Why Earl Spencer will never give up on Prince Harry

When the Duke of Sussex flew back to Britain for the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games, the narrative was more or less set before he arrived.

He would be alone, here briefly for a church service, with his wife and children far away and the Royal family busy on public engagements elsewhere.

And so it proved, initially. With a smile and a wave, he walked up the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral as a lone figure, his staff and security making their way in slightly away from the cameras.

Inside, though, it was a different story: the Spencer family rode to the very public rescue.

His uncle Earl Spencer and aunt Lady Jane Fellowes were waiting with hugs, three of Prince Harry’s Spencer cousins behind them.

“Thanks for coming,” Prince Harry told the Earl, looking sincere as he pulled back from the maternal family embrace. He blew a kiss and waved at others.

The Invictus veterans and competitors always give the Prince a warm welcome, but the presence of some family members was a visible boost to his spirits.

It was enough to inspire The Sun front page to declare: “Diana’s Family Backs Harry.”

“Now that Harry has left the Royal family, the Spencers have laid claim to him again,” said Ingrid Seward, editor of Majesty magazine.

The invitation, and its acceptance, brought the rare spotlight onto the side of the Prince’s family he has valued over the years, a quiet but constant part of his adult life.

He has mentioned them only occasionally, sparing them from the truth-telling pages of his memoir save for in the acknowledgements where he offered “stand out thanks to my mother’s siblings for their love, support, time and perspective”.

His paternal family – so well-covered throughout the book, his Netflix series, and his interviews – were not thanked.

The King, it is claimed, was invited to the Invictus Games service. The Prince and Princess of Wales were sent invitations, but were not able to attend.

The King was at a garden party a few miles away, his first since his diagnosis with cancer. Prince William conducted an investiture in Windsor on the same day and the Princess, as is well known, is out of the public eye during a course of preventative chemotherapy.

Inside the cathedral, those watching Prince Harry noted his relatively newfound confidence in delivering his reading, and the animation with which he turned around in his seat to chat to the Spencers.

They have rarely appeared in public with him over the years, but have remained present – not least in their roles as the closest remaining link to his late mother.

His aunts in particular have been there in the shadows, should one care to look closely.

In a 2017 television interview to mark her engagement, Meghan Markle said: “I think in being able to meet his aunts … I’m able to, in some way, know a part of her [Diana] through them and, of course, through him. And it’s incredibly special.”

Lady Jane, the middle of the three sisters, gave a reading at Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding, and is said to have been one of the first people introduced to a newborn Prince Archie.

Both Lady Jane and Lady Sarah were included in the formal photographs from Prince Archie’s christening.

At the Invictus Games service, Prince Harry was seen deep in conversation with both the Earl and Lady Jane, beaming at them as they waited for the service to start.

The venue, St Paul’s, was evocative in itself, where Lady Diana Spencer’s siblings watched in 1981 as she married Prince Charles and became the new Princess of Wales.

Sixteen years later, with the 12-year-old Prince Harry watching on, Earl Spencer rocked the establishment with a eulogy in which he called his sister the “most hunted person of the modern age”.

Addressing her “beloved boys”, he said then: “I pledge that we, your blood family, will do all we can to continue the imaginative and loving way in which you were steering these two exceptional young men, so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition, but can sing openly as you planned.”

He has since passed occasional comment on the Royal family. In 2002, in an interview with The Guardian, he is quoted as remarking: “What I can say is that they may not be encouraged to stay in touch with their mother’s side of the family.”

In 2017, on Radio 4, he claimed he had been “lied to” about Princes William and Harry “wanting” to walk behind their mother’s coffin.

This time, his appearance was low-key. Before the service, it was rumoured that all three of Diana’s siblings would attend, but Lady Sarah McCorquodale was not seen. Her son George, 39, was there along with Lady Lara and Louis Spencer, Viscount Althorp.

The Earl’s only public comment was made afterwards on social media site X. “I hope my father would have approved that I wore his Royal Scots Greys regimental cufflinks at ⁦the moving celebration of 10 years of ⁦@WeAreInvictus⁩ at @StPaulsLondon⁩ yesterday,” he said.

Ingrid Seward, author of recent royal biography My Mother and I, notes that the late Diana, Princess of Wales was “proud of her Spencer heritage as is Viscount Althorp and as is Harry”.

“He is close to what he calls his ‘red aunts’,” she says, a reference to the family hair colour.

The Duke of Sussex, as he left St Paul’s, had a spring in his step. Launching into a walkabout, he fell into the tried-and-tested pattern of handshakes and snippets of conversation: “Very nice to meet you. How are you? Have you come on holiday?”

When one member of the public told him they were in London for a wedding, he turned to point at St Paul’s and joked: “Not in here?”

Shown the two cameras held by another, he exclaimed: “You’ve got two cameras? That doesn’t even make sense!”

He and the Duchess will fly to Nigeria for a three-day trip, also based around military veterans, arriving on Friday.

The image, as Harry leaves Britain once again, is still of a divided family.

The Royal family, as ever, will remain silent. The Spencers, by turning up, have said it all.