Earl Charles Spencer shares bittersweet childhood photo with sister Diana

‘She looks so much like Charlotte in this photo!’

The uncle of Princes William and Harry, Count Charles Spencer, regularly shares photos and stories from his youth via Instagram. This is also the case this week, when he published a sweet photo where he poses with his sister, the future Princess Diana, in their school uniforms.

Childhood photo

Yesterday, Charles shared a photo of him and his sister Diana from 1986, taken on his first day at school. “My first day at school, in September 1968: my father took this photo of me and my sister Diana, just before he drove us to Silfield, a very nice primary school in King’s Lynn, Norfolk. The headmistress was Miss Jean Lowe, a warm and attentive lady who loved her boys and girls,” Charles captioned the photo on Instagram. “I was there until 1972, when I left for the place I call – in my memoirs – A Very Private School.”

The photo is well liked by his followers. “How beautiful is this photo of you two,” someone wrote in the comments. And another suggested Diana’s resemblance to her granddaughter, Princess Charlotte.

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A post shared by Charles Spencer (@charles.earl.spencer)

Traumas

However, behind the photo there is a less sweet story. This happy memory of his primary school was followed by his years at the Maidwell Hall boarding school. In his memoirs, Charles talks about the childhood trauma he suffered during his time at this boys’ boarding school. He was a victim of physical, verbal and sexual abuse there.

“I always felt like I had dealt with this chapter in my life and closed it,” Charles tells PEOPLE. “But talking to classmates and hearing their experiences was very triggering for me. I was deeply struck by the horror of what they had shared. And that was the hardest part.”

Charles never told his sister what happened to him. “I don’t remember us ever really discussing what we were going through. She went to a very gentle place, I think,” he says. “We got back together during the school holidays and I don’t remember us ever talking about it with her.”

Source: Nouveau.nl, People, Hello! Magazine | Image: NL Image