Key Points
- Earl Spencer's new memoir claims King Charles sounded elated in a phone call after Diana's 1997 death.
- Buckingham Palace answered an earlier claim by citing fraternal grief, then stayed silent on the newest allegations.
- The claims dominated news bulletins and drove pre-orders up 650%, days before the book's September 22 release.
The latest:
King Charles sounded giddily elated, like a lottery winner, when he telephoned Earl Spencer after Princess Diana was killed in a 1997 car crash, Diana’s brother writes in a new memoir. Spencer suggests in Swan Song: Diana, My Sister that Charles’s first reaction was to consider how her death might free him to marry the woman he loved. Buckingham Palace did not respond.
Details:
- The phone call: Spencer wrote that he was at his home in Cape Town when Charles reached him as he crossed an upstairs landing. Unlike other callers, stunned and barely able to offer condolences, Charles sounded elated, and said he had told William and Harry of their mother’s death that morning in their bedrooms at Balmoral.
- The palace response: A Buckingham Palace spokesman said on Wednesday that while the palace does not comment on books as a matter of principle, the King 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 later.
- No second reply: A day after courtiers cast doubt on Spencer’s claim that Charles had told him: “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough,” further allegations appeared in the Daily Mail’s serialisation. The palace issued no response to those.
- The title offer: Spencer claimed Queen Elizabeth offered to restore Diana’s royal title on the day of her funeral. He said Robert Fellowes, the Queen’s private secretary and his brother-in-law, relayed the offer on the way to the private burial, and that he rejected what he called a consolation prize.
- The engagement: Spencer described Prince Andrew’s 21st birthday party at Windsor Castle, attended by 650 guests, as the catalyst for Diana trying to break off her engagement. He wrote that Charles, back that day from an official trip to New York, showed next to no interest in her, and that Diana then told their father she could not marry a man who did not love her.
- Her father’s reaction: Spencer said his father, a former royal equerry, was appalled at the risk of deeply embarrassing the royal family by ending the engagement. He also wrote that Diana confided to a friend on the eve of the wedding that Charles was not in love with her.
- Health claims: According to the memoir, Charles squeezed Diana’s waist after the engagement was announced and remarked that she was a bit chubby. Spencer wrote that her waist shrank from 29 to 23.5 inches between engagement and marriage, and that she had been suffering an eating disorder for five months by the wedding.
- Beachy Head: Spencer wrote that in her later years Diana drove herself more than once to Beachy Head, England’s highest chalk sea cliff, while contemplating ending her life, and that her love for her sons stopped her. He said Diana believed Charles was in love with his valet, whom Spencer indicated may be long-term aide Michael Fawcett.
- Sales impact: Swan Song is scheduled for release on September 22. The retailer TG Jones said it had stayed among its top ten pre-orders since August, with sales up 650% since Wednesday’s revelations. Spencer said he wrote the book to correct untruths circulated after his sister’s death.
- Competing agenda: The allegations landed on a crowded royal day. The King hosted technology leaders at Dumfries House in Ayrshire, warning of existential dangers from AI; the Prince and Princess of Wales held engagements on the Isle of Bute; and the Duke of Sussex appeared at an Invictus Games gala dinner.
Background:
Diana lost the style of Her Royal Highness on her divorce from Charles, a decision Spencer described as petty and vindictive that left his sister dreadfully hurt. She died in a car crash in 1997 and was buried after a funeral on September 6.
Between the lines:
The palace’s single statement did not dispute any specific allegation; it questioned whether grief had shaped Spencer’s memory, a line that answers every future claim without engaging one. Its silence the following day, on a schedule already filled with the King’s AI summit and Harry’s return, left the serialisation to dominate the bulletins unanswered.
What’s next
Swan Song is published on September 22, with further serialisation extracts expected before then. Watch whether Buckingham Palace shifts from its no-comment position, and for TG Jones and other retailers reporting first-week sales.
