Princess Diana’s Brother Shares Never-Before-Seen Photo of His Sister

• On what would have been her 44th wedding anniversary, Princess Diana’s brother Earl Charles Spencer shared a previously unseen photo of himself and his older sister on July 29.
• Long before Diana married Prince Charles at St. Paul’s Cathedral on this day in 1981, the photo of the two siblings shows them swimming at their home, Park House, on the Sandringham Estate, where the Spencer siblings spent their earlier years.
• Diana was a keen swimmer throughout her life, and Spencer wrote alongside the image, “We were never out of that pool.”

On the same day that would have been his older sister Princess Diana’s 44th wedding anniversary, Earl Charles Spencer shared a never-before-seen photo of himself and the future Princess of Wales when both were children.

On July 29, Spencer posted a photo of himself and Diana at Park House on the Sandringham Estate, where the Spencer family lived when Diana was young. (The Spencer family moved to Althorp in 1975, when Diana was 14 years old; Spencer continues to live there up to the present day, and it is where Diana is buried after her death on August 31, 1997 at just 36 years old.)

Charles Spencer and Diana Spencer.

Charles Spencer/Instagram

“A long ago summer, by the swimming pool at our childhood home, Park House, Sandringham—Diana and I both proudly showing off our swimming badges (sewn onto our swimming costumes),” he wrote alongside the photo. “These were awarded (sparingly) by Mrs. Lansdowne, a fairly terrifying but very gifted swimming instructor, who came to stay each year.”

“We were never out of that pool,” he concluded, adding a handful of hashtags for good measure, including #learningtoswim, #brotherandsister, #childhoodmemories, #proudachievement, and #blackandwhitephotography.

Charles Spencer and Diana Spencer in 1968.

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The shot was taken in the 1960s, according to one of Spencer’s hashtags, years before Diana married Prince Charles on this day in 1981. Though Spencer doesn’t specifically say anything about the day his sister became a member of the royal family, he has an affinity for sharing photos of her on poignant days. Earlier this month, on July 1—what would have been Diana’s 64th birthday—he shared a photo of himself and Diana riding a camel together at her sixth birthday party in 1967.

“My mother left home when we were young—I was 2 or 3, and Diana would have been 5 or 6—so we were very much in it together,” Spencer previously told Hello! of his bond with his sister.

Princess Diana on June 17, 1997.

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Princess Diana on July 1, 1997, what would be her final birthday.

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Earlier this year, he said, “After Diana died, I would think ‘I must ring her and tell her something,’ because we shared the same sense of humor, and you just realize, of course, that’s not going to happen.”

“And then, actually, as your family naturally folds in on itself, you lose your parents,” Spencer added. “I have two sisters I adore [Lady Sarah McCorquodale and Lady Jane Fellowes]. They’re quite a lot older than me, so I don’t have—I don’t share my childhood with anyone anymore. And that’s a great loss that you can never really put right.”