‘My husband is in love with his valet’: What Diana told her brother about King Charles - The Indian Express

The latest book by Princess Diana’s brother, Charles Spencer, has potentially opened Pandora’s box by making startling claims related to her taking a divorce from the future King Charles, as Diana had allegedly discovered a love affair between Charles and his valet.

In the book titled ‘Swan Song: Diana, My Sister,’ the 9th Earl of Spencer made the allegations in a couple of sentences and then focused more on the alleged tense conversations he had with the then Prince of Wales after the death of Diana in 1997.

Describing the moment when Diana told him that she would seek a divorce from the future king, Spencer wrote that the talks with his sister took place over lunch at a posh London restaurant.

“I was silent for a moment. I had known things were bad, but not this bad,” Spencer wrote, adding that when he expressed his concern that people in Britain would turn hostile towards her as people had bought “into the fairytale” of her marriage to the future King Charles, Diana responded, saying, “But my husband is in love with his valet.”

When Charles married and divorced Diana, Michael Fawcett was his valet. He had joined the royal household as a footman to Queen Elizabeth in 1981. After working through the years, he made his way up and went on to become Charles’ valet and then head of The Prince’s Foundation, which is a nonprofit organisation that funds his favorite charitable causes, the Chicago Tribune reported.

However, Spencer didn’t disclose the name of the valet in his book, but according to journalist Tom Skyes, a “toxic” rumour went around the royal circle in the 2000s which reportedly claimed that Charles had a relationship with someone who worked for him.

Charles once remarked about the valet, saying, “I can manage without just about anyone, except for Michael Fawcett.” But UK police had investigated the alleged misconduct in the royal household and found the allegations involving Fawcett unsubstantiated. A spokesperson for Charles also rejected the allegations and called them “totally ludicrous and, indeed, risible.”

Notably, Princess Diana is also known to have briefly dated Egyptian film producer Dodi Fayed. The couple reportedly dated for a few months before they died in a car crash in Paris in August 1997.

Fayed was also a divorcee and had previously married model Suzanne Gregard in 1986, news outlet People reported. It added that Diana and Fayed first met each other at a polo match in 1986, where the Egyptian film producer was playing against Diana’s then husband Charles.

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