The 28-year-old future British king – who is due to wed Kate Middleton on April 29 at Westminster Abbey – is said to have asked the brother of his late mother Princess Diana to make the speech in a bid to repair the rift between the royals and the Spencer family.
A friend of the earl's eldest daughter, Lady Kitty Spencer, explained: "Kitty said Charles Spencer and William have a good, solid relationship and it’s very important for William that his mother is at his wedding, so to speak. He made the point by giving his mother’s ring to his future bride."
While it is believed royal aides will be meeting with the Spencer family in London before Christmas to discuss their involvement in the impending nuptials, a palace insider said William and Kate are yet to make a decision on the details of the wedding.
A St. James's Palace aide added to the Daily Mail newspaper: "The Spencers will inevitably have a prominent role at the wedding as guests – they are blood family after all. At the moment anything else is speculation, as Prince William and Miss Middleton have yet to make these sorts of decisions."
Among the details to be decided are whether the speech will come during the wedding ceremony or at one of the two receptions.
This comes after Earl Spencer launched a thinly-veiled attack on the royal family during his eulogy at Diana's funeral in 1997.
He said: "A very British girl … who proved in the last year that she needed no royal title to continue to generate her particular brand of magic."
