Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer and Family 1: Ending Aug. 2023

[Countessmeout]

Yes, that is why it could be ignored. A legal codicil could not be.

The godkids were never to get sums of money. All money and jewels were left to her sons. 1/4 of her private possessions (clothes, books, videos, photos and such) were to go to the godkids. Instead of dividing ball gowns and romance novels among kids, they gave them each a personal item. And gowns and items no one needed were put on display. You may argue tacky of Charles Spencer, but the money raised for Diana's charities one could argue Diana would agree was a good use.

Simple fact, if she wanted specific items for people she should have laid it all out in a legal codicil and not a simple letter.

You should not confuse a codicil with a letter of wishes. A codicil is intended to be legally binding. A letter of wishes merely expresses your wishes on how you would like executors to sort out your estate.
But a letter can be very useful, particularly if the executors have been given discretion under the will on how to deal with the assets.

 

[Skippyboo]

William and Harry have full control of Diana's estate now that they are both over 30. If they were so offended by the godchildren snub, they can fix it if they want to.


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[Denville]

Its nothing to do iwth them..(W and Harry) but I dont see that Sarah/Chas Spencer gave anything to charity out of Dis' estate,? As I recall if he used any of her things for his Exhibiton the money mostly went to the upkeep of his estate..
I think ti was cheap to give the kids some cheapo thing from Di's personal possessions. Even if as sarah rudely put it, "they were not paupers", the point is that the Spencers ignored di's wishes and snubbed teh godchildren.
Diana problaby didn't intend that will to be the final disposition of her property, Im sure if ti had been a "serious will", she would have left money to charity as well as to her boys. She had probalby just been advised that now she was divorced, she should make a new will...and she made a simple one.

 

[Countessmeout]

The money from the exhibit at Althorp and later on tour, her brother said was donated to a fund in her name. Its easy enough to track and charity fraud is a serious crime. If he didn't donate to charity he would have been in legal trouble

If Diana intended her godkids to get anything but trinkets she should have said so. All her money and jewels went to the boys. She didn't have houses, cars, furniture to leave. Other than gowns I doubt her godkids would want, it was all trinkets and memorabilia. I guess they could have auctioned off what gown they were given and keep the money.

Harry and Will obviously have no issue with what was done. They have had control for a year, and yet the Diana exhibit continues. So obviously they approve of the Spencers choice to display for charity. Or they could have sold it and given to the godkids some, or put in storage.

 

[Curryong]

Actually, Diana did have furniture of her own at her KP apartment. A friend of mine went to see Althorp years ago and spoke about a very pretty writing desk and other pieces in the exhibits. Also, in the link I provided in the previous post, sums of up to £32,000 all told, were mentioned as being left to her godchildren. After all, Diana did not think, as a healthy woman in her thirties, that anything was going to happen to her until she was old. Plenty of people die intestate, so at least she made a will.

So the exhibition continues? Why make the announcement Earl Spencer did just before his nephew Harry turned thirty then, that it would close? It doesn't speak to me of much closeness, to say the least, between uncle Charles and his nephews. Couldn't he have phoned, written, got his sister Sarah to convey a message?

 

[Denville]

As I recall it, Spencer set up the Exhibition soon after Di's death and when he was criticised for charging a large entry fee, I don't believe he defended himself by saying that the money was going to the Diana Pss of W memorial fund. My understanding was that most of it went ot the upkeep of Althop. If anyone knows that it did, i'd like to kniow? Because there was a lot of talk at the time that little old ladies who had been Di's big fans could not afford what he charged for entry, so people felt that he had exploited Diana's fame, and that he was not really trying to give her fans a chance to see her things. He did hold concerts etc at Althorp for her memorial fund, that's true. As for the Exhibition- I believe it was closed a while ago Curryong.
Again it was said that this was because it wasn't getting so many people coming to see it..
With regard to the Will and Letter of wishes, I think that Diana wanted the godchildren to have something valuable from her personal possessions, not a cheap souvenir, which I gather is what Sarah S handed out...
As I recall also, the Spencers DID give a sum of money, to Paul Burrell in recogniton of his closeness to Diana.. so clearly they had a fair bit of leeway in how they settled things.. and Di probably believed that they would go with her wishes over her godchildren...
She probably didn't think seriously of dying so young and just made a will that sorted things out, after her divorce, just in case of anything suddenly happening.
So she made a very basic will. The simplest thing was to make it out to her 2 boys but I'm sure if she had been older and thinking more seriously that she might not be around she would have changed things and "spread it out" more...
I would like to think she would have remembered servants and left something to charity...and perhaps left a formal bequest of things to her godchildren.
I dot think well of the Spencers at all really for their behaviour.. they made a mess of the Diana Fund, didn't really go with her wishes for the godchildren, and I think Charles S did use Di's memory...

The
If Diana intended her godkids to get anything but trinkets she should have said so.
Harry and Will obviously have no issue with what was done. They have had control for a year, and yet the Diana exhibit continues. So obviously they approve of the Spencers choice to display for charity. Or they could have sold it and given to the godkids some, or put in storage.

It’s rather late now to go giving the godchildren something, the snub has already happened and I don't think it would look good for W and H to pop up now and say “here's one of Mum's silver boxes”. It would also look like a criticism of his aunts and uncle.
And since some of her godchildren were girls I can't see why they would not want one of her dresses...
She did probably have cars, and as C says she had furniture as well.
It’s not so much the details; it is the way it was done...
I understand that Sarah drove around with the “presents” -some of which were wrapped in newspaper. If that’s true, it’s not just the giving cheap souvenir things, when Di obviously wanted to give them something special, it is really quite insulting…Its not that they wanted expensive things, as such but to just fling them a few things that seem cheap, not even bother to wrap them up or make a special visit…

 

[MARG]

Apart from the marriage stuff I really like him I don't think he's a fruit cake. I have heard a few interviews and I think he comes across as a good guy. The many marriages are a bit much but at least he got married and they all seem happy families.

well it is rather a large family but i woudln't say that three marriages is a terrible thing. His first 3 children were girls so he needed ot have an heir. Its more the fact that he seems to have been serially unfaithful to his first wife and somthing of a bully to her and his second wife said much teh same, that bothters me.

Ah yes, the high-minded, and morally outraged brother who sanctimoniously took a very ugly public swipe at Charles infidelity (overlooking Diana's) and the entire BRF over their cold-hearted treatment of his beloved sister and pledging to always be there to provide the warmth Diana gave and would ensure the continued love, support and normalcy for his nephews . . . yadda, yadda, yadda, raging at the BRF before God in the Cathedral at his sister's funeral, all the while cheating on his wife and in the process of divorcing her. His continued cheating on his second wife and third fiance, then dumping her and marrying yet another woman.

A good guy? Happy families? Rather a serial adulterer, a bully, and absent father, indeed he is a prince among men. A prince in all but name! More likely a canting hypocrite. So, in light of his sterling character, I would be interested to know for sure where he said the money was going and where it actually went.

 

[Osipi]

Excellent character synopsis there. Up until the time of Diana's death, I really didn't know much about the man but from what I do know now, I find him quite questionable. Maybe its a Spencer trait to sling stones at other while living in glass houses.

 

[Mirabel]

Ah yes, the high-minded, and morally outraged brother who sanctimoniously took a very ugly public swipe at Charles infidelity (overlooking Diana's) and the entire BRF over their cold-hearted treatment of his beloved sister and pledging to always be there to provide the warmth Diana gave and would ensure the continued love, support and normalcy for his nephews . . . yadda, yadda, yadda.

Yes, it's the blatant hypocrisy that gets me, too.

At least William and Harry didn't fall for it. I hear he's been almost entirely excluded from their lives.

 

[Duc_et_Pair]

The lady has no milligram decency in her. Period.

 

[Denville]

Excellent character synopsis there. Up until the time of Diana's death, I really didn't know much about the man but from what I do know now, I find him quite questionable. Maybe its a Spencer trait to sling stones at other while living in glass houses.

I don't think he is that bad. I don't agree with what he did, with the funeral speech but I think he was angry and hurt and probably felt guilty about Diana, so he hit out.
he's far from perfect, but he seems to me to be an intelligent man with rather a short fuse...
I don't know of his being a bad father, and from what' I've read, he was unfaithful to his first wife and I think he is probably hard to live with, but I haven't heard of his being unfaithful to his other wives...

 

[Mirabel]

I don't know of his being a bad father, and from what' I've read, he was unfaithful to his first wife and I think he is probably hard to live with, but I haven't heard of his being unfaithful to his other wives...

He was also unfaithful to his second wife, and he dumped his fiancee to marry someone else quite suddenly, so I guess he was unfaithful to her as well.

That leaves his current wife...time will tell.

 

[Osipi]

Perhaps he's a bit of a Froot Loop. When it comes down to it, he's a cereal cheater.

Either that or he gets bored in relationships easily. So far it seems like his current marriage is going well.

 

[Denville]

I haven't heard of any of that.. I think that his second wife posted someting on FB to say that he was a control freak, so I assumed thats' why she coudln't live with him. I'd say that's more of a problem. ANyway his marriages are his own business. I haven't heard of his bieng a bad father..
I think that when it comes to marriage, he tends to revert to patterns that he learned from his home life, his father and grandfather were both bullying husbands.
I think that he wasn't always a good brother to Diana but then she was difficult at times.. and I am not really a fan of hte Diana exhibition.. but I think that he's an intelligent man and has worked hard at keeping Althorp going and writing some books...

 

[MARG]

His work to maintain Althorp and his writing do not negate his hypocrisy.

 

[Denville]

His work to maintain Althorp and his writing do not negate his hypocrisy.

what Hypocrisy? HIs work to maintain Althorp and his books are his main duty, as a person. If he screws up in his private life, its really a matter for his wives and family.

 

[AdmirerUS]

Kitty Spencer admits she ENVIES homeless people because they have a sense of purpose | Daily Mail Online

While there was more to this quote, I might suggest Kitty set a goal to re-take that "Think how it will sound before you say it" class. Just a thought.

 

[muriel]

Lady Kitty Spencer sleeps rough for homeless charity

Seems like attention seeking to me!

 

[Dman]

Seems like attention seeking to me!

You do know that Kitty is an ambassador for Centrepoint right?

 

[Osipi]

Starting to read this thread and coming across the article stating Kitty had slept out in the rough brought to mind the time that William did the same thing with Centrepointe.

Yes, I agree it was attention seeking. So was it the time that William did the same thing. They both were seeking to bring attention to the plight many homeless young people face as the winter months set in. It was just recently announced at at gathering that William attended that Centrepointe is working to get hotlines set up for young people that are facing homelessness to call and both William and Kitty are doing what they can to support and promote the work Centrepointe does. Its been an ongoing thing since William's mother and Kitty's aunt championed this project.

 

[muriel]

You do know that Kitty is an ambassador for Centrepoint right?

Starting to read this thread and coming across the article stating Kitty had slept out in the rough brought to mind the time that William did the same thing with Centrepointe.

Yes, I agree it was attention seeking. So was it the time that William did the same thing. They both were seeking to bring attention to the plight many homeless young people face as the winter months set in. It was just recently announced at at gathering that William attended that Centrepointe is working to get hotlines set up for young people that are facing homelessness to call and both William and Kitty are doing what they can to support and promote the work Centrepointe does. Its been an ongoing thing since William's mother and Kitty's aunt championed this project.

My sense, albeit completely unsubstantiated, is that Kitty's ongoing involvement with Centrepoint is really a way to seek attention via her late aunt. William is different, as he has been royal Patron for sometime.

 

[Dman]

My sense, albeit completely unsubstantiated, is that Kitty's ongoing involvement with Centrepoint is really a way to seek attention via her late aunt. William is different, as he has been royal Patron for sometime.

The girl just want to make a difference. William also got involved because of his mother. The family was inspired by her and want help out the causes she supported.

 

[Mermaid1962]

Lady Kitty Spencer is a socialite, and this is what socialites with a social conscience do.

 

[Denville]

Not a lot?

 

[Dee Anna]

I like this girl.

She attended three parties in one night, supporting friends mainly and hopfully having fun along the way.

In the Royal arena, this could loosely be termed work, depending on the cause and included in the number of engagements chalked up for the monthly metrics.

Her involvement in Centrepoint? She doesn't need social recognition, she was born with it!

 

[muriel]

She doesn't need social recognition, she was born with it!

Really?

To me, she is just a C-list wannabe, trying to use her late aunt's connections.

 

[Osipi]

Actually, when you stop to think about it, her status is exactly the same as Diana's was before she married Charles. Daughter of the Earl Spencer.

I really don't know that much about Kitty Spencer to pass judgment on but thought it was commendable to try and bring attention to Centrepointe.

 

[Countessmeout]

I think people look for an reason to criticize. She is Diana's niece, she can't escape that. And her father is also a media spectacle. As his daughter she is going to be known. Unless she becomes a hermit, people will know her. She could just party and think about herself, she is a private citizen. Instead she is using her notoriety to help bring attention to much needed causes. She is in the same boat as the York girls it seems. She can't win. She is either a rich lazy debutant, or a c list celebrity cashing in on family name. I am sure the charities she supports appreciates it even if others don't.

 

[Dman]

Actually, when you stop to think about it, her status is exactly the same as Diana's was before she married Charles. Daughter of the Earl Spencer.

I really don't know that much about Kitty Spencer to pass judgment on but thought it was commendable to try and bring attention to Centrepointe.

That's right. She's Earl Spencer's daughter in a new age.

 

[muriel]

I really don't know that much about Kitty Spencer to pass judgment on but thought it was commendable to try and bring attention to Centrepointe.

Perhaps I have woken upofrom the side of the bed, but has it come to this that we need a Kitty Spencer to bring attention to charities like Centrepoint? Centrepoint has a royal patron in William, who is often seen at Centrepoint related events. Do we really need the child of a louche aristocrat and his drug riddled former wife, whose only claim to fame is a family link to the former Princess of Wales, to highlight well run and well funded charities?