Highlights
- Earl Spencer’s new memoir revisits Princess Diana’s marriage, final years and death
- He makes several personal claims about King Charles and Diana’s relationship
- Buckingham Palace has responded by questioning how grief can affect memory and judgement
Nearly three decades after Princess Diana’s death, her brother Earl Spencer is revisiting some of the most painful chapters of her life in a new memoir about their relationship, her marriage to King Charles and the aftermath of her death.
In Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, Spencer makes a series of claims about the former Prince Charles, including his alleged reaction when Diana died in 1997. Buckingham Palace has issued a rare response to the claims, saying grief can affect memory and judgement.
What Earl Spencer says about Charles and Diana
One of the most striking recollections concerns the phone call Spencer says he received from Charles shortly after Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997.
Spencer writes that while other callers were struggling to express their condolences, Charles sounded “giddily elated” and “like a lottery winner”. He also recalls the conversation as strangely matter-of-fact given the circumstances.
Spencer says he now suspects Charles may have been thinking about the possibility of marrying Camilla following Diana’s death. That is Spencer’s interpretation of the conversation rather than an established fact.
The memoir also revisits Diana’s difficult relationship with Charles before and during their marriage. Spencer claims Charles told Diana shortly before their wedding that he was happy to marry her but was not actually in love with her.
He also recounts Diana’s struggles with an eating disorder and alleges that Charles once commented on her weight shortly after their engagement.
The funeral disagreement
Another section of the memoir focuses on the days surrounding Diana’s funeral.
Spencer claims he objected to William and Harry walking behind their mother’s coffin and later had an angry conversation with Charles about the arrangements.
According to Spencer, Charles eventually told him: “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough.”
The account is part of Spencer’s broader attempt to revisit how Diana was treated by the royal family during the breakdown of her marriage and after her death.
Buckingham Palace responds
The claims have prompted an unusually direct response from Buckingham Palace.
Although the Palace said it does not comment on books as a matter of principle, a spokesperson said Charles was mindful that “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory” even many years after a loss.
Spencer has since defended his recollection of the phone call, telling the BBC that he was “hyper-alert” during the conversation and stood by his account of how Charles sounded.
Swan Song: Diana, My Sister is due to be published on September 22. Its extracts have reopened discussion around Diana’s marriage, her relationship with the royal family and the events surrounding her death, while the competing accounts underline how differently those events are remembered nearly 30 years later.
