
In the book Charles shared how he was molested by a female assistant matron at the age of 11 at the Northamptonshire prep school.
Describing his abuser as a ‘voracious paedophile’, he claims she preyed on him and other young boys, grooming and then abusing them in their dormitory beds at night.
The prep school has now reported itself to the council following Earl Spencer’s claims.
Charles said the school ‘sewed demons into the linings of the souls’ of the abuse victims, which made them feel like ‘they were responsible’ for what had happened.
The Earl explained how he was only able to process the trauma when he tried a new form of therapy called the Hoffman process – which aims to resolve negative behavioural patterns.
The book also detailed how John Porch, the ‘terrifying and sadistic’ headteacher of the exclusive prep school, inflicted brutal beatings, seemingly gaining sexual pleasure from the violence.
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Diana Spencer and her brother Charles Spencer at their home in Berkshire in 1968
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Earl Spencer (left), Prince William, Prince Harry and the Prince of Wales waiting as the hearse carrying the coffin of Diana, Princess of Wales prepares to leave Westminster Abbey in 1997
Charles, in an interview on Lorraine Kelly’s show last week, warned against sending young children to boarding school.
‘I think being sent away at a very delicate age such as seven or eight is really – I don’t support that at all,’ he said.
‘I have seven children and two of them have chosen to go to boarding school in their mid-teens. And that is fine – their decision. And if they decided it wasn’t for them, they knew there was an exit plan.’
Earl Spencer also believes due to his young age, he was less likely to report the abuse he suffered to an adult once it started.
He said: ‘I think kids at that age, no matter their background, have no context for their life, they just think this is what their parents expect and this is the framework they have been given.
‘I found with all my friends none of them told their parents.’
