Earl Spencer backs Harry in Sussexes' taxpayer-funded security row
Princess Diana's brother has said he believes Harry and Meghan receive similar coverage to his late sister
Earl Spencer has backed Prince Harry in his dispute over taxpayer-funded security with the UK government.
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Harry's uncle told reporters: “I would say that I personally worry about the fifth in line to the throne who’s served in the military not having any police protection.
“As an uncle who’s seen his sister die in very, very preventable circumstances, I would veer towards protection.”
Harry lost a high-profile court case while residing in California in which he failed to secure Home Office security for his trips back to the UK.
It is understood that authorities are looking into whether the Duke of Sussex and his family will be provided security now that they are back living in Britain.
Earl Spencer also spoke out on the media's treatment of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, noting it “echoes” behaviour faced by his late sister.
Branding press coverage of Harry and Meghan a “cancerous influence”, the Earl added it would be “beholden on people to learn from Diana’s example”.
“If you look at an article in a tabloid about Diana or…Harry and Meghan, you know, they can be really, really unpleasant," he continued.
“And I think it would be really beholden on people to learn from Diana’s example.
The earl said Diana was “really brought low” by how she was covered in the press, and said it was a “pity” to see “echoes of that” in the press coverage of his nephew.
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The Sussexes, who returned to the UK from the US on August 26 without explanation as to why they were leaving California, have long been critical of their treatment by the media, with Harry in 2021 telling Oprah Winfrey the tabloid press had created a “toxic environment”.
In July, Harry and six others, including Sir Elton John and Liz Hurley, lost a privacy case against the publisher of the Daily Mail. This case came after Harry won other legal battles against the Mirror Group and News Group.
The earl’s latest comments come after he accused the King of gaslighting him following Buckingham Palace’s response to explosive claims that Charles said “we’ll forget her soon enough” after Diana’s death.
The earl has made a series of damning claims about the King in a new book, ‘Swan Song: Diana, My Sister,’ chronicling Diana’s life ahead of the 30th anniversary of her death.
The palace broke with its typical “never complain never explain” stance to question the earl’s recollection and say that “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason”.
In response, the earl said: “It is not every day you wake up to find you’ve been gaslit by the King.
“It was astonishingly provocative and below the belt because it was essentially trying to say I’d lied without the King being able to deny what I’d said.
“I also thought it was a rather poor imitation of the ‘recollections may vary’ quote, which was a much more elegant way of putting things, but in these circumstances entirely out of place.”
He also said “Diana would be cheering from the rafters at this book”.
The earl insisted he is “telling the truth” and described the King’s comments about his sister as “monstrous”.