Charles Spencer rewrote Diana eulogy overnight for 1997 funeral

Charles Spencer, the younger brother of Diana, Princess of Wales, said in a recent interview that he originally drafted a conventional eulogy for his sister but rewrote it overnight and delivered the version now remembered from her September 1997 funeral. Spencer described flying overnight from Cape Town, South Africa, to London after Diana's death on August 31, 1997, and being confronted with the task of finding someone to speak at the service before calling his mother and learning he had been chosen.

Spencer said he began by sketching a "very traditional" tribute but abandoned that approach, deciding his role was not merely to describe Diana but to "speak for her." He told the interviewer he believed he had been left, in spirit, as a guardian of Diana's sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, then 15 and 12, and that sense of duty shaped the tone of the remarks he ultimately wrote in about an hour and a half. He also said he removed an original reference to Rupert Murdoch, calling the mention unnecessary.

At Westminster Abbey on September 6, 1997, Spencer delivered a eulogy that praised Diana's compassion and public service, pledged his family's protection for her sons and...