In late August, Prince Harry shocked the British media by turning up at Robert Fellowes’ funeral in Norfolk. Fellowes was married to Lady Jane Spencer, Harry’s aunt. Sources had previously indicated that Harry would not fly in for the funeral, and no one learned about Harry’s arrival until the day after the funeral. Harry reportedly stayed at Althorp, the Spencer family’s estate, with his uncle Charles, the Earl Spencer. I assumed that Harry used the visit to also spend some time at his mother’s grave – Diana is buried at Althorp, and Harry was last there in 2022, when he took Meghan. Now the Daily Beast has confirmation of that, only they’re presenting it in the grossest way possible.
Prince Harry visited his mother Princess Diana’s grave when he was staying at her ancestral home in the U.K. last week, The Daily Beast has been told by a friend and neighbor of Diana’s brother, the 9th Earl, Charles Spencer.
The gesture will cement a perception that Harry wishes to reinforce his identity as Diana’s son, rather than continuing to be defined by his exhausting feud with his brother, Prince William.
The grave is on a small island in a lake on the magnificent Althorp Estate in Northamptonshire. It was located in this isolated and hard to reach location to deter ghouls and sightseers, and has always been reached via a small rowing boat. In May, Earl Spencer revealed he had been given new handcrafted wooden boat by a friend to reach the island.
The Spencer friend told The Daily Beast: “Harry visited the grave when he was in Althorp. It’s a very special place for all the family but especially Harry. It was a significant part of his motivation for staying there.” They were not willing to divulge further details of Harry’s visit. Harry’s office declined to comment to The Daily Beast. However, sources in Harry’s camp did tell US magazine People that he had stayed at Althorp.
The funeral of Fellowes was previously described to The Daily Beast as a “a huge gathering of the Spencer clan.” Intriguingly, it seems that the service might have been delayed to enable Harry to attend. Fellowes’ died on 29 July and the funeral took place on August 28. Harry is required to give 28 days notice to U.K. police in order to receive police protection when visiting the U.K.
CB and I talked about the issue of police protection in this week’s Gossip with Celebitchy podcast – my gut tells me that Harry did NOT give 28-days notice to the Windsors or the Met Police for his visit. It feels like the cops or the Windsors would have leaked his plans if he gave them any notice. I think this was some kind of maneuver by Harry, to experiment with how it would go if he went to the UK with just his private security and stayed at Althorp rather than a hotel. I’ll just say that the reaction from the Windsors after Harry’s visit kind of showed that they had no idea that he was in the country.
As for “The gesture will cement a perception that Harry wishes to reinforce his identity as Diana’s son, rather than continuing to be defined by his exhausting feud with his brother” – Harry has always made regular visits to Althorp to visit his mother’s grave, and he’s always nurtured his relationships with the Spencers. He is his mother’s son and he’s more of a Spencer than a Windsor, and everyone knows that. William is the one who’s mad that he can’t claim to be “Diana’s son” while simultaneously lying about his mother and calling her paranoid.
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- Service of Thanksgiving for Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee. Featuring: Prince Harry Where: London, England, United Kingdom When: 03 Jun 2022 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages/Cover Images **ONLY AVAILABLE FOR NORTH AMERICA**
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Was there really a source for this or are they just assuming what anybody would? He was there why would he not visit her grave?
I started following Charles Spencer after he showed up for Harry at the IG 10 year service. Charles posted this soon after “Althorp is open to day visitors from 1 July till 29 August this year, and a new exhibit is the stunning canoe given to me by @marckoska for my 60th birthday in May.”
It was a beautiful wooden canoe. So it is common knowledge that Charles has a new boat that could be rowed out to the island. The fact that they wouldn’t reveal any other info is suspect to the Daily Beast just making up this story with no real source.
I mean of course he visited her grave. I’m sure he visits it any time he may be at Althorp, and this time was very close to the anniversary of her death.
The line about “cementing himself as Diana’s son” or whatever is weird. He is Diana’s son – he can visit her grave without any kind of ulterior motive or any PR angle.
A son visiting his mother’s grave when he’s in the country for a family funeral isn’t news unless you are in Britain. What a sick twist they put on a very private moment, I don’t even know what to say anymore.
It’s just the Windsors being mad that the Spencers treat Harry decently. They can’t accept it so they once again use Diana’s name as some sick ploy.
I agree, what bizarre wording. Harry is Diana’s son, no need for cement. We all remember that sad little boy walking behind her casket, because you are a country of royal ghouls.
Cement the perception that he wishes to be seen as Diana’s son? Perception? He IS Diana’s son. Visiting the graves of loved ones isn’t a ‘gesture’ to public perception.
I visit, clean up and plant new flowers at my paternal grandparents graves and my childless aunt and uncles grave (right next to them) because I loved them. Not to reinforce some perception that I am their granddaughter/niece because I *am* their granddaughter/niece. Perception doesn’t apply.
This. He is her son. No perceptions need to be reinforced🙄
It’s a ‘one two punch’ from the BRF’s perspective: they don’t want the public remembering Diana either so Harry inviting his maternal side to that IG anniversary was ‘bad enough’, if that continues that’s an irritant to William and Camilla, W because he pretty much forfeited his maternal gravitas after he called his mother paranoid and Camilla because, well, you know…
Is it a coincidence some dodgy folk set fire to some sort of outbuilding on the Althorp estate on the weekend?
Baldimort is in his feelings so I can’t imagine it could be a coincidence, rarely is the universe so lazy.
Wow, did Tom Sykes just bop William on the nose? Calling his feud with Harry “exhausting”? Interesting since Sykes is William’s chief stenographer and outlet for Baldemort’s rage briefings. Maybe William will get the message that he’s becoming boring and repetitive with his tantruming over Harry. But he probably won’t.
One sided feuds tend to be exhausting. If Sykes is indeed exasperated he needs to be more forthright about it
Sykes is privy to regular updates from “William’s friend.” Which he dutifully stenographs. I’m sure it’s exhausting to hear the same old thing every week but Sykes profits from it so whatever.
Well if he stayed at Althorp then he probably did visit his mother’s grave. Good for him!! What are the lazies doing? Maybe they should worry about them and leave Harry alone.
If Tom Sykes’s prose were a face, you’d want to punch it.
So, W didn’t visit his mother’s grave?
LOL, good catch!
Visiting the grave of a deceased parent does not change anything about one’s own identity. It’s about paying your respects, love, loss, mourning (grief has no “best before” date), and healing. Calling it anything else is just gross and self-serving.
My father died violently and suddenly more than 30 years ago. I visited his grave yesterday with 3 roses to honour him, my brother, and myself. This visit had nothing to do with identity, it was about love, respect, and missing the most important person in my life – my daddy.
My sister is visiting from out of town and is planning to visit our mother’s grave tomorrow. After reading the article I now realize the only reason she could possibly be doing this is to one up me. Good to know.
sueinorleans, LOL– well, you can stop her in her tracks by going with her!!!! Geeeez, there are several people in the bm who need to get lives.
Yeah there’s a reason why the press always know when he’s going to the UK. It’s because he used to give the 28 days notice which gets leaked to the press. I’m with Kaiser. He didn’t give notice this time and that’s why the press and the Palace didn’t know that he was in the UK. The Daily Beast seems to have forgotten how much Harry gets attacked for even mentioning his mother. He has never sought to distance himself from Diana and has always been close with Spencer’s.
“A friend and neighbor.” Anyone can say that. What’s their name? Seriously, this is no confirmation. Harry was at the estate. Whether or not he stayed there, it’s not some scoop that he would also have visited his mother’s grave, which is on the estate. Why isn’t there a story about the other brother visiting his mother’s grave, if this is so important? Their deranged obsession with Harry is just so beyond the pale.
I thought Harry attended the memorial, with the funeral having been held earlier with a very small group of family and friends?
I also have the impression that what Harry attended was a memorial service, and that there was a private family funeral earlier. There’s also the idea floating around that Harry actually spoke at the memorial. It’s hard to believe that KP or BP knew this because it was one of those situations where they find out after the fact. As a normal thing, it would make perfect sense for Harry to visit his mother’s grave and to stay with his uncle. The service was close to Diana’s anniversary, and is grandmother’s now that I think of it. Didn’t she pass away early September?
@Mayp I thought the same.I am a little confused about this. TDB refers in this article to the funeral but other articles in other outlets reported about a memorial service which does not include necessarily the funeral. I am not familiar with Anglican customs but as a Catholic we have a memorial service around one month after the death and funeral to pay respect, support grieving family members and share memories. I have been living in England and Ireland and funerals are normally arranged within days.
I do not believe that Harry notified RAVEC for security.This is clearly a private event and it was made very clear and gleefully reported at previous occasions where Harry asked for security and was declined that Harry will not get official security for private events and occasions therefore I believe that Harry was not bothered to ask for security this time around.
Sometimes a visit to a grave is just a visit to a grave. Do these lunatics not know this?
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I don’t think they have any clue he actually stayed there and just assuming he did. Why would that be divulged? Of course he’d visit his mother’s grave if he was in the same area. Also there was a fire on the Althorp property this weekend. Vandalism. Odd coincidence.
You’ve got to love their MO.
Take a known fact, make some assumptions, present those assumptions in a way that suits your narrative.
These people are not ‘journalists’ and have no idea what Harry did while he was there because he caught them completely unawares (no way he gave 28 days notice).
Can someone explain to me what Harry has to go through in the way of customs etc. to be able to be in Britain? I grew up in Britain and even had a British passport for a while and I still had to go through customs and show my passport and explain where I had been and for how long.
I can understand why Harry doesn’t want to give 28 days notice etc. as the structure built around that leaks like a sieve, but what does happen? If he comes through some sort of customs check, I am amazed that somebody doesn’t get on the phone to the press right away and blab that they’ve just seen Harry.
Teagirl, I suspect customs’ employees have not been compromised, so they don’t call the bm immediately.
This is kind of a duh conclusion. Harry flew to the UK for his uncle’s funeral and since his visit coincided closely with the anniversary of his mom’s death, anyone could draw the conclusion he visited his mom’s grave. Why would this “neighbor” even bother confirming it. Every time I see a Harry leak, I just assume it’s because of William.