From ‘wicked stepmother’ to unlikely ally: inside Diana’s relationship with Raine Spencer

To the press and the British public , she was ‘Acid Raine’, the wicked stepmother of Diana, fairytale Princess of Wales. But now, on the 28th anniversary of Diana’s death, will the late Countess Spencer finally be revealed as the hero of the story?

Variously titled the Countess of Dartmouth, Countess Spencer and La Comtesse de Chambrun throughout her life, the ‘narrative’ surrounding her was, writes Tina Gaudoin, ‘so speedily crafted that, by the mid-’80s, it was hard to see Raine as anyone other than the impossibly demanding wife of [ Earl Spencer ] and wicked stepmother of the future queen.’

In Tatler ’s October issue, Gaudoin reflects on Raine and Diana’s complicated relationship in an extract from her new book, Three Times a Countess: The Extraordinary Life and Times of Raine