In a moment that sent the crowds roaring with applause, Earl Spencer took to the pulpit at his sister's funeral to deliver a controversial speech that would go down in history.
Charles Spencer, 59, wore the Royal Scots Greys regimental cufflinks. READ MORE: Princess Diana 's brother Earl Spencer paid a sweet tribute to his father by wearing his cufflinks to Prince Harry 's Invictus Games launch yesterday.
John Spencer, who died in 1992, was the father of Princess Diana and Charles as well as her sisters Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Baroness Jane Fellowes. A celebrated war general, he won the hearts of the nation when he walked Princess Diana down the aisle. Just three years earlier the Earl had suffered a stroke that left him unsteady on his feet.
Although neither King Charles nor Prince William attended Prince Harry's Invictus event in St Paul's Cathedral on Wednesday due to other commitments, the Duke wasn't short of supportive family members in the crowd. The Duke was warmly greeted by the Dean of St Paul's, the Very Reverend Andrew Tremlett, before being escorted to his seat under the cathedral's great dome.
The closeness between Prince Harry and his uncle Charles was obvious as they warmly embraced inside the Cathedral while the Duke beamed The Spencer family has remained close to, and supportive of, Prince Harry, in the years since Diana's death. Charles Spencer and Lady Sarah McCorquodale with their nephew at a Service to remember Princess Diana in 2007
It was an inflammatory speech perhaps further fuelled by the fact Princess Diana had named Earl Spencer the guardian of William and Harry in her will. Earl Spencer has previously claimed he was 'lied to' about William and Harry wanting to walk behind Princess Diana's coffin at her funeral procession - which he says they did not
Describing the moment as the 'most horrifying half hour of my life', he revealed he still has nightmares about the 'harrowing' experience.Speaking on Radio 4's Today Programme, he slammed the decision for the boys to follow the coffin as a 'very bizarre and cruel thing'. Addressing his funeral speech, he added: 'I don't feel I said many pointed things. I believe that every word I said was true and it was important for me to be honest.
At the time, a spokesperson for St James's Palace declined to comment on what was a 'private family matter'. Over the last few months, Earl Spencer has undertaken several interviews in light of the release of his memoir, A Very Private School, in which he detailed horrific experiences of abuse he suffered while attending boarding school in Northamptonshire.
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