Princess Diana's Brother: Questions About Kate's Health LESS DANGEROUS Than What Diana Faced

Princess Diana's brother, Charles Spencer, is speaking out about Kate Middleton's health, and how intrusive media coverage has been in comparison to the press that swirled around his late sister's private life.

Sitting for a new BBC interview that aired Sunday, Spencer, 59, was asked about Kate Middleton, whose "planned abdominal surgery" on January 16 has become the source of endless conspiracy theories and rumors.

"I do worry about what happened to the truth," he said.

However, asked to compare what Kate is enduring versus what his sister went through, he went on to say, "I think it was more dangerous back in the day."

In the wake of the death of Diana — who perished alongside boyfriend Dodi Fayed and the driver in a car crash on August 31, 1997 — Charles had become a frequent critic of the media, specifically of the paparazzi.

"I think, if I look back to '97 and Diana's death," he said, "I think that was so shocking to... the circumstances of her death were so shocking, that it did make the industry that supports the paparazzi really consider more carefully what it could and couldn't do."

"Not because they had a moral judgment, but because it was unacceptable to the public."

Spencer's words about Kate were a departure for him — he has mostly stayed out of the controversies involving his nephews, William and Harry, who are at odds, and their family foibles.

Spencer is currently promoting a book he's written that has nothing to do with the Princes — "A Very Private School" details violence and sexual abuse he experienced at boarding school when he was just 8 years old.