Earl Spencer has doubled down on his claim that King Charles told him, “We’ll forget her soon enough”, in a phone call following the death of Princess Diana.
Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg at Althorp in Northamptonshire, Diana’s brother said he was “telling the truth” about the conversation, which allegedly took place during a dispute over whether Princes William and Harry should take part in their mother’s funeral procession.
Buckingham Palace issued a strongly worded response after the claim appeared in Spencer’s forthcoming autobiography, suggesting that grief had affected his “reason, judgment and memory”.
Spencer rejected that suggestion, saying: “I can tell you here and now, those are exactly the words he said.”
He also questioned whether the Palace’s statement amounted to an admission that the King was embarrassed by the alleged remark. “Genuinely, that is what he said,” he added. “I don’t hear him saying he didn’t say that.”
Spencer said he had told relatives and friends about the exchange at the time because he considered it “so monstrous”. He added: “I’ve only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles at any stage of my life. I was hyper alert to what he was saying and those are precisely the words that he said and I promise that to you now.”
According to Spencer’s account, he had argued that Diana would not have wanted William and Harry to walk behind her coffin. He claims the then-Prince Charles “went ballistic” and “ranted for a while” before pausing.
“And then, he said, ‘We’ll forget her soon enough,’” Spencer said. He recalled being “stunned” by the words before ending the call.
Claims in Earl Spencer’s Diana memoir
The allegations appear in Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which is due to be published next week. The book has attracted international attention ahead of the 30th anniversary of Diana’s death next year.
In other extracts, Spencer claims that the late Queen offered to restore Diana’s royal title on the day of her funeral, and that Diana had told their father she wanted to withdraw from her marriage to Charles a month before the wedding.
He also alleges that Charles told Diana on the eve of their wedding that, while he was happy to marry her, he was not in love with her. Spencer writes that his sister was so unhappy she considered suicide and drove herself to Beachy Head in East Sussex more than once.
Spencer describes Charles as sounding “giddily elated – like a lottery winner” shortly after Diana’s death, another claim contained in the memoir.
William and Harry, then aged 15 and 12, ultimately walked behind Diana’s coffin during the September 1997 funeral procession, alongside Charles, Prince Philip and Spencer.
Spencer also writes about seeing Harry on the day of the funeral, describing him as “tiny, and slight, and bereft”. He questions how the “heartbroken child” could be expected to endure the ceremony.
In a separate passage, he recalls sitting alone beside Diana’s coffin in the Chapel Royal, talking to his sister and reading her the eulogy he had prepared.
The Duke of Sussex is understood to be aware of the book but has not read it. He did not answer questions about it while attending the inaugural Invictus Spirit Awards in Greenwich.
