Photo credit: Getty Images
Diana's contempt for her father's second wife — Countess Raine, the daughter of best-selling romance novelist Barbara Cartland — was said to be so intense that she refused to speak to her, and went to great lengths to make sure they never met. As a result, the Princess of Wales rarely
saw her father, Lord Spencer, in his final years.
Photo credit: Getty Images
Royal insiders even revealed that young
Prince William and
Prince Harry were even forbidden to refer to Lord Spencer's second wife as "Grandma." The royal feud was waged quietly for several years — but then a butler from the Spencer household finally exposed the extent of the warring in 1988!
Photo credit: Getty Images
"When I was working for Princess Di's father and stepmother," said Det Radmonski, "I assumed she and
Prince Charles would call occasionally...The staff put me straight. They told me Diana has always disliked Raine, and that even before she married Prince Charles, she preferred to eat in the servants' quarters rather than sit at the same table as her stepmother."
Photo credit: Getty Images
"The last time Princess Di set foot in her family home," he continued, "was for a weekend several months before I arrived there. And on that occasion, the staff told me, the atmosphere was terrible." Diana also refused to invite Lord Spencer to stay at Kensington Palace, or even her country home in Gloucestershire.
Photo credit: Getty Images
Diana's father and his first wife, Frances, divorced in 1969, when Di was 8. He was given custody of their four children, and Frances later married business heir Peter Shand-Kydd. Countess Raine, a divorcee, married Lord Spencer in 1974. Di was 14 at the time, and feelings were icy even then — as all of Lord Spencer's children refused to attend the wedding.
Photo credit: Getty Images
Raine soon replaced Diana's sister Sarah as the mistress of Althorp, Lord Spencer's country home. Their other sister, Jane, showed her disfavor by refusing to speak to her stepmother for two years. The bad feelings bubbled over when Raine fired several longtime servants. Then Raine sold valuable artwork to pay the upkeep on the estate.
Photo credit: Getty Images
This triggered Diana's fears that her brother, Charles could find his inheritance dwindling. Radmonski believed that Di's father was caught in the crossfire. "I feel sorry for Lord Spencer," he said. "He's a nice, genuine man who very openly loves his daughter and grandchildren. But to see Princess Diana and the children, he has to make the 70-mile trip to London by himself."
Photo credit: Getty Images
"That sounds like Diana is being hard," added the butler, "but, in fact, she tries to be quite reasonable. Twice during my time with the Spencers, she sent the children up to Althorp to see their grandfather. Even then, Princess Diana makes sure Milady [Raine] is kept at a distance. She has told Prince William and Prince Harry to call her 'Auntie,' not 'Grandma.'"
Photo credit: Getty Images
Lord Spencer passed away from a heart attack on March 29, 1992, during a hospital stay as he battled pneumonia. Diana was in Austria at the time with Prince Charles. She had brought Prince William along to visit her father the day before they left on their trip. Countess Raine wouldn't pass away until Oct. 21, 2016, at the age of 87. She did not attend Prince William's 2011 wedding to
Kate Middleton.Photo credit: Getty Images