Princess Diana Was Brought to Tears by Horrifying Threat From a Paparazzo After She Begged Him to “Leave Her Alone”
Princess Diana Was Brought to Tears by Horrifying Threat From a Paparazzo After She Begged Him to “Leave Her Alone”
Rachel BurchfieldTue, September 22, 2026 at 2:47 PM UTC
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Princess Diana being photographed on December 3, 1993.Credit: GettyThe Gist -
Princess Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, recounted in his book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, her awful treatment at the hands of the paparazzi throughout her life.
He specifically recounted one instance when she “was vulnerable and on her own” and begged a paparazzo “to please leave her alone,” Spencer wrote.
The paparazzo allegedly told her, “I will follow you till the day you die—and then I will piss on your grave.”
Inside the pages of Princess Diana’s brother Charles Spencer’s new book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, Spencer is not pulling any punches. At one point in the book’s 384 pages, he outright says, “The paparazzi were, without doubt, the leading cause of Diana’s death” in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997.
Lady Diana Spencer being photographed before marrying Prince Charles.Credit: Getty
The former Princess of Wales had many negative experiences with the paparazzi that trailed her throughout her life. One, though, is a standout. As Spencer prepared for Diana’s funeral on September 6 at Westminster Abbey, he wrote, “I remembered with fury the promise one well-known paparazzo had spat at her, when she was vulnerable and on her own, begging him to please leave her alone: ‘I will follow you till the day you die—and then I will piss on your grave,’” he said.
“Diana had tears in her eyes when telling me this,” Spencer continued. “It was now my eternal duty to shield her from any such outrage.”
Princess Diana being photographed in Rome, Italy on June 19, 1996.Credit: Getty
One way Spencer did so amidst his grief was uninviting the tabloid press to Diana’s funeral. It was protocol to invite all national newspaper editors to events like this—even tabloid ones. “But they can’t come to this one, surely, Robert?” Spencer wrote that he asked his brother-in-law Lord Robert Fellowes, who was also a private secretary to Queen Elizabeth. “I mean, they killed her.”
“I’m afraid they’ve already been invited,” was his response. Spencer sprang into action, calling all Fleet Street editors and asking them to stay home. “They were unable to be rude to the brother of the much-mourned princess and, although clearly highly surprised by my call, they each agreed not to come,” Spencer wrote.
Lady Diana Spencer being photographed as early as 1980.Credit: Getty
Spencer wrote, “Even before my sister’s funeral, I saw one of my future roles as keeping her safe from any criminals, lunatics, or journalists who might seek to desecrate or steal her remains.” This is a major reason why Diana is buried at the Spencer family’s ancestral home, Althorp, on a private island only accessible by boat.
The burial site of Princess Diana.Credit: Getty
Throughout Swan Song, Spencer lays out numerous instances where the paparazzi made Diana’s life a living hell, like after her separation from Prince Charles, when she was feeling particularly vulnerable. “As endless footage online shows, in chilling detail, this was at a time when Diana was very much at the mercy of the paparazzi,” he wrote. “She was pursued in the streets, brought to tears of fear and desperation, as she tried, in the years after her separation from her husband, to live a more independent life.”
He compared photographers stalking her to “like hyenas closing in on a gazelle.” Spencer cited his nephew Prince William as remembering 20 years after her death, “I sadly remember most of the time [that] she ever cried about anything [it] was to do with press intrusion.”
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“His childhood memories include photographers not only shouting at his mother, but even spitting at her,” Spencer wrote.
Lady Diana Spencer on September 18, 1980.Credit: Getty
Princess Diana in New York City in 1997.Credit: Getty
According to a new interview with People, Spencer told both William and Prince Harry at “exactly” the same time that he would be publishing his book. He told his surviving sisters Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes at this time, as well. His sisters “were very surprised,” Spencer said. “They hadn’t seen it coming.”
Of William and Harry, “All I would say is one was…” as his voice trailed off. “So all four of them [Sarah, Jane, William, and Harry], I told them exactly the same time. And I can say that Harry is completely fine about it.” Harry’s chief worry was that there was “nothing embarrassing” about him in it.
“I said, ‘There isn’t,’” Spencer said. “I think it’s natural that people so in the public eye are concerned how they will come across in the book. But I could reassure both of them that they’re, of course, in the book, but really as examples of two little boys who had the most exceptional mother. I’m not in any way compromising their privacy at all.”
Prince William and Prince Harry on September 5, 2017.Credit: Getty
His sisters, meanwhile, are “still digesting” the book, with Spencer noting, “I think they were hurt that I hadn’t told them, to be honest. I said, ‘I was going to hurt you either way, because I was either going to tell you and still write it how I wanted it. It wasn’t going to be a committee effort.’”
“I wanted them to be able to put their hand up and say, ‘Well, we didn’t know he was doing it,’ in case there’s backlash or whatever,” he added. “So they’re totally innocent parties in this. This is very much a brother’s view.”
Though Spencer has said he won’t be writing any follow-up books, he told People, “I mean, I don’t want this to sound loaded, but there was an awful lot I could have put in and didn’t. If I wanted to write a scandalous book about Prince Charles or King Charles as he is now, it would really be a jaw-dropper, but I’m not here to do that.”
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
