Did Princess Diana’s Father Have a Secret Romance With Queen Elizabeth II?

Memoir Claims a Thwarted Royal Romance

In Swan Song, a book dedicated to his sister Princess Diana, Charles Spencer writes that his father—historically styled as Viscount Althorp—was a soldier and courtier who served as a groom to George VI and later Queen Elizabeth II. According to the ninth Earl Spencer, his father developed a close bond with the future monarch that evolved into a romantic connection. The relationship allegedly ended when Lord Louis Mountbatten stepped in. The author speculates that Mountbatten may have been clearing the path for his own nephew, Prince Philip, whose mother was Mountbatten’s sister.

Archival Record and Royal Expert Scrutiny

Historical accounts and newspaper archives challenge the timeline presented in the memoir. As royal expert Robert Hardman noted in the Daily Mail, John Spencer entered the service of Elizabeth II after she was already married to Prince Philip and had given birth to their two eldest children, Prince Charles and Princess Anne. Contemporary diaries from Alathea Fitzalan Howard, a friend of the then-Princess Elizabeth, record Prince Philip as the sole love of the future queen since her adolescence, characterizing encounters with John Spencer as isolated.

Buckingham Palace Responds to Book’s Claims

Beyond the historical claims involving John Spencer, Swan Song features controversial recollections about Princess Diana’s death on August 31, 1997. Charles Spencer writes that then-Prince Charles engaged in a heated phone call days after the tragedy, venting anger and expressing horror at the global outpouring of grief, culminating in the remark that the world would forget her soon enough. In response to these claims, Buckingham Palace issued a rare statement addressing personal matters. While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is 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, a Palace spokesperson stated to E! News.