'Where were you when she needed you?' Princess Diana's former staff attack Earl Spencer after he uses US TV interview to say he wished he could have protected her

  • Earl Spencer said he was haunted by the thought he could have saved his sister
  • He wished he could have 'protected' Diana and said her death was 'devastating'
  • He has been criticised by her staff and her chef posted online: 'Where were you?'

By Rebecca English, Royal Correspondent for the Daily Mail

Published: 17:02 EST, 9 August 2017 | Updated: 21:46 EST, 9 August 2017

Princess Diana (pictured) was killed in a car crash in Paris in August 1997 

Princess Diana (pictured) was killed in a car crash in Paris in August 1997 

Former members of royal staff who worked with Princess Diana rounded on her brother Earl Spencer yesterday after he said of her death: 'I wish I could have protected her.'

In a US TV interview, the aristocrat said that in the days after she was killed in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997, he was haunted by the thought he could have done something to save her.

Speaking at Althorp, the family's ancestral home in Northamptonshire, Charles, the 9th Earl Spencer, said he was 'furious' she had died as a result of being driven at high speed by a drunken chauffeur while being chased by paparazzi.

He admitted he asked himself: 'What could I have done? But you always think, 'God, I wish I could have protected her.' It was devastating. I always felt… intensely protective towards her.'

But his words, in an ABC documentary to be broadcast this week, provoked a furious reaction from some of those who worked with Diana, claiming that the earl was 'unsupportive' of her when she was alive.

The princess's former chef, Darren McGrady, said on Twitter: 'This makes me want to throw up! Where were you when she needed you?'

Mr McGrady, who worked for the Queen for 11 years before becoming Diana's personal chef for the last four years of her life, added: 'NO! Not going to sit her [sic] and be quiet while her little brother tries to re-write history. YOU WEREN'T THERE FOR HER!'

He was backed by the Queen's former press secretary Dickie Arbiter, who worked closely with the princess. He highlighted the chef's words and said: 'Such hypocrisy from Charles Spencer. He forgets some of us were there when he turned his back on Diana.'

Both men were referring to an episode in 1996 when a desperate Diana asked her brother if she could be given a home on the Althorp estate, Garden House, to use as a bolt-hole.

After her divorce from Prince Charles, her only home was her apartment at Kensington Palace and she was keen to find somewhere she could use at weekends.

In April that year Earl Spencer wrote to tell his sister: 'I'm sorry, but I've decided that the Garden House isn't a possible move now. There are many reasons, most of which include the police and press interference which would inevitably follow.'

In the letter, later revealed by her former butler Paul Burrell, the earl wrote: 'I know you will be disappointed but I know I am doing the right thing for my wife and children. I am just sorry I cannot help my sister!'

He also told her: 'I fear for you. I know how manipulation and deceit are parts of the illness [believed to be her eating disorders]… I pray that you are getting appropriate and sympathetic treatment for your mental problems.

Earl Spencer (pictured) has said he was haunted by the thought he could have done something to save his sister 

Earl Spencer (pictured) has said he was haunted by the thought he could have done something to save his sister 

The princess's former chef, Darren McGrady, said on Twitter: 'This makes me want to throw up! Where were you when she needed you?'

The princess's former chef, Darren McGrady, said on Twitter: 'This makes me want to throw up! Where were you when she needed you?'

'After years of neglect on both sides, our relationship is the weakest I have with any of my sisters… I long ago accepted that I was a peripheral part of your life, and that no longer saddens me.

'I will always be there for you, as a loving brother – albeit one who has, through 15 years' absence, rather lost touch.'

The earl has always made clear he offered Diana several alternative houses on the estate, none of which she accepted.

He wrote in his letter: 'In theory it would be lovely to help you out and I am sorry I can't do that… If you are really interested in renting a farmhouse, either here or in Warwickshire or Norfolk, that would be wonderful.'

Mr Arbiter described the earl's current stance as 'rank hypocrisy', saying: 'It would have made no difference to him whether she had a place on the Althorp estate.

'She didn't want to live there at Althorp, she just wanted a bolt-hole and he denied it to her and offered her something she felt just wasn't suitable.'

He added: 'He is trying to rewrite history. The tragedy is she does have a bolt-hole there now – on an island, where she is buried.' 

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