King Charles has made a rare public response to explosive claims from Princess Diana’s brother about his behaviour in the days following her death.
The allegations appear in Earl Spencer’s forthcoming book Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which details an alleged heated exchange between the two men following Princess Diana’s death in 1997.
Earl Spencer claims the now-King told him “we’ll forget her soon enough” during an argument over whether Diana’s young sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, should walk behind their mother’s coffin.
Buckingham Palace responded to the claims on Wednesday, suggesting grief could affect a person’s reason, judgement and recollection of events decades later.
Princess Diana was 36 when she was killed in a car crash in Paris in August 1997. Her partner Dodi al-Fayed also died after their vehicle crashed while being pursued by paparazzi photographers on motorbikes.
According to Earl Spencer, the alleged confrontation with King Charles centred on plans for Prince William and Prince Harry, who were 15 and 12 at the time, to take part in their mother’s funeral procession.
The Earl claims he argued Princess Diana would not have wanted her sons subjected to such a traumatic experience in front of the world.
He alleges King Charles later telephoned him and insisted his sons should participate, pointing to his own experience walking in the funeral procession of Lord Mountbatten 18 years earlier.
But Earl Spencer said he reminded King Charles that he had been 30 when Lord Mountbatten died, claiming the response caused the now-King to lose his temper.
The Earl writes in Swan Song: “Prince Charles continued his stream of anger, without me interrupting. Then he stopped.
“I assumed the pause signalled an effort to bring himself under control, but then he unleashed down the phone what I have always taken to be his pent-up contempt for Diana, and his horror that the world was so bowled over by her death.
“’Rest assured,’ he hissed, ‘we’ll forget her soon enough!’”
Earl Spencer said he was “so stunned” by the alleged remark that several seconds passed before he responded: “I can’t believe you just said that”.
Princess Diana became one of the world’s most photographed women after marrying King Charles in a lavish royal wedding in 1981.
Their relationship later deteriorated and the couple separated before finalising their divorce in 1996, a year before Princess Diana’s death.
Buckingham Palace has now taken the unusual step of addressing Earl Spencer’s account.
Asked about the allegations, a palace spokesperson said: “While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss.”
The memoir is expected to provide Earl Spencer’s personal account of his sister’s life and the events surrounding her death.
Ahead of its release, Earl Spencer said: “The aim of this book is to tell the truth about Diana from her brother’s perspective ... I want to speak on Diana’s behalf and do so in an openly positive way.”
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