Buckingham Palace made a “terribly misguided mistake” by responding to Earl Spencer’s claims about his new book, Our News Outlet’s Diary Editor Richard Eden has said.
Mr Eden discussed the controversy on the latest episode of Palace Confidential, the newspaper’s flagship royal programme, alongside Royal Editor Rebecca English, former Queen Elizabeth II press secretary Ailsa Anderson and presenter Luke Blackall.
The Earl’s explosive memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which is being serialised exclusively by Our News Outlet, has caused fresh turmoil within the Royal Family. In response, the Palace suggested that grief can “cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory”.
The dispute intensified after Earl Spencer claimed that, just days after Diana was killed in a car crash, King Charles told him: “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough.” Royal aides subsequently challenged the accuracy of the account.
The Palace said: “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 colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss.”
However, Mr Eden said he believed the response was unnecessary and argued that the King’s side should not have addressed Earl Spencer’s allegations so quickly.
“I’m just terribly saddened and actually quite angry about it,” Mr Eden said during the latest Palace Confidential episode. “I think it was a terribly misguided thing to do – to respond so quickly in this way.”
Earl Spencer, 62, has said he wrote Swan Song: Diana, My Sister to challenge what he considers to be “untruths” about his elder sister. The memoir also revisits an alleged confrontation with the now King over the arrangements for Diana’s funeral nearly three decades ago.
Richard Eden has described Buckingham Palace’s response to Earl Spencer’s book claims as a “terribly misguided mistake”
The Diary Editor made the remarks on Palace Confidential alongside Rebecca English, Ailsa Anderson and presenter Luke Blackall
Earl Spencer’s claim that King Charles said Diana would soon be forgotten after her death sparked a public dispute over the accuracy of his memoir
The alleged exchange centred on the decision that Prince William and Prince Harry, who were 15 and 12 at the time, would walk behind their mother’s coffin during her funeral procession. Earl Spencer opposed the arrangement.
According to the Earl, he told the then Prince of Wales that Diana would not have wanted her young sons to face such an intensely public ordeal following her death.
He claims Charles questioned the Spencer family’s commitment to duty before allegedly remarking that his former wife, whose death prompted an unprecedented worldwide outpouring of grief, would soon be forgotten.
“Throughout her 70-year reign, the Queen took that view of ‘never complain, never explain’,” Mr Eden said.
“The exception was after the Oprah Winfrey interview. But even then, the statement people remember for the phrase ‘recollections may vary’ was very emollient.”
Queen Elizabeth II broke with tradition in March 2021 when she issued an unprecedented statement addressing allegations made by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex during their interview with Oprah Winfrey.
“The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately. Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved family members,” she said.
Mr Eden said the late Queen’s carefully worded statement was intended to help “smooth things over”, whereas the Palace’s response to Earl Spencer appeared considerably more “aggressive”.
“The reason I’m angry about it is because the King never said anything when Harry’s book came out,” Mr Eden said.
‘It was terrible the things that Harry said about Prince William and particularly Catherine who never answered back.
‘As soon as a book comes out that criticises him for something he said 30 years ago, he rushes to put out a statement the week before the book comes out. I think it’s a terrible mistake.’
Rebecca English then added: ‘I can’t make up my mind whether it was the right thing to do. But I don’t think we can deny that this has changed the way the book is being perceived.’
Ms Anderson said: ‘I understand what you are saying about Spare. What Charles Spencer is saying is about the death of a woman and her ex-husband’s reaction to it which is abhorrent in any set of circumstances, whether you’re a member of the Royal Family or someone walking down the street.
‘And I think that is why they have reacted so quickly, is because of the set of circumstances compared to Spare.’
The Earl, Diana and Charles at the Earl’s 21st birthday party in 1985 at the Mirabelle restaurant in London. Mr Eden has revealed that he believes the Palace’s statement was ‘terribly misguided’ – and that it was ‘unnecessary’ for the King to have responded ‘so quickly’
Mr Spencer, 62, said that Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, has been written to correct ‘untruths’ told about his older sister – and saw him lift the lid on an alleged incendiary row with the now King over Diana’s funeral arrangements almost 30 years ago
Earl Spencer, Prince William, Prince Harry and then Prince Charles stand outside Westminster Abbey on the day of Princess Diana’s funeral
The book’s first astonishing extract made headlines around the world and is splitting society with rival camps backing either side.
Announcing the book last month, Earl Spencer said that, ahead of the 30th anniversary of Diana’s death next year, he wanted to write down his own thoughts and memories ‘rather than having the discomfort of again reading the opinions of others’.
Diana lost her HRH title after her divorce in August 1996 and was instead styled Diana, Princess of Wales.
Describing the Queen’s offer, made just hours after he delivered his defiant eulogy at Diana’s funeral, Earl Spencer writes: ‘When we had gone some miles, Robert beckoned me to follow him into a quiet corner of the carriage.
‘I have just received a call from Her Majesty …and she would like to offer Diana her HRH title back.’ Mr Fellowes died in 2024.
The earl later wondered whether he was right to reject the offer, and that ‘maybe Diana would have seen some point in having HRH carved on her tombstone’.
But he said he ‘had no doubt that the consolation prize was hollow, however well-meaning the Queen’s gesture’, adding: ‘The title should never have been removed during her life, in which case it would not have been necessary to offer it to her in death.’
The memoir provides, for the first time, Earl Spencer’s insight into his sister’s deeply unhappy 15-year marriage and the then Prince of Wales’s love for her rival Camilla.
He recalls that on the day of Diana’s magnificent wedding in July 1981, he visited her at Clarence House where he found her ‘sitting quietly in front of a mirror’.
‘Only much later would I discover that, as she confided to a close friend, her husband-to-be had told her the previous day that she needed to know that he was very happy to marry her, but he was not actually in love with her,’ he writes.
One royal aide later described the earl’s account to the BBC as a ‘demonstrably untrue claim’ about a deeply compassionate man.
Julian Payne, the King’s former communications secretary, yesterday said the King had told staff never to criticise Diana for years after her death.
The Palace declined to comment on the Earl’s further claims last night.
Watch the full episode HERE
