Coached by her mother to focus on her appearance rather than academics, Princess Diana‘s stepmother started adult life as debutante of the year at just 18.
On September 9, 1929 – 95 years ago today – Raine Spencer was born to romantic novelist Barbara Cartland and printing heir Alexander McCorquodale.
Her mother – who published more than 700 books in her lifetime – had several lovers during the marriage and admitted there were some questions over who Raine’s father really was.
Raine’s parents divorced when she was a small child and Barbara went on to marry her ex-husband’s first cousin, Hugh McCorquodale, and have two more children.
The youngster was discouraged from pursuing her intellect by her mother, who would tell her when she came home from school with news of her latest academic achievement: ‘Oh, do tidy your hair, darling. No man wants a clever woman’.
Raine, who died aged 87 in 2016, would go on to marry three times, but it was as the wife of her second husband – the 8th Earl Spencer – that she cemented her status in the national consciousness.
She was portrayed as Diana’s ‘wicked’ stepmother and as ‘Acid Raine’ by her critics – but she actually became a confidante of the Princess in later life.
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Raine Spencer, who was born 95 years ago today on September 9, 1929, chatting with her step daughter Princess Diana at a function held by Christie’s to promote Diana’s auction of her dresses, June 1997
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Raine was born to romantic novelist Barbara Cartland (pictured) and Alexander McCorquodale
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Raine with her mother at the christening of her younger brother, Ian, in November 1937
Raine’s first marriage was to Gerald Legge, the 9th Earl of Dartmouth.
The couple were together for 25 years and had four children – William, Rupert, Charlotte and Henry.
At the age of 23 – not long after she had welcomed her first child, Raine’s strong interest in politics saw her become the youngest member of Westminster City Council.
She began an affair with Earl Spencer in 1973, when the aristocrat was a colleague of hers 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 tycoon 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.
Missing their mother, Frances Shand Kydd, after a bitter divorce and custody battle, the children turned to saying ‘Raine, Raine go away’.
Much to their distaste, Raine set out to renovate Althorp House, leading to claims that she sold off treasures to fund the works.
When Earl Spencer had a massive stroke and ended up in London’s Royal Brompton Hospital, Raine resorted to placing a Walkman on his head and playing him an aria from his favourite opera.
Over many months, Raine nursed him slowly back to health, although it was claimed that she had kept Diana and her siblings away from the hospital, insisting she should be the only one to take care of him while he was in a coma.
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Barbara Cartland pictured with nine-year-old Raine and her son Ian
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Raine mixed with royal circles from a young age and is pictured greeting Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Mother in 1956
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Raine was encouraged by her mother to focus on her appearance rather than academics
Despite his recovery, it would take Diana years to thank her step mother.
Diana went as far to claim that she had pushed Raine down the stairs because she and her father refused to say ‘hello’ to her mother at her brother’s wedding to Victoria Lockwood in 1989.
Three years later, after the death of their father, the Spencer children forced Raine to leave the family home.
There were even reports that Diana had filled binbags with Raine’s clothes and that her brother kicked them down the stairs.
She would go on to marry French aristocrat Count Jean-François de Chambrun within a year, but their union lasted less than two years.
Although this failed romance was mocked by the Spencer children, Diana unexpectedly handed Raine an olive branch after her divorce from Prince Charles in 1996.
Speaking in 2017 documentary Diana’s Wicked Stepmother, the Princess’s former butler Paul Burrell said: ‘Diana was fully aware of what she was doing, she knew that this was a U-turn day.
‘She knew the Spencer family would not be very happy but she couldn’t care less because she thought it was time Raine came back.’
Diana was said to have started crying and thanked Raine for the love she had shown her father, before the two women hugged.
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Raine married Earl Spencer after divorcing her first husband and is pictured in front of Althorp House
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After the Earl’s death she married Count Jean-François de Chambrun a year later
It was from then that Raine would go on to communicate with her step daughter regularly, but it was only after Diana’s death that the extent of their relationship was revealed.
In 2007 she appeared at the inquest into her step daughter’s death and said: ‘She always said I had no hidden agenda,’ Raine told the court.
‘So many people, because she was so popular and so world-famous, wanted something out of her. It was a very draining life.’
Right up until close to the end of her life, Raine worked as a director at Harrods after being given the opportunity by owner Mohamed Al-Fayed – the father of Diana’s lover Dodi, who died with the Princess in Paris in 1997.
She passed away on October 21, 2016 after battling cancer.
