Claims about King Charles’s reaction to Diana’s death have resurfaced in extracts from a forthcoming book by her brother, Earl Spencer, who writes that the then-Prince of Wales sounded “giddily elated” in the immediate aftermath.
Spencer says he spoke to Charles shortly after Diana’s death was confirmed in 1997. While other callers were struggling to offer condolences, he recalls that Charles sounded “like a lottery winner”.
“Looking back now, I suspect the prince’s first reaction must have been to think more of how this event might free him to marry the woman he loved, rather than appreciating the loss of one he did not,” Spencer writes in Swan Song: Diana, My Sister.
The claim is among a series of passages in which Spencer describes the effect of Diana’s death on the royal family. Diana, who was 36, died when the car carrying her and Dodi al-Fayed crashed in Paris while being pursued by paparazzi photographers.
Spencer also writes that Diana drove more than once to Beachy Head, on the south coast of England, while contemplating suicide, but says her love for her sons, William and Harry, prevented her from going further.
Charles and Diana had separated in 1992 and divorced in 1996. A year earlier, Diana had referred publicly to Charles’s relationship with Camilla Parker Bowles by saying: “There were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded.” Charles and Camilla married in 2005.
Palace responds to claims about Diana’s funeral
Buckingham Palace has already issued an unusual response to another claim in the book: that Charles told Spencer the public would “forget her soon enough” after Diana’s death.
Spencer says the remark came during a heated telephone conversation about plans for William and Harry to walk behind their mother’s coffin. He writes that Charles appeared horrified by the public reaction to Diana’s death and objected to the attention surrounding her.
A Palace spokesperson said grief could affect a person’s reason, judgment and memory. “His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss,” the spokesperson said.
There was no fresh comment from the King on the latest extracts. Julian Payne, Charles’s former communications secretary, said he did not recognise the portrayal of the King in Spencer’s account.
Payne said Charles had been emphatic that staff should never criticise Diana or challenge accounts that were critical of him. He said the King had insisted her memory should be respected and not undermined.
The claims are likely to add to tensions within the family, including the strained relationship between Charles and Prince Harry. Harry’s memoir, Spare, also addressed the decision over the funeral procession.
