KEY POINTS
- Princess Diana's brother won a case against The Times' claim that he denied her a home after the breakdown of her marriage
- Charles Spencer tweeted about his victory and The Times' correction to the May story
- He said this was the third time that a newspaper has been forced by the law to apologize for "lying" about him
Princess Diana's brother, Charles Spencer, scored a legal victory in his fight to uphold his sister's legacy.
The 57-year-old earl revealed via Twitter Thursday that he won a legal victory over a false claim in the British newspaper The Times alleging that he denied Princess Diana a home following the breakdown of her marriage to Prince Charles.
The report, which has since been removed, was published under the headline, "It's too simple to blame everything on Bashir." It also claimed that Spencer failed to protect his sister from BBC "Panorama" reporter Martin Bashir and the "deceitful methods" he used to secure his controversial interview with her in 1995.
The Times report also suggested that because he failed to protect her, Spencer held part of the blame for her death in 1997.
"Today, for the third time, a ‘paper has been forced by the Law to apologize for lying about me 'depriving Diana of a home.' The guilty journalist this time? Janice Turner - aka @VictoriaPeckham of @thetimes Yellow journalism," the earl tweeted about the correction to the May 22 story.
He also shared a screenshot of an article in the newspaper's "Corrections and Clarifications" section admitting that the report "wrongly stated that Earl Spencer had refused to assist Diana, Princess of Wales, with the offer of a house after the breakdown of her marriage to Prince Charles."
"We are happy to report that having considered his sister's safety, and in line with police advice, the Earl offered the Princess of Wales a number of properties including Wormleighton Manor, the Spencer family's original ancestral home," The Times continued.
"It was wrong to suggest he had refused to help his sister or had failed to protect her from Martin Bashir and concealed evidence of the latter's deception. We did not intend to suggest that the Earl was to blame for his sister's death. We apologise to the Earl and have agreed to pay his costs as well as make a payment to him which he will donate to charity."
Some Twitter users admitted that they never doubted the report and apologized to Spencer for "believing in the lies."
"until I read this tweet I wasn’t aware that it was a false accusation, it has been repeated often enough for so long that I had no doubt about its credibility. I apologize for believing it was a true statement of fact, and well done on setting the record straight," one netizen commented.
"Like so. many of the public, we too believed what had been written, and never saw any apology. Truth matters, and there have been enough lies told about the Princess and her family already. Apologies sir, for believing the lies," another wrote.
Despite his victory, the earl said the legal battle is still ongoing. Responding to a Twitter user who suggested The Times should pay "a substantial amount" in damages, Spencer wrote, "They're haggling, of course."
"No real shame," he added.
Prince Charles and Princess Diana are pictured attending a centenary service for the Royal College Of Music on Feb. 28, 1982 at Westminster Abbey, London. Photo: Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
