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Princess Diana’s Stepmother, Raine Spencer, Dies at 87

Raine Spencer
Raine Spencer on December 16, 2007 in Berkshire, England. Jon Furniss/WireImage

Raine Spencer, Princess Diana’s stepmother, has died at the age of 87. Her son, William Legge, the Earl of Dartmouth, confirmed her death to The Telegraph.

“Raine, Countess Spencer, died peacefully at her home in London on 21st October, 2016, after a short illness,” the family said in a statement.

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Raine married Diana’s father, Edward John Spencer, in 1976. The Earl of Spencer was her second of three marriages.

Following his death in 1992, Raine married Count Jean-Francois de Chambrun in 1993, but divorced three years later in 1996. She was married to the Earl of Dartmouth, with whom she had four children, from 1948 to 1976.

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In her early life, Raine served on the Westminster City Council as a Conservative and worked in local government for 17 years.

Following the death of her second husband, she began a career at famed department store Harrods. At the time, Harrods was owned by Mohamed Al-Fayed, father of Dodi Fayed, who died in a 1997 Paris car crash with Princess Diana. Raine worked as a director of Harrods International and Harrods Estates until her mid-80s.

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It’s been reported that Diana and her stepmother had a strained relationship in the earlier years of their relationship, but they were able to reconcile before Diana’s death.

“Diana was a lovely person,” Raine told The Gentlewoman last year. “She had incredibly heavy pressures put upon her, but we ended up huge friends. She used to come and sit on my sofa and tell me her troubles. I’m very happy about that.”

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