Princess Diana left a lasting impression on many, including her brother, Charles Spencer, who recently shared a fond memory of his late sister.
Spencer, 59, gave fans a rare look at his childhood with Diana, who died in 1997 at the age of 36, when he posted a childhood photo.
“My mother, Diana and I, in c. 1967. I would have been 3, and Diana 5 or 6,” Spencer captioned the black and white throwback snap via Instagram on Friday, March 1. “I love how happy each of us looks.”
Spencer, whose official title is the 9th Earl Spencer, had a big smile on his face in the picture while sitting on a swing. Diana had an equally big grin as she stood beside her younger brother. Spencer wore a collar shirt, shorts and sandals with socks while his sister donned a white T-shirt, high-waisted shorts and flip flops.
Their late mother, Frances Shand Kydd, was also dressed casually in a T-shirt, shorts and lace-up shoes.
Spencer shared that when the picture was taken it was the “stage of my life” when his mother nicknamed him “Buzz” based on his personality. “She saw me as having the endless energy of a rather happy — and busy — bee,” he fondly remembered.
Diana and Spencer are two of five children shared by the late John Spencer, 8th Earl of Spencer, and Kydd. The Spencer family also includes sisters Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes and brother John Spencer, who died hours after his birth in 1960.
John was awarded sole custody of his four children in 1969 when he divorced Kydd. John passed away in 1992 at the age of 68 following a heart attack. Kydd died in 2004 at the age of 68 after battling cancer and Parkinson’s disease.
While their family came from nobility, Diana’s older sisters have remained out of the limelight for the majority of their lives. However, Sarah briefly dated King Charles III in the 1970s and was credited as introducing the royal to Diana.
“I introduced them,” Sarah told The Guardian in 1981. “I’m Cupid.”
Diana and Charles, 75, tied the knot in 1981 and welcomed sons Prince William and Prince Harry in 1982 and 1984, respectively. They finalized their divorce in 1996 after separating in 1992.
Sarah, meanwhile, married Neil McCorquodale in 1980 and they share three children.
The second eldest Spencer daughter, Jane, also has a connection to the royal family. She married the late Queen Elizabeth II’s then-assistant private secretary, Robert Fellowes, in 1978. The couple have three children.
Charles, for his part, is the most public of the Spencer siblings outside of his late sister Diana. He is a historian and author. Charles is the father of seven, welcoming four children with his first wife, Victoria Lockwood, two kids with his second spouse, Caroline Freud, and one child with his current wife, Karen Gordon.
In July 2021, Diana’s three siblings reunited with William, 41, and Harry, 39, to honor the princess on what would’ve been her 60th birthday. The group gathered at Kensington Palace to unveil a statue in Diana’s memory.
