Known as a vivacious figure who married Princess Diana’s father Raine, Countess Spencer ended up becoming a trusted confidant of the late royal.
Their complicated relationship helped Countess Spencer, who died eight years ago today, land a job as a board director at Harrods International, working for the now disgraced Mohamed Al Fayed in 1996.
Diana told the tycoon at a party with Raine in early 1996: “Mohamed, this is the woman you should hire; she can organize anything.”
She was soon offered a job, even occasionally working behind the tills, and the countess worked for the luxury store until she fell ill with cancer in 2014.
Last month a A BBC documentary revealed that Al Fayed, who died aged 94 last year, has been accused of sexual assault and rape by former workers.
Harrods, which is now owned by Qatar, said they are “completely shocked” by the allegations and have “sincerely” apologized to their victims.
Countess Raine Spencer serving a customer in a Harrods store at Heathrow Airport in 1997
Raine with the now disgraced Mohamed Al Fayed attending Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997
Raine chatting with Princess Diana at an event in June 1997, just months before the Princess of Wales’s death.
When Raine started working for Harrods, The Daily Mail reported that Al Fayed said: ‘I am delighted that Raine has accepted my invitation to join the board of directors of Harrods International.
“He has extensive experience in fields that are very important to the development of my company and his track record of success is very impressive.”
His first shift in the company at the age of 67 involved working eight hours at Harrods International at Heathrow Airport.
Raine said at the time: ‘I couldn’t be happier to embark on work that is so exciting.
‘I have known Harrods all my life and am fascinated by the international aspect of the business.
“I have no doubt that Britain can benefit enormously from bringing Harrods’ quality of merchandise and service levels to a global audience.”
He left office in 2014 and died at his home in London on 21 October 2016.
Raine, previously described by her family as a “complete perfectionist”, even hosted a farewell dinner with 35 of her closest friends.
The Countess working in a Harrods store in Terminal 3 at Heathrow Airport in 1997
Raine serving a customer at Harrods Heathrow in 1997
Raine with her second husband, Earl Spencer, outside Althorp House in 1981
Before she died, she wrote two pages about her life to give to her friend, journalist Michael Cole, after she asked him to read her eulogy at her funeral.
None of her stepsons from her second marriage to the 8th Earl Spencer, Princess Diana’s father, attended the funeral.
The countess was born on September 9, 1929, daughter of the romantic novelist Barbara Cartland and the printer’s heir Alexander McCorquodale.
Raine had four children with her first husband, Gerald Legge, the 9th Earl of Dartmouth and the couple were together for 25 years.
She began an affair with Earl Spencer in 1973, when the aristocrat was her colleague on an architectural heritage committee.
Three years later, Raine and her husband divorced and she married Earl Spencer, whose wife Frances had left him for wallpaper magnate Peter Shand Kydd in 1969.
However, Raine’s presence was not welcomed by her new stepchildren: Lady Diana, then 14, and her younger siblings, Charles, Sarah and Jane.
Raine Spencer attended a charity dinner and fashion show at the Natural History Museum in 1999.
The Countess attended a Malaysian craft launch ceremony at Harrods in 2009.
Raine’s mother was the romance novelist Barbara Cartland, pictured above.
Raine as a child, photographed in the arms of her mother Barbara Cartland
Missing their mother, Frances Shand Kydd, after a bitter divorce and custody battle, the children began saying “Raine, Raine, go away.”
When the earl died in 1992, his children forced Raine to move out of the family home.
She would marry French aristocrat Count Jean-François de Chambrun within a year, but their union lasted less than two years.
Later in her life, she became closer to Princess Diana in particular and the pair communicated regularly.
Although Raine lived a glamorous life, she did not have a headstone until five years after her death.
In 2019, three years after his death, the only thing on his grave was a wooden cross.
She was buried in North Sheen Cemetery, London, and a visitor at the time said: “There is only a small weather-worn wooden cross.”
When asked about the delay, her children said arranging a headstone was taking longer than they expected.
Raine’s youngest son Henry said: “My sister Charlotte is commissioning a special headstone for my mother, as she did for my father when he died. This is taking a lot longer than we expected.’
Her daughter Charlotte di Carcaci added: ‘Raine was always a complete perfectionist and for that reason we have taken the greatest care to find the best way to remember her.
Raine photographed in 1957, she would have been around 28 years old at the time.
Raine (left) photographed with her mother, Barbara Cartland, and her two brothers Ian (right) and Glen (center) in 1940.
“We have been informed that the soil where she was buried will take a year to fully settle and we are in the process of ordering the appropriate stone so that we can all be proud of a life well lived and well remembered by all who knew and loved her.” his.’
A headstone, engraved with a gold crown, was erected in 2021, which his daughter described as “simple and elegant”.
It says: ‘Countess Raine Spencer 1929-2016’ and does not mention her four children or grandchildren.
Charlotte said: “He was elegant and unforgettable, but also a person who loved family.”
“We are very pleased to have her headstone in its place: simple, elegant and a monument to the love and affection they had for her.”