Princess Diana’s Brother Charles Spencer Visited Her Resting Place on Christmas Eve: ‘A Quiet Moment’

Diana is buried on a private, tranquil island at her family’s ancestral home, Althorp

Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, attends the UK premiere of “Dancing At The Vatican” hosted by HDdennmore at BAFTA on Feb. 5, 2020 in London, England and Diana, Princess of Wales, at a private viewing and reception at Christies for the dresses auction in aid of the Aids Crisis Trust and The Royal Marsden Hospital Cancer Fund. Photo: David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty; Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty

Charles Spencer shared recently that he visits his sister Princess Diana’s grave at Althorp “pretty much every day” — and Christmas Eve was no exception.

Spencer, 60, shared a photo of “The Temple” at Althorp House — the Spencer family’s ancestral home — on his Instagram Story, writing, “My favorite bench — good place to sit on Christmas Eve during a quiet moment.”

“The Temple” was turned into a memorial to Diana — born Lady Diana Spencer — following her death on Aug. 31, 1997 at just 36 years old. The former Princess of Wales is buried on Oval Island in the middle of Oval Lake at Althorp, a remote location chosen because “There was such a whipped up feeling of emotion everywhere that I was very worried about where we could safely bury her,” Spencer told the BBC.

An aerial view of the burial site of Diana, Princess of Wales on Sept. 9, 2006. The Round Oval lake is located in the Althorp Estate, home to Spencer family.David Goddard/Getty

The 9th Earl Spencer wrote in his book Althorp: The Story of an English House that “Its remoteness is entirely intentional.”

Oval Lake is “a buffer against the interventions of the insane and ghoulish, the thick mud presenting a further line of defense,” Spencer wrote in the book, per Tatler. Diana’s final resting place is off limits to the public — and only accessible by boat.

In October, Spencer told Good Morning Britain that he visits her gravesite “pretty much every day,” adding in the interview that “Last week, one of her closest childhood friends came and was on the island. And that was so nice.”

“I’m sure pretty much everyone watching this program has had trauma in their family at some point,” he added. “And, like everyone else, you sort of get used to it without it ever going away.”

Lady Diana Spencer (Diana Princess of Wales) with her Brother Charles, Lord Althorp (Earl Spencer) in 1968.PA Images via Getty

After Diana’s death as a result of injuries sustained in a Paris car accident, Spencer eulogized his older sister at her funeral on Sept. 6, 1997 in London. A quote from Spencer’s eulogy that day at Westminster Abbey is printed on one of two tablets at “The Temple,” where Spencer’s beloved bench is: “We give thanks for the life of a woman I am so proud to be able to call my sister, the unique, the complex, the extraordinary & irreplaceable Diana, whose beauty both internal & external will never extinguish from our minds.”

The other tablet features a quote from the late Princess of Wales herself, which reads, “Nothing brings me more happiness than trying to help the most vulnerable people in society. It is a goal and an essential part of my life, a kind of destiny, whoever is in distress can call on me. I will come running wherever they are.”

It was important to Spencer that his nephews and Diana’s sons Prince William and Prince Harry be able to visit their mother in privacy, he said.

“I think it’s very important for them to be there with her,” Spencer told PEOPLE. “It is, luckily, very tranquil here, and they can come and go as they wish whenever they want. And that’s very lovely for me to know that.”

In the book Althorp: The Story of an English House — published in 1998, the year after Diana’s untimely death — Spencer wrote, “We all agreed that, with its beauty and tranquility, this was the place for Diana to be.”

William has brought Kate Middleton to visit Diana’s grave, and Harry too brought Meghan Markle to visit the final resting place of the mother-in-law she’d unfortunately never get the chance to know on earth.

“One of the great tragedies is that Diana would have been the best grandmother ever,” Spencer previously told PEOPLE.

Of William and Harry, Spencer added, “I love seeing the sort of uncomplicated way that they deal with people and put them at their ease. It’s so easy to connect the dots between them and their mother.”

Spencer spoke out about walking with William and Harry (as well as Prince Charles and Prince Philip) behind her coffin at her funeral over 27 years ago, calling it “bizarre and cruel” to make the boys, just 15 and 12, take part in the walk. He told BBC Radio 4 that he tried to get the palace to drop the idea but was “lied to and told that they [William and Harry] wanted to do it, which of course they didn’t.”

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Prince William, the 9th Earl Charles Spencer, Prince Harry, and Prince Charles, walk behind the funeral cortege, at the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales on Sept. 6, 1997 at Westminster Abbey.David Levenson/Getty

“It was the most horrifying half an hour of my life,” he said. “It was just ghastly. And it was far worse than having to deliver a speech at the end of it. It was the worst part of the day by a considerable margin, walking behind, well, my sister’s body, with two boys who were obviously massively grieving their mother. And it was this sort of bizarre circumstance where we told you had to look straight ahead. But the feeling, the sort of crashing tidal wave of grief coming at you as you went down this sort of tunnel of deep emotion, it was really harrowing actually, and I still have nightmares about it now.”

After her death, “She’s left me as guardian,” Spencer said of Diana. During his eulogy, he told PEOPLE, “I was looking directly at William and Harry across her coffin. In the final paragraph I had run out of energy, almost out of oxygen. I had to punch each syllable out of the base of my stomach.”

A monument dedicated to Princess Diana at Althorp, the Spencer family ancestral home. John McLellan/AP

After Diana divorced Charles in 1996, “Diana had a lovely dream that she could live a normal life afterward,” Spencer said. “But the one house that she set her heart on in the park [at Althorp] was three bedrooms and 100 yards from the road. And it was just not possible. The police knew it wouldn’t work. I offered every other property that was suitable on the estate. I really felt it was the right decision for her. But she probably couldn’t see it.”

Sadly, just one year later, Diana ended up at Althorp, laid to rest within the property’s Pleasure Gardens. “She’s in a happy and secure place,” Spencer told PEOPLE.