Earl Spencer has said the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s treatment at the hands of the media has “echoes” of what happened to his sister Diana, Princess of Wales.
He described press coverage of Prince Harry and Meghan as a “cancerous influence in their life” and said it would be “beholden on people to learn from Diana’s example”.
The Sussexes, who recently returned to the UK from California six years after stepping back from royal duties, have been repeatedly critical of the media.
It comes after the BBC reported on Friday how Earl Spencer says he was “telling the truth” when he claimed King Charles said people would forget Diana “soon enough” in a phone call in the days after her death.
Speaking at his Althorp estate, Earl Spencer was asked if he believed Diana would “identify” with the scrutiny the Duke and Duchess of Sussex face.
“If you look at an article in a tabloid about Diana or the couple that you were mentioning, Harry and Meghan, you know, they can be really, really unpleasant,” he replied.
“And I think it would be really beholden on people to learn from Diana’s example.
“I’m not here to speak for Harry and Meghan, but for anyone who’s being destroyed in this way daily, it must be such a cancerous influence in their life.”
He said he saw Diana’s “tears of despair” when describing the impact of media coverage on her, adding she was “very, very sensitive to criticism”.
Earl Spencer said his sister – who married the then-Prince Charles in 1981 – was “really brought low by all that criticism”, describing it as a “pity” to see “echoes of that now” in the treatment of his nephew Prince Harry and wife Meghan.
He also said he thought there was a media perception that he was “on Harry’s side” but insisted: “I’m on my deceased sister’s sons’ side, both of them and if either of them wanted anything, then I’d be equally there for them.”
Princess Diana was subject to huge press interest right up until her death in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997.
In the eulogy he delivered at her funeral, Earl Spencer accused the media of being on a “permanent quest…to bring her down” and said newspapers had been threatened by her “genuine goodness”.
His comments about the Sussexes come just weeks after the pair returned to the UK.
They have long been critical of their treatment by the British press as well as the support they received from the Royal Family prior to their decision to leave the UK.
Speaking in the couple’s 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Prince Harry accused the tabloid media of having created a “toxic environment” of “control and fear”.
Meghan, meanwhile, said in the couple’s 2022 Netflix series that “no matter how hard I tried, no matter how good I was, no matter what I did, they [the media] were still going to find a way to destroy me”.
In July this year, Prince Harry and six others including Liz Hurley and Sir Elton John lost a privacy case against the publisher of the Daily Mail, and may face a legal bill of up to £34.5m.
In separate, earlier legal battles, the Duke of Sussex beat the Mirror Group in court, and the News Group out of court, forcing a settlement, damages, payout and apology.
