Even before Princess Diana met King Charles III (then Prince Charles) and became a card-carrying royal herself, she had a rather privileged upbringing in their orbit. However, while Diana's former nanny Mary Clarke claimed in her 1996 tell-all book "Little Girl Lost" that the future Princess of Wales had a happy childhood overall, the reality was slightly more complicated. Diana's formative years were actually rather dramatic, her upbringing marred by her parents' divorce and the subsequent fallout
from it. As Diana wrote in her diaries, "It was a very unhappy childhood. [...] Always seeing my mother crying. Daddy never spoke to us about it. We never asked questions. Too many changes over nannies, very unstable, the whole thing," (via OK! Magazine).
However, the beloved royal got at least some sense of stability from her relationship with her younger brother Charles Spencer. A rare photo of the two hanging out together offers a glimpse into their troubled childhood. The 9th Earl Spencer shared the never-before-seen pic on Instagram in July 2025, and it features the super close siblings proudly sporting their swimming attire "at our childhood home, Park House, Sandringham." Charles detailed how they took swimming very seriously, even though it meant learning under "a fairly terrifying but very gifted swimming instructor, who came to stay each year." Still, as he sweetly noted, "We were never out of that pool."
Read more: 14 Times Princess Diana Broke Strict Royal Rules
Inside Princess Diana's Bond With Her Younger Brother
It's well known that the People's Princess' complicated life was tragically cut short when she was killed in a car accident in Paris. And Princess Diana's younger brother Charles Spencer has had to overcome his fair share of tragedy as well, both related and unrelated to her untimely death. What makes this especially sad is that it seems as though the bond between the two siblings offered a much-needed morale boost during their parents' split, even if there were sometimes hurdles to finding that solace. "[Diana] and I were very much in it together and I did talk to her about it," Charles explained to the Sunday Times in a 2020 interview, adding that their father was loving, but their mom simply wasn't up to the task.
"While she was packing her stuff to leave, she promised Diana [then aged five] she'd come back to see her," he recalled, adding, "Diana used to wait on the doorstep for her, but she never came. She could hear me crying down the corridor but was too scared of the dark to come to me." In the years since Diana's 1997 death, Charles has made a point of preserving his sister's legacy and setting the record straight on certain inaccuracies. He won a legal battle against the Sunday Times in 2021, with the publication ultimately being forced to apologize for claiming that the 9th Earl Spencer had denied Diana a place to live after her marriage to the-then Prince of Wales broke down. Clearly, their connection runs deep.
Read the original article on The List.
