Charles Spencer accused of ‘profiting off of his sister’s memory’ with Swan Song

From what I’ve seen, many British aristocrats are broke as hell. Or rather, they rarely have much cash on hand and they have zero liquidity. Their wealth is tied up in real estate and art for the most part. They inherit their massive estates and immediately have to pay a huge tax bill, which is why many titled toffs have been steadily selling off their family estates for decades. The current Earl of Spencer is an exception to that rule. While Charles Spencer’s father Johnny Spencer was famously cheap, Charles Spencer has significantly changed Althorp into a self-supporting estate, mostly through renting out the main house and all of the dozens of homes and buildings on the estate, all for corporate retreats, hunting parties and the like. Spencer also generates his own income through his bestselling books. My guess is that Charles Spencer is doing better financially than like 99% of his aristo peers. I bring up Charles Spencer’s finances because that’s quickly become the attack line on Spencer for writing a book about his late sister: he’s doing it for the money, he’s “selling out his sister” to make a buck.

Earl Spencer was branded a hypocrite after previously vowing to never make money from his sister Diana’s death. In a 1998 interview, called Diana: My Sister, The Princess, he said: “Can you imagine anybody making a profit out of their brother or sister’s death? I mean it’s so low it’s inconceivable … I’ll never profit from Diana’s death.”

Royal expert and author Christopher Wilson said: “Earl Spencer is a hypocrite and is doing what he has always done and making eye-watering amounts from Diana’s memory.”

Royal observers yesterday said he was driven by “simmering anger” and “resentment” at the royals. They accused him of “cashing in” on Diana’s memory despite his vast fortune, which we can reveal is driven by a property empire of 159 homes and parcels of land. Publishing sources revealed he had landed an advance of £750,000 to £1million for his memoir – but could bank up to £10million if it is popular in the US.

An insider claimed bad publicity around the book could hamper its success in the UK, but it would likely do well overseas. They said: “The advance was quite small – between £750,000 and £1million – because there were only two publishers involved and that went down to one, which is Penguin. What has been revealed so far has gone down badly with the British public – which means the book may not do that well here. But it will sell millions in the States, and he could make £5million to £10million from it.”

The Earl has also previously been accused of making £25million to £30million from events linked to Diana. Much of the money came from an exhibition, “Before Diana: A Celebration”, which opened at the family’s ancestral home in Althorp in 1998 and closed in 2013. It was estimated 2.5million visitors flocked there to see artefacts including her Emanuel wedding dress from 1981. With an entrance fee of £15 per adult, that meant takings of £37.5million. The exhibition also went to the US and Canada, at venues including a shopping mall in Edmonton, Alberta, and a casino and resort run by native Americans in Connecticut. The Earl’s team suggested at the time proceeds were going to charity, but there have been questions over how much was passed to good causes.

Mr Wilson said: “Financially, with the book, he’s doing what he has always done – which is to make money from Diana’s legacy. He has made an eye-watering amount of money from his association with Diana.”

An audit of his empire by The Sun shows he has at least 159 mansions, homes and areas of land. As well as Althorp, where Diana is buried on an island, his portfolio includes the huge Spencer House, a palace-like property overlooking London’s Green Park, off Piccadilly. It is currently leased to RIT Capital Partners, a wing of the Rothschild banking dynasty, which uses it as an HQ and opens for tours on Sundays. Most of his properties are in the name of two companies controlled by the Earl via private trusts.

“I think he is motivated by a simmering rage and resentment of King Charles and the Royal Family. Earl Spencer comes from a disjointed and unhappy upbringing – the same as Diana. He is on his fourth marriage, seems incapable of holding down long-term relationships and tends to fall out with everyone. He never got on with Charles and has now decided to turn his guns on the Royal Family when he thinks they are weak.”

[From The Sun]

These people, my god. They can’t say the thing they’re really mad about, namely that Princess Diana’s brother is making the king look like what he is, a monster. They can’t form an argument around why it’s “wrong” for the Earl Spencer to make the king look like garbage, so they’ve come up with “how dare Charles Spencer profit from Diana’s memory!” Yeah, the Windsors have also spent the past three decades profiting off Diana too, not to mention trying to rewrite Diana’s entire life. Isn’t it possible that Spencer also wants to create his own historical record so that everything is out there and dealt with before he’s gone and the king is gone? That is how I felt about Prince Harry’s Spare too – Harry was creating his own historical record, in his own voice, in his own words, about his life and what actually happened to him.

Also: it’s like it never occurred to these people that Diana’s brother isn’t “selling out” Diana because Diana already told people that Prince/King Charles is f–king trash. Diana’s brother is just reiterating it with his own stories. Diana is looking down on all of this and laughing her ass off.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.