Why Prince William and Prince Harry Will Never Inherit Princess Diana’s Childhood Home—Where She Is Also Buried

Though they don’t own the property, they can visit their mother there “whenever they want.”

The Gist

• The Spencer family estate of Althorp in Northamptonshire has been in the family since 1508; Princess Diana—who was Lady Diana Spencer before her marriage—grew up there and is buried there.
• Though her sons Prince William and Prince Harry can visit their mother’s gravesite “whenever they want,” they will never inherit the estate.
• Why? Because it will pass from Diana’s younger brother, Charles Spencer, to his own son, Louis, Viscount Althorp, in keeping with tradition.

From the age of 14 years old until she left home as an adult, Princess Diana—then Lady Diana Spencer—lived at Althorp, the Spencer family ancestral home in Northamptonshire.

Following her death on August 31, 1997 after a Paris car accident, Althorp is also where Diana is buried, on a private island only accessible by boat. Her younger brother, Earl Charles Spencer, who now lives at Althorp, wrote in his book Althorp: The Story of an English House that, when it comes to his sister’s burial site, “its remoteness is entirely intentional.”

Though Althorp is meaningful to the late Princess of Wales—and serves as her final resting place—her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, will never inherit the property. While the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Sussex are able to visit their mother’s gravesite anytime they’d like, they will never own the property because Althorp—as the Spencer family home—will pass down to the next Earl Spencer after the current Earl Spencer, Charles, dies someday. After Charles’s death, it will belong to his son, Louis, Viscount Althorp. The same can be said about the famous Spencer tiara that Diana wore on her July 29, 1981 wedding day to Prince Charles—that, too, belongs to the Spencer family, and it is currently in the possession of Charles Spencer and will one day belong to his son Louis.

Althorp has been in the Spencer family since 1508, according to People, and spans 13,000 acres. While Charles told The Mail on Sunday in 2015 that he would be “totally relaxed” about his eldest child, Lady Kitty Spencer, inheriting the property, he said, “If I chose Kitty, it would be against all the tradition that goes with Althorp. It’s just the way it is. I also get the strengths of it having worked to date.”

Charles inherited Althorp from his own father, Earl Johnnie Spencer. Charles has three older sisters—Sarah, Jane, and Diana—but it was he who inherited the family home; like his father, Louis also has three older sisters, Kitty, as well as twins Lady Amelia Spencer and Lady Eliza Spencer, but it will be the son who takes over someday. For her part, Kitty—the eldest child—told Tatler in 2015, “I’m totally pro-gender equality. But I’m quite happy that that’s [going to be] my brother’s responsibility. I just think it’s the correct way.”

“I like that the house stays within the same family, with the same surname,” Kitty added. “I wouldn’t want it any other way for the Spencers. And I just know my brother is going to do an impeccable job.”

After Diana died, Charles decided to bury his sister on Oval Island in the middle of Oval Lake, a remote location chosen because “There was such a whipped up feeling of emotion everywhere that I was very worried about where we could safely bury her,” Spencer told the BBC.

In his book, Charles wrote that Oval Lake serves as “a buffer against the interventions of the insane and ghoulish, the thick mud presenting a further line of defense.” Charles visits his sister’s gravesite “pretty much every day,” he previously told Good Morning Britain.

After Diana’s death—28 years ago this month—Charles said it was important to him that his nephews William and Harry could visit their mother in peace and privacy: “I think it’s very important for them to be there with her,” he told People. “It is, luckily, very tranquil here, and they can come and go as they wish whenever they want. And that’s very lovely for me to know that.”

After Diana’s divorce from Prince Charles was finalized in 1996, “Diana had a lovely dream that she could live a normal life afterward,” her brother said. “But the one house that she set her heart on in the park [at Althorp] was three bedrooms and 100 yards from the road. And it was just not possible. The police knew it wouldn’t work. I offered every other property that was suitable on the estate. I really felt it was the right decision for her. But she probably couldn’t see it.”

Just 368 days after her divorce from the Prince of Wales was finalized on August 28, 1996, Diana was gone. Ultimately, she did get her wish of ending up at Althorp—though certainly in a different manner than she could have ever imagined. She was laid to rest within Althorp’s Pleasure Gardens, and “She’s in a happy and secure place,” her brother told People.