When Princess Diana Said 'I Hate You' to Stepmom Raine Spencer in Unheard Tapes: "You Ruined the House"
Princess Diana, famous for her love and warmth towards people, despised her stepmother, Raine "Acid" Spencer. In jaw-dropping details obtained from tapes by ABC, the late Princess of Wales is heard expressing her true feelings for the woman who married her father, John Spencer, in 1976.
The never-heard-before tapes highlighted Diana's anger towards her stepmom, whom she and her siblings labeled "Acid Raine," per The Mirror. The extracts belong to a 1990 recording set to be aired in a new documentary, encapsulating the "strained" relationship between the two women. The then Prince Charles also didn't speak to Spencer, claimed Diana.
In a rage, the deceased princess confessed, "I was so angry. I said I hate you so much," accusing her stepmother, "If you only knew how much we all hated you for what you've done. You ruined the house." She further blamed Spencer for using her father for her own financial benefit and destroying their family.
"You spent daddy's money. I have said everything I possibly could." Spencer defended herself from Diana's claims, "Raine said you have no idea how much pain your mother put your father through." The late princess retaliated, "I said pain, Raine? It's one word you don't even know how to relate to. In my job, I see people suffer like you never see. [Do] you call that pain?"
When the princess's father married "Acid Raine," the children, including the then 15-year-old Diana, were uninformed. It was a low-key affair in Westminstor's Caxton Hall. The trouble began from there, and the two started on the wrong foot. However, the "wicked" stepmother took on the role after Diana's birth mother, Frances Shand Kydd, abandoned the family.
Their relationship turned sour as the years went by, but according to a new documentary, Princess Diana's hatred got so extreme that she pushed her stepmother down the stairs, per Daily Mail. The shocking details were revealed by the late Countess' personal assistant, Sue Howe, accusing Diana of pushing Spencer in a fit of rage in 1989.
Howe recalled, "She was badly bruised and dreadfully upset. It was not justified at all; it was a cruel, heartless thing to do, and I think it was Diana's perception of how Raine was treating Mrs Shand Kidd [Diana's biological mother]." She continued, "I think Diana was very stressed. This sounds really wrong, but she wasn't [the] center of attention on this occasion."
Unfortunately, her father, John, slipped into a coma after suffering a stroke in 1978, and Diana's "wicked" stepmother refrained the Spencer siblings from visiting their ailing father. But, after he died, the princess moved past her hatred for her father's wife and instead thanked her for taking care of him.
Royal biographer Ingrid Seward affirmed the incident and clarified, "She had a furious row with Raine because Diana was so upset that her own mother had been ignored in the ancestral home. She pushed her, and Raine fell down the stairs."
