Princess Diana’s brother Charles Spencer has revealed he had to seek mental health treatment after suffering a breakdown while writing his deeply emotional memoir.
Earl Spencer, 59, appeared on BBC One’s This Morning with Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, where he revealed he unlocked years of trauma by writing the book.
The memoir, A Very Private School, reveals horrific details of the physical and sexual abuse Spencer suffered as a child while being educated at Maidwell Hall boarding school in Northamptonshire in the 1970s.
In the book, published this week, Earl Spencer revealed in devastating detail the sexual abuse and beatings he experienced at school.
Speaking to the BBC journalist, Spencer revealed that after writing the book, he sought help at a ‘treatment centre’ last year due to the ‘trauma’ that resurfaced during the writing process, which caused a ‘breakdown’.
Speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Charles Spencer revealed he had to seek help at a ‘residential treatment centre’ after finishing his memoirs last year
“Confronting… evil is a very, well, it’s really catastrophic,” he explained, referring to the cruelty he suffered as a child.
‘I have always been fascinated by what people are capable of doing for each other.’
When asked how ‘putting pen to paper’ and describing his experiences had affected him, Spencer revealed that he was taken to ‘a very dark place’.
He explained: ‘I had endless nightmares’ and revealed he was equally traumatized by the ‘terrible things’ that had happened to his friends at school, which resurfaced when he interviewed them.
Prince Harry and Prince William’s uncle also revealed he hasn’t had an alcoholic drink ‘for weeks’ as he becomes more ‘grounded’ and spoke of undergoing EMDR therapy.
EMDR stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, which is a form of therapy that has been shown to reduce the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Earl Spencer (pictured with his sister Princess Diana) has revealed in horrific detail how he was physically and sexually abused as a child
Earl Spencer explained that he did not feel suicidal after writing the book, but began to question “what is the point” of things when he revisited such horrific traumas.
Elsewhere in the interview, he also revealed that his older sisters had been piled with laxatives as punishment from a nanny.
“Another nanny punished them by pouring laxatives into them and my parents couldn’t figure out why they were constantly sick,” he said.
The earl made it clear he did not blame his parents: ‘They did their best, as 98 per cent of parents do’, lamenting that they ‘didn’t know’.
In the book, published on March 14, Charles reveals how he was molested by a female assistant matron aged 11 at the prep school in Northamptonshire.
Charles describes her abuser as a ‘grey pedophile’ and claims she preyed on him and other young boys, grooming and abusing them in their dormitories at night. The pre-school has now reported itself to the council following Earl Spencer’s claims.
During his interview with the psychotherapist, Charles said the school ‘sew demons into the skins of souls’ of abuse victims, making them feel ‘they were responsible’ for what had happened.
The earl explained how he was only able to process the trauma when he tried a new form of therapy called the Hoffman Process – which aims to address negative patterns of behaviour.
Earl Spencer’s memoir, A Very Private School, published this week, reveals how he was abused at boarding school
He explained: ‘That crown fell for me in my early 40s when I went to do a thing called the Hoffman Process, which is really about looking at your childhood and letting go of your childhood.
“And I mentioned my years at Maidwell as a kind of sideshow actually to the therapist who was in charge of me.”
During the session, the therapist asked Charles to tell him one thing he had never confided in anyone before.
Diana’s brother continued: ‘I told him I had been sexually abused as a child and then we got into the whole subject of Maidwell.’
Later in the session, the therapist told Earl Spencer that the way he described the Maidwell headmaster made him believe he had seen him as a ‘surrogate father’.
Maidwell Hall in Northamptonshire said the allegations were difficult to read and had been referred to the local authority’s designated officer.
They said: ‘It is sobering to read about the experiences Charles Spencer and some of his fellow alumni had at the school and we are sorry that was their experience.
“It is difficult to read about practices which, unfortunately, were sometimes considered normal and acceptable at the time. In education today, almost every facet of school life has evolved significantly since the 1970s. At the heart of the changes is the protection of children and the promotion of their welfare.’