By Kate Holton
LONDON, Sept 20 (Reuters) - The media's treatment of Prince Harry and his wife Meghan is on a par with that faced by his mother Diana, and lessons need to be learned, the late princess' brother said in an interview published on Sunday.
Diana died aged 36 in a 1997 Paris car crash as photographers pursued her on motorbikes, sparking an outpouring of grief and a reckoning over whether the media bore some responsibility for her death after splashing details of her life across front pages
for years.
Diana's brother, Charles Spencer, told the BBC that the tabloid treatment of both Diana, and Harry and Meghan, could be "really, really unpleasant" and that it was "really beholden on people to learn from Diana's example."
"I'm not here to speak for Harry and Meghan, but for anyone who's being destroyed in this way daily, it must be such a cancerous influence in their life," he said.
SPENCER'S BOOK MAKES HEADLINES AROUND THE WORLD
Spencer was speaking as he prepared to publish his book, "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister", which has made headlines around the world after it accused the now-King Charles of making incendiary comments in the days after the death.
In the book Spencer accused Diana's former husband, the then-prince of Wales, of sounding "giddily elated" in the hours after her death and said an angry Charles had told Spencer that the world would forget Diana soon enough.
In a rare move, the palace hit back by saying the king was "mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss".
Asked by the BBC how he could prove the conversations had taken place, Spencer said he had included a specific line in his much-lauded eulogy at Diana's funeral to counter the comments, ending it by saying she would "never be extinguished from our minds".
Spencer said he had written the book, ahead of the 30th anniversary of her death, to celebrate her life. He said their childhood had never had a dull moment: "We both have ADHD. She was never diagnosed, but clearly we did".
The publication of the book and the surprise return of Harry and Meghan to Britain after they spent six years living in the US pose another challenge for the king, who is still undergoing treatment for cancer.
Diana's family accused the royals of showing a lack of support or care towards the late princess before her death, a charge that was repeated by Harry and Meghan before they quit royal duties in 2020 to move abroad.
Harry and Meghan also sued much of the British tabloid press during their years away. The one major lawsuit Harry lost was against the Daily Mail, the tabloid newspaper chosen by Spencer - Harry's uncle - to serialise his book.
Spencer, who recently hosted Harry and Meghan, said his revelations about Charles would not come as a surprise to Harry or his older brother, the heir-to-the-throne Prince William, and said while he knew many more details about the king he chose not to include them.
(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Helen Popper, Toby Chopra)
