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Princess Diana's brother Charles Spencer responds to her portrayal on 'The Crown'

"I feel it is my duty to stand up for Diana when I can," he said.
/ Source: TODAY

The brother of the late Princess Diana is speaking out about her portrayal in Netflix’s drama “The Crown.”

Earl Charles Spencer, 56, revealed on “Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh,” set to air Sunday, Nov. 22, that he feels uneasy about the fourth season of the series, which follows a fictionalized version of Prince Charles and Princess Diana's marriage.

Charlkes Spencer
"Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh," airs Sunday, Nov. 22, 2020, on ITV."Love Your Weekend with Alan Tit

“‘The Crown’ asked if they could film at Althorp and I said obviously not,” he explained, referring to the family’s ancestral home in Northamptonshire, England. “The worry for me is that people see a program like that and they forget that it is fiction. They assume, especially foreigners, I find Americans tell me they have watched ‘The Crown’ as if they have taken a history lesson. Well, they haven’t.”

Spencer continued, explaining, “There is a lot of conjecture and a lot of invention, isn’t there? You can hang it on fact but the bits in between are not fact."

“I feel it is my duty to stand up for her when I can,” he said of his late sister. “She left me for instance as guardian of her sons… so I feel there was a trust passed on. And we grew up together, you know if you grow up with somebody they are still that person, it doesn’t matter what happens to them later. So yeah, I feel very passionately that I have a role to honor her memory.”

Spencer recently demanded an apology from the BBC in addition to an independent inquiry into how Martin Bashir secured the infamous 1995 interview with Princess Diana.

The Duke And Duchess Of Cambridge Attend The ICAP Charity Day
Earl Charles Spencer on Dec. 9, 2015 in London, England.Max Mumby/Indigo / Getty Images

The interview was brought to light again 25 years later after the new TV documentary,"The Diana Interview: Revenge of a Princess," debuted, alleging that Bashir used dishonest tactics to win her trust. The documentary claims that the reporter had a graphic designer create fake bank statements which he then allegedly used to convince Spencer that royal employees were being paid to spy on his sister.

At the time, the interview was viewed by 20 million people as Princess Diana shared intimate details about her unhappy marriage to Prince Charles.

Princess Diana
Diana, Princess of Wales wears a pink Versace suit during an official visit to Argentina on Nov. 24, 1995 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.Anwar Hussein / Getty Images

"The BBC is taking this very seriously and we want to get to the truth," Tim Davie, the BBC's director-general said. "We are in the process of commissioning a robust and independent investigation."

In a statement released by Kensington Palace, Prince William stated that he "tentatively welcomed the investigation."

“The independent investigation is a step in the right direction," the statement said. "It should help establish the truth behind the actions that led to the Panorama interview and subsequent decisions taken by those in the BBC at the time."