King Charles responds to Charles Spencer's claims about Princess Diana in a rare statement
King Charles Responds to Claims in Charles Spencer’s Upcoming Memoir
MONTGOMERY, N.H. – A rare public statement from Buckingham Palace came after the Daily Mail published an excerpt from Charles Spencer’s forthcoming memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister. The passage, set to be released on September 22, recounts a phone conversation between the former Prince of Wales and the 9th Earl of Spencer immediately following the death of Princess Diana in August 1997.
According to the Daily Mail, Spencer alleged that he heard Charles vent anger over Diana’s death, saying, “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough.” The excerpt also suggests that the two men clashed over the decision to have Prince William and Prince Harry—who were 15 and 12 at the time—walk behind their mother’s casket during the funeral procession in Paris.
The book’s title, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, signals Spencer’s intent to give an inside view of the royal family’s reaction to the tragedy. In earlier appearances, including a 2017 interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today, Spencer described the arrangement of the funeral as “bizarre and cruel,” adding that he considered it “the most horrifying half an hour of my life.”
Prince Harry, who detailed the same event in his 2023 memoir Spare, recalled that the decision “raised hell” and that he had told the royal family that it was “barbaric” to make the boys walk behind their mother’s coffin.
Buckingham Palace responded to the Daily Mail’s publication with a statement that, while the palace does not comment on books as a matter of principle, it acknowledged that grief can “cloud reason, affect judgment and color memory.” The spokesperson added that the king “is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss.”
The controversy is rooted in the historical context of Princess Diana’s death. Diana died at age 36 in a car crash in Paris’s Pont de l’Alma tunnel on August 31, 1997. The crash also killed her companion, Dodi Fayed, and the driver, Henri Paul. At the time of the accident, Diana and King Charles were divorced; they had married in 1981, announced their separation in 1992, and finalized their divorce in August 1996.
The forthcoming memoir also touches on other contentious moments, such as the claim that Charles considered Queen Camilla “non‑negotiable” after Diana’s death. Whether the book will alter the public’s understanding of the royal family’s internal dynamics remains to be seen, but the Palace’s measured response indicates the monarchy’s desire to keep the focus on the family’s private grief rather than on public speculation.