Princess Diana’s brother has revealed that their childhood nanny would ‘crack our heads together’ whenever the two had been naughty, as he opens up more about his childhood.
Charles Spencer has claimed in an interview with Laura Kuenssberg that the violence would not just be ‘a tap on the wrist’ but a ‘cracking crunch’ that ‘really hurt’.
The Earl also exposed in devastating detail the sexual assaults and horrific beatings he suffered at Maidwell Hall boarding school in the 1970s, published in his memoir this week.
Although he remained firm in his defence of his parents, he did highlight that this showed the ‘disconnect’ between parents and children in these privileged families.
‘It was just normal. You leave it to the nanny to deal with this,’ he said.
Charles Spencer has claimed that his and Diana’s childhood nanny would ‘crack our heads together’ whenever the two had been naughty
Earl Spencer with Princess Diana. He added that the violence would not just be ‘a tap on the wrist’ but a ‘cracking crunch’ that ‘really hurt’
Excerpts from Charles Spencer’s new memoir revealed he had been sexual assaulted at boarding school
In the interview due to air today he also revealed that his older sisters had been piled with laxatives as a punishment from a different nanny.
‘A different nanny was punishing them by ladling laxatives down them, and my parents couldn’t work out why they were constantly ill,’ he said.
The Earl made it clear that he did not blame his parents: ‘They did their best, like 98 per cent of parents do’, and lamented that they ‘did not know.’
In his memoir, ‘A Very Private Book’ Charles detailed how he attended Maidwell Hall between the ages of eight and 13 in the 1970s.
In the book, which was published on 14 March, Charles reveals how he was molested by a female assistant matron at the age of 11 at the Northamptonshire prep school.
Describing his abuser as a ‘voracious paedophile’, Charles claims she preyed on him and other young boys, grooming and then abusing them in their dormitory beds at night. The prep school has now reported itself to the council following Earl Spencer’s claims.
During his interview with the psychotherapist, Charles said the school ‘sewed demons into the linings of the souls’ of the abuse victims, which made them feel like ‘they were responsible’ for what had happened.
The Earl explained how he was only able to process the trauma when he tried a new form of therapy called the Hoffman process – which aims to resolve negative behavioural patterns.
The Earl also exposed in devastating detail the sexual assaults and horrific beatings he suffered at Maidwell Hall boarding school in the 1970s, published in his memoir this week
Earl Spencer with Diana and their mother. In the interview due to air today he also revealed that his older sisters had been piled with laxatives as a punishment from a different nanny
The Earl made it clear that he did not blame his parents: ‘They did their best, like 98 per cent of parents do’, and lamented that they ‘did not know’
He explained: ‘The penny dropped for me in my early 40s when I went to do a thing called the Hoffman process, which is really looking at your childhood and letting go of your childhood.
‘And I mentioned my years at Maidwell as a sort of sideshow actually, to the therapist who was in charge of me.’
During the session, the therapist asked Charles to tell him one thing he’d never confided in anyone before.
Diana’s brother continued: ‘I told him I’d been sexually abused as a child and then we got into the whole subject of Maidwell.’
Later on in the session, the therapist told Earl Spencer that the way he described the Maidwell headmaster made him believe that he had seen him as a ‘surrogate father’.
Maidwell Hall in Northamptonshire said the allegations were difficult to read about and a referral had been made to the Local Authority Designated Officer.
They said: ‘It is sobering to read about the experiences Charles Spencer and some of his fellow alumni had at the school, and we are sorry that was their experience.
‘It is difficult to read about practices which were, sadly, sometimes believed to be normal and acceptable at that time. Within education today, almost every facet of school life has evolved significantly since the 1970s. At the heart of the changes is the safeguarding of children, and promotion of their welfare.’