Charles Spencer recently reflected on the emotional journey of delivering the eulogy at his sister Princess Diana’s funeral, an experience that remains etched in his memory.

The 9th Earl Spencer, now 61, recounted this poignant moment during an episode of Gyles Brandreth’s podcast, “Rosebud.” He shared that his initial draft for the eulogy, prepared for the September 1997 funeral, was markedly different from what he ultimately delivered.

Spencer, who was residing in South Africa at the time, described his return to England under a cloud of grief. “I flew back from Cape Town overnight, and a very kind stewardess assisted me because I was quite distraught,” he remembered.

In his search for someone to deliver the eulogy, Spencer combed through his address book during the flight. “I wanted to find someone to make the speech on her behalf,” he explained. “I reached the end of the alphabet without success.”

Upon landing at Heathrow Airport, he called his mother, expressing his concern about finding a speaker. “I told her, ‘I can’t think of anyone to give the eulogy, and I fear it might have to be me.’ Her response was firm: ‘It is going to be you. Your sisters and I have already decided.'” he recounted.

He said he “realized” that his job to deliver the eulogy wasn’t to speak about Diana but to  “speak for” her.

“And I knew I’d been left at that stage – it had no legal standing – but I knew she’d left me as guardian of her sons,” he added, referring to his nephews Prince William and Prince Harry, who were 15 and 12, respectively, at the time of the accident.

“Obviously, the other parent being alive, that meant nothing, but it meant something to me,” Spencer went on. “That sort of duty, I think. And then I wrote it in an hour and a half and, yeah, that was it, really.”

Spencer also admitted he took “one bit out” of his eulogy about Rupert Murdoch because it was “rather unnecessary.”

Spencer gave the eulogy for his late sister at Westminster Abbey on September 6, 1997.

“Diana was the very essence of compassion, of duty, of style, of beauty,” Spencer said at the time. “All over the world she was a symbol of selfless humanity. All over the world, a standard bearer for the rights of the truly downtrodden, a very British girl who transcended nationality. Someone with a natural nobility who was classless and who proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic.”

“She would want us today to pledge ourselves to protecting her beloved boys, William and Harry, from a similar fate and I do this here Diana on your behalf,” he continued. “We will not allow them to suffer the anguish that used regularly to drive you to tearful despair.”

Spencer also pledged that William and Harry would be raised as “two exceptional young men” whose souls “can sing openly as you planned.”