According to Spencer, Diana’s strong emotional reactions may have been misunderstood by people around her. He said that while some people described her as paranoid or speculated about other mental health conditions, he saw things differently.
“So people said, ‘Oh, she was paranoid.’ No, she wasn’t. She was sensitive to rejection, and she felt very let down by people,” Spencer told PEOPLE.
He believes Diana felt these experiences particularly deeply, partly because of what he describes as ADHD symptoms and her personality.
“She felt these things very deeply,” he said, adding that this was especially true because she gave “so much of herself” to her public life.
The comments appear in Spencer’s new memoir, which was released on September 22, 2026. The book is his personal account of growing up alongside Diana and of her life, including the difficult years surrounding her royal marriage and the events following her death in 1997.
