Diana’s stepmother died eight years ago today: How Raine Spencer’s relationship with the Princess led to her working for the now-disgraced Harrods tycoon Mohamed Al Fayed in her final years

Known as a vivacious figure who married Princess Diana‘s father, Raine, Countess Spencer ended up becoming a trusted confidante to the late royal.

Their complicated relationship helped Countess Spencer, who died eight years ago today, secure a job as a board director for Harrods International, working for the now-disgraced Mohamed Al Fayed in 1996. 

Diana said to the tycoon at a party with Raine in early 1996, ‘Mohamed, this is the woman you should employ – she can organise anything.’

She was was soon offered a job, even occasionally working behind the tills, and the countess worked for the luxury store until she became ill with cancer in 2014.

Last month 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 ‘utterly appalled’ by the allegations and have ‘sincerely’ apologised to his victims. 

Countess Raine Spencer serving a customer at a Harrods store in 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 died

When Raine started working for Harrods, The Daily Mail reported how Al Fayed said: ‘I am delighted Raine has accepted my invitation to join the board of Harrods International.

‘She has a wealth of experience in fields which are very important to the development of my company and her record of success is very impressive.’

Her first shift with the company at 67 years old consisted of working eight hours at Harrods International in Heathrow Airport.

Raine said at the time: ‘I could not be more pleased to be embarking upon a job which is so exciting. 

‘I have known Harrods throughout my life and I am fascinated by the international aspect of the business.

‘I have no doubt that Britain can benefit enormously by bringing the quality of Harrods’ merchandise and levels of service to a worldwide audience.’ 

She stepped down from the role in 2014, and died at her home in London on October 21, 2016.

Previously described as a ‘complete perfectionist’ by her family, Raine even arranged a farewell dinner party with 35 of her closest friends.

The countess working at a Harrods store in Heathrow Airport Terminal 3 in 1997

Raine serving a customer at Heathrow’s Harrods store in 1997

Raine with her second husband, Earl Spencer, standing outside of Althorp House in 1981

Before she died, she wrote two pages on her life to give to her friend, journalist Michael Cole, after she asked him to read her eulogy at her funeral. 

None of her stepchildren from her second marriage to 8th Earl Spencer – Princess Diana’s father – attended the funeral service.

The countess was born on September 9, 1929 to romantic novelist Barbara Cartland and printing 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 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. 

Raine Spencer attending a charity dinner and fashion show at the Natural History Museum in 1999

The countess attending a launch ceremony for Malaysian craft at Harrods in 2009

Raine’s mother was romantic novelist Barbara Cartland, pictured above 

Raine as an infant pictured being held by her mother Barbara Cartland 

Missing their mother, Frances Shand Kydd, after a bitter divorce and custody battle, the children turned to saying ‘Raine, Raine go away’.

When the Earl died in 1992, his children forced Raine to move out of the family home. 

She would go on to marry French aristocrat Count Jean-François de Chambrun within a year, but their union lasted less than two years.

Later in life, she became closer to Princess Diana in particular and the pair would communicate regularly.

Though Raine lived a glamorous life, she did not have a headstone until five years after her death. 

In 2019, three years after her death, a wooden cross was all that stood on her grave.

She was buried in North Sheen Cemetery, London and a visitor at the time said: ‘There is just a small, weather-beaten wooden cross.’

When asked about the delay, her children said organising a headstone was taking longer than they expected.

Raine’s youngest son, Henry, said: ‘My sister Charlotte is dealing with commissioning a special gravestone for my mother — as she did for my father when he died. This is taking much longer than we anticipated.’

Her daughter Charlotte di Carcaci added: ‘Raine was always a complete perfectionist and for that reason we have been taking the greatest care to find the best way to remember her. 

Raine pictured in 1957, she would have been around 28 years old at the time

Raine (left) pictured with her mother, Barbara Cartland, and two brothers Ian (right) and Glen (middle) in 1940

‘We were advised that it takes a year for the earth where she was actually buried to fully settle and we are in the process of commissioning the right stone to make us all proud of a life well lived and well remembered by all who knew and loved her.’ 

In 2021 a headstone was erected, engraved with a gold coronet, it was described as ‘simple and elegant’ by her daughter. 

It reads, ‘Countess Raine Spencer 1929-2016’ and has no mention of her four children or grandchildren. 

Charlotte said: ‘She was elegant and unforgettable, but also very much a person who loved family.

‘We are so pleased to have her gravestone in place: simple, elegant and a memorial to the love and affection in which she was so widely held.’