Raine Spencer

[tricia]

Does anybody have a pic of her wedding gown when she married the Comte de Chambrun? Thanks!

 

[Incas]

From Corbis, dates July 8, 1993.

 

[iowabelle]

I remember she also wore a hideous pink ballgown, I think to celebrate the marriage at some party.

It sure didn't last, did it?

 

[Reina]

Is she still alive?

 

[lallyvee]

I believe so.

 

[tricia]

Actually I was referring to that awful pink floral gown...I'm sorry!

 

[sara1981]

Is she still alive?

yes she still alive but im not sure what old she is!

Sara Boyce

 

[Squidgy]

Here is Widipedia's blurb on Raine ... it's interesting to see that, after all that has happened, she is still connected with Harrods department store (Mohamed Al-Fayed).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raine,_Countess_Spencer

It was an awful gown Tricia, wasn't it? But then, I don't like most of Raine's clothes. She is way too over the top for me!

 

[Scott]

Here is Widipedia's blurb on Raine ... it's interesting to see that, after all that has happened, she is still connected with Harrods department store (Mohamed Al-Fayed).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raine,_Countess_Spencer

It was an awful gown Tricia, wasn't it? But then, I don't like most of Raine's clothes. She is way too over the top for me!

She takes after her mother, the late Barbara Cartland, with her over the top clothes. Thank goodness she does not do the same with make-up

scott

 

[CATS]

Gee she wasted no time getting remarried (33 days)

 

[iowabelle]

It was odd, given that she loved Earl Spencer so much.

 

[Squidgy]

Does anybody have a pic of her wedding gown when she married the Comte de Chambrun? Thanks!

Here you are Tricia ... a feast for the eyes! (Actually, and I'm sure everyone will disagree with me, looking at it now, I don't think the dress is as bad as I remember it. On the right person, it may even look nice. But on Raine, combined with bad hair/makeup, I don't think so.)

The gown is in Marie-Antoinette style and was designed by Ungaro. It was estimated to worth several thousand dollars, but Raine managed to get it free.

Photos: Royalty Magazine, v. 12, no. 7

 

[iowabelle]

I think it made her face look too pink.

In some ways she reminds me of Wallis Simpson (maybe it's her personality, she's not extremely thin or anything). But she seems to favor severe hairstyles like the Duchess of W.

Gee she wasted no time getting remarried (33 days)

Then again, she had to find someplace to live since her loving stepchildren were chucking her belongings out in garbage bags.

 

[Squidgy]

Then again, she had to find someplace to live since her loving stepchildren were chucking her belongings out in garbage bags.

... Yes ... and none of her "loving stepchildren" attended the wedding ... they were too busy with previously planned engagements.

 

[Incas]

In some ways she reminds me of Wallis Simpson (maybe it's her personality, she's not extremely thin or anything). But she seems to favor severe hairstyles like the Duchess of W.

I think the lady forgets her age. The choice of her party dresses wouldn't look so bad on a 20-something having fun with clothes. Unfortunately, for ladies of a certain age, they simply look hedious.

 

[iowabelle]

I think the lady forgets her age. The choice of her party dresses wouldn't look so bad on a 20-something having fun with clothes. Unfortunately, for ladies of a certain age, they simply look hedious.

You're probably right. Raine wouldn't have looked too bad in the coat-dress that Camilla wore for her blessing.

And Raine should have left off the net hairpiece thing. That was AWFUL.

 

[tiaraprin]

You're probably right. Raine wouldn't have looked too bad in the coat-dress that Camilla wore for her blessing.

And Raine should have left off the net hairpiece thing. That was AWFUL.

Raine has always been over the top. Her mother was Barbara Cartland after all!!!

 

[IslandDweller]

I think Wikipedia may be making a mistake when it says Raine was Dame Barbara's only child. The latest issue of Parade Magazine has a little blurb answering a question from a reader in which it states that Cartland's unpublished manuscripts were being edited by "her son Ian McCorquodale".

It also says she sold more than a billion copies of her 726 books in 36 languages; and that she left 160 unedited manuscripts at her 400-acre estate, Camfield Place. It is these that are reportedly being edited by McCorquodale, and published by her website at a rate of one a month starting last year.

All this would indicate that her heirs are extremely rich and will be continuing to make money off of her for some time after her death. The piece says she died in 2000 at age 98, so Raine (born 1929 reportedly) may be up and kicking for quite a while yet.

 

[Mapple]

I think Wikipedia may be making a mistake when it says Raine was Dame Barbara's only child. The latest issue of Parade Magazine has a little blurb answering a question from a reader in which it states that Cartland's unpublished manuscripts were being edited by "her son Ian McCorquodale".

...

The Wiki entry on Barbara Cartland states that she and her second husband had two sons, Ian and Glen, but the entry on Raine says that she is the only child from Barbara's first marriage. Both statements are true.

 

[iowabelle]

I think Wikipedia may be making a mistake when it says Raine was Dame Barbara's only child. The latest issue of Parade Magazine has a little blurb answering a question from a reader in which it states that Cartland's unpublished manuscripts were being edited by "her son Ian McCorquodale".

Oddly enough, Barbara Cartland married into the McCorquodale family, which Sarah Spencer also married into.

 

[Lady Jean]

She wore a very lovely, elegant blue dress to the Royal Wedding in 1981. It's too bad she didn't stick to that simplicity for her wedding to Chambrun.

 

[IslandDweller]

The Wiki entry on Barbara Cartland states that she and her second husband had two sons, Ian and Glen, but the entry on Raine says that she is the only child from Barbara's first marriage. Both statements are true.

Whoops! Should have dug deeper. I guess Raine took her stepfather's name...

Oddly enough, Barbara Cartland married into the McCorquodale family, which Sarah Spencer also married into.

I didn't know it was the same family, though of course I'd caught that the name was the same. Yahooing the name of Sarah McCorquodale's husband in the past has yielded little. Must keep digging.

 

[Elspeth]

Apparently both Barbara Cartland's husbands had the same last name; according to one site I was looking at, they were cousins. Saves having to buy new monogrammed stuff, I suppose, if you can marry the same last name both times.

I assume Neil McCorquodale is related to those McCorquodales somehow, although I'm not sure how.

 

[BeatrixFan]

Re:

Are there any more pics of Raine?

I was an under-butler and she was a good friend of my old employer so we saw her quite alot. I won't say exactly what she said word for word because I'm not Paul Burrell but I will say that she wasn't 'acid' at all and was a real darling. I've got a Xmas card from her which always makes me feel a little bit 'butterflies in the stomach' - very impressive character.

And the hair is as huge in real life as in photographs!

 

[CyrilVladisla]

Are there any more pics of Raine?

I was an under-butler and she was a good friend of my old employer so we saw her quite alot. I won't say exactly what she said word for word because I'm not Paul Burrell but I will say that she wasn't 'acid' at all and was a real darling. I've got a Xmas card from her which always makes me feel a little bit 'butterflies in the stomach' - very impressive character.

And the hair is as huge in real life as in photographs!

Another picture of Raine
http://i.pinimg.com/474x/61/9a/33/619a3398b33bf57af814d638a7f1abdb--wedding-blessed-wedding-day.jpg

 

[An Ard Ri]

The headstone only went up last summer on her grave 'Countess Raine Spencer 1929-2016’, at North Sheen Cemetery, South-West London, five years after her death.
Prior to that there was a wooden cross.

https://images.app.goo.gl/Kdmnpr7sxb9oqqXp6

https://images.app.goo.gl/aYxtLE659yLDDW2o9

 

[maria-olivia]

She worked for Harrods ?

 

[CyrilVladisla]

She worked for Harrods ?

Raine was a member of the board of directors of Harrods. Occasionally she worked in the store.
http://thegentlewoman.co.uk/library/raine

 

[Denville]

Raine was a member of the board of directors of Harrods. Occasionally she worked in the store.
http://thegentlewoman.co.uk/library/raine

Did she sell clothtes?

 

[Osipi]

Did she sell clothtes?

This is what I found. "In 1996, the owner of the very classy Harrods shop, Mohamed al Fayed, appointed Raine a director of Harrods International. She loved the job, and loved dealing with the customers. Then she acted as a roving ambassador, and she spent some time at the company's airport properties too."

I believe it is this connection with Harrod's that brought on the friendship/relationship that would start in the summer of 1997 and eventually led to Diana's death.