Prince William and Prince Harry will not be receiving Princess Diana’s childhood home as an inheritance. The ancestral home, which is also Diana’s final resting place, is owned by her brother, Earl Charles Spencer. The property is expected to be passed down to Louis Spencer, Viscount Althorp, who is the next Earl Spencer and the cousin of Prince William and Prince Harry.
The Spencer family follows the tradition of primogeniture, which means that titles and properties are inherited by the eldest male. Louis Spencer has three older sisters: Lady Kitty, Lady Eliza, and Lady Amelia.
Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams explained that the property would go to the male heir, even though Kitty Spencer is the current earl’s eldest child. He emphasized that there is no legal basis for William and Harry to inherit the property.
Louis Spencer, who is an actor and leads a private life away from the public eye, has already been involved in the management of the estate, supporting his father. It is reported that Louis will be inheriting Althorp, which has been the home of the Spencer family since 1508.
The property holds significant sentimental value as Diana’s final resting place. She is buried on a small island in the estate’s Oval Lake, providing a private space for her sons, William and Harry, to visit and pay their respects.
Visitors are allowed to pay their respects at a memorial built in Diana’s honor at the estate. Harry wrote about visiting his mother’s resting place in his memoir “Spare,” where he described bringing his wife, Meghan Markle, for the first time.
The tradition of inheritance based on primogeniture has been a long-standing practice in the Spencer family. Despite the debate around gender equality, the tradition holds strong as Louis Spencer is set to inherit the estate, keeping the property within the Spencer family lineage. During an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2021, Prince Harry revealed that the inheritance he received from his late mother, Princess Diana, played a key role in his decision to move to California with Meghan in 2020.
“And without that, we would not have been able to do this,” he shared during the interview. “So touching back on what my mother would think of this, I think she saw it coming. I certainly felt her presence throughout this whole process.”
