The King has made a rare and remarkable public statement, rejecting explosive claims in a new book by Earl Spencer that described his alleged “pent-up contempt” for Princess Diana.
The Palace’s statement casts doubt on the Earl’s memory, saying a brother’s grief can “cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory”.
The claims are reportedly made in Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, due to be published next week.
In the memoir, which is to be serialised by the Daily Mail, the Earl recalls a conversation with the then-Prince Charles over Diana’s funeral arrangements in 1997. The Palace wanted William and Harry, then aged 15 and 12, to join the funeral procession but the Earl writes his response was “that’s not going to happen”.
The Earl says he soon after received a phone call from Prince Charles who insisted that 18 years earlier he had walked in the funeral procession of Lord Mountbatten, his great-uncle.
Earl Spencer writes that Charles: “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 says he replied “I can’t believe you just said that,” then hung up the phone.
The Daily Mail first reported Earl Spencer’s claims, due to be published in his memoirIn an immediate response to the claims, the Palace issued a statement implying that the Earl had misremembered the conversation and that the King recalled it differently.
It 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 that others do not recognise even many years after such a loss”.
The row represents a fresh crisis for the King who is already trying to handle the return to Britain of Harry and Meghan, and continuing scandal surrounding Prince Andrew.
Sky royal correspondent Laura Bundock called the King’s comments “remarkable”.
“Remember, when Prince Harry’s own memoir Spare came out, with all the allegations he made about members of his own family, within that book, there was no response from the Palace at that point, but this time, it’s different,” she said.
“They clearly feel they cannot stay silent, given the nature of this book, about Diana, who it’s written by – her own brother – and the strength of those allegations made.”
Bundock said there were echoes of Queen Elizabeth’s pointed “recollections may vary” response to a television interview given by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to Oprah Winfrey, in which they alleged that an unnamed member of the royal family speculated about how dark their unborn son Archie’s skin would be.
Prince William and Prince Harry followed the coffin of their mother Diana, Princess of Wales, to Westminster Abbey in London in 1997 (Photo by JEFF J MITCHELL / POOL / AFP) (Photo by JEFF J MITCHELL/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)“What it goes to show is that the death of Diana, over 29 years ago, is still a very sensitive subject and remains a very difficult issue for the Palace and the King to navigate,” Bundock said.
Former BBC royal correspondent Jenny Bond told GB News Earl Spencer’s allegations were “jaw-dropping” and noted the Palace’s “immediate” and “punchy” response.
She recalled that following Diana’s death “everybody was traumatised, and in times of trauma, you probably do say things that you didn’t mean or, you may have said things that you’ve forgotten”.
However she had no reason to doubt that the Earl and King had genuinely different memories of the conversation.
“It is one thing after another [for the King], everything is distracting from the King’s work and I think they’re just not going to take this,” she said.
“They’re going to put their side up. The old days of ‘never explain’, I think, have gone away and even the King is following suit on that.
“It’s obvious he feels extremely strongly about it. It’s a very nasty family row.”
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