Charles Spencer Says Princess Diana Contemplated Suicide During Royal Marriage

Content Warning: This article discusses suicide, suicidal thoughts and eating disorders. Please take care while reading.

Charles Spencer’s first serialisation of Swan Song: Diana, My Sister does not describe a fairytale marriage that slowly went wrong. He says Diana was already trying to get out before the wedding happened. According to Spencer, after Prince Andrew’s 21st birthday party at Windsor Castle, Diana went to their father and said she could not marry Charles because she believed he did not love her. Their father allegedly told her it was too late to pull out of such an enormous commitment.

Then there is the “chubby” comment. Spencer writes that shortly after the engagement, Charles squeezed Diana around the waist and remarked that she was “a bit chubby.” This part is not simply Spencer remembering something decades later. Diana herself described the same incident in recordings made for Andrew Morton, saying the comment helped trigger her bulimia. She said her waist went from 29 inches when she was first measured for her wedding dress to 23½ inches by the time she married Charles.

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That is important because Diana later explicitly described bulimia as a symptom of what was happening in her marriage. The image of the radiant young bride walking into St Paul’s Cathedral looks very different when you know she had already tried to stop the wedding and was rapidly losing weight while struggling with an eating disorder.  

Spencer also makes a particularly interesting claim about Diana’s medical care. He says royal officials told Diana’s longtime family doctor, Mike Bloomer, to stop treating her because royal doctors would take over her care. According to Spencer, Bloomer objected because he had known Diana for years, but the decision stood. Spencer says royal physician John Batten then took over her care.

Spencer believes that was a serious mistake. Whether another doctor would have produced a different outcome is impossible to know, but the allegation itself is significant: at a time when Diana was already struggling with a serious eating disorder, Spencer says the institution removed the doctor who already knew her and replaced him with a royal physician.

It is a sad fact that, in her later years, Diana drove herself more than once to Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in England, while contemplating ending it all. Her love for her sons stopped her from going further.

Charles Spencer, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, Part One, serialised in the Daily Mail

And according to Spencer, Diana’s distress became much worse. He says that in later years she drove herself to Beachy Head more than once while contemplating ending her life, stopping because of her love for Prince William and Prince Harry. That specific Beachy Head account is new and rests on Spencer’s testimony, but Diana’s suicidal distress is not a new revelation. Diana previously described suicidal behaviour in her own recorded testimony and spoke publicly about the bulimia and profound unhappiness she experienced during the marriage.

It Is Difficult Not to Think About Meghan

And this is where Spencer’s account starts sounding uncomfortably familiar. Decades later, Meghan Sussex told Oprah Winfrey that she reached a point during her time as a working royal when she no longer wanted to be alive. She said she went to senior people within the institution and told them she needed to go somewhere for help, only to be told that she could not because it “wouldn’t be good for the institution.” She later approached royal HR and says she was told they could not help because she was not a paid employee.

Diana and Meghan’s circumstances were not identical. Spencer says the royal system took control of Diana’s medical care, while Meghan says she asked the institution for permission to go somewhere for professional help and was told she could not.

But the common thread is difficult to ignore. Two women, decades apart, describe reaching serious mental-health crises while living inside the royal system. In both accounts, the institution appears somewhere between the woman and the care she believed she needed. That should probably concern people far more than whether either woman followed royal protocol perfectly.

If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, help is available. In Ireland and the UK, Samaritans can be reached free, 24/7, on 116 123. In the United States and Canada, call or text 988. If there is an immediate danger, contact your local emergency services.