What to Know
Charles Spencer is about to release a memoir about his life as Princess Diana‘s brother, and an excerpt that was published this week includes a very alarming detail about something that happened just after her death.
According to her brother, the then-Prince Charles told him that Diana would be forgotten “soon enough” just days after she died. And now that the story is out, the king is fighting back.
The remark took place while Charles Spencer and then Prince Charles right after the car crash that took Diana’s life.
In an excerpt from Charles’ book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, that was published by the Daily Mail, he wrote that he and the future king argued about Prince Harry and Prince William, who were 15 and 12 at the time, walking behind Diana’s coffin in the funeral procession. The royals wanted them to walk together as a family, but Diana’s brother thought that they were too young to do something that could end up traumatizing for them.
“Prince Charles continued his stream of anger, without me interrupting. Then he stopped,” Charles wrote. “I assumed the pause signaled an effort to bring himself under control, but then he unleashed down the phone what I have always taken to be his pent-up contempt for Diana, and his horror that the world was so bowled over by her death.”
He continued, “‘Rest assured,’ he hissed, ‘we’ll forget her soon enough!’”
Diana’s brother said he was so “stunned” to hear her ex-husband say something so vicious that he simply said, “I can’t believe you just said that,” and hung up the phone.
Buckingham Palace has released a statement about Charles Spencer’s claims.
It’s not often that the palace chooses to respond to these types of claims — remember, they’re all about “never complain, never explain” — but this time, they made an exception.
“While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle, His Majesty 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,” said the statement, via People.
Whether or not he actually said it, the king really does not want people to think he really said that to Diana’s grieving brother. And it’s easy to see why — it’s an absolutely despicable thing to say. They may not have been together anymore, but she was still his kids’ mother.
Diana’s brother isn’t worried about what she would think of his book.
When the book was first announced, it was shared that this would be the first time Charles would speak “openly” about losing his sister, and it seems he thinks Diana would be happy to see him do it.
In an Instagram post where he wrote about recording the audiobook for the memoir, he said, “When I finished the recording, I thought: ‘That is exactly what I wanted and needed to say — and she would, I reckon, have approved of every word.’ ”
Swan Song: Diana, My Sister will be released on September 22.
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