Earl Spencer has reaffirmed that he is “telling the truth” about a phone conversation he says he had with Prince Charles shortly after the death of his sister, Princess Diana.
In his forthcoming autobiography, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, being serialised exclusively in Our News Outlet, the Earl alleges that Charles told him, “we’ll forget her soon enough,” during a dispute about whether Prince William and Prince Harry should take part in Diana’s funeral procession.
Buckingham Palace responded with a strongly worded statement, suggesting that grief may have affected Earl Spencer’s “reason, judgment and memory.”
However, the Earl has stood by his version of events. Discussing the claims in his memoir, he said: “I can tell you here and now, those are exactly the words he said.”
In an interview with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg at his Althorp estate in Northamptonshire, Earl Spencer said he had repeated the alleged remark to friends and relatives at the time, describing it as “monstrous.”
“I’ve only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles at any stage of my life,” he said.
“I was hyper-alert to what he was saying, and those are precisely the words that he said. I promise that to you now.”
Referring to the Palace’s response, he added: “Genuinely, that is what he said. I don’t hear him saying he didn’t say that.”
Earl Spencer says he is standing by his account of remarks allegedly made by the then-Prince Charles after Princess Diana’s death
His highly anticipated memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, is due to be published next week
According to Earl Spencer, Charles “went ballistic” and “ranted for a while” after being told that Diana would not have wanted William and Harry to walk behind her coffin.
“And then he stopped, and I thought, oh now, now he’s going to pull himself together and say something more appropriate,” he recalled.
“And then he said, ‘We’ll forget her soon enough.’”
The Earl said the comment left him “stunned” and that he ended the call.
The memoir’s first dramatic extract has generated worldwide headlines and prompted sharply divided reactions, with supporters rallying behind both sides of the dispute.
The opening extract, published online yesterday and in today’s Daily Mail, includes the following claims from Earl Spencer:
When the book was announced last month, Earl Spencer said he wanted to set down his personal memories and reflections ahead of the 30th anniversary of Diana’s death next year, rather than repeatedly encountering other people’s interpretations of events.
William and Harry, then aged 15 and 12 respectively, did ultimately walk behind their mother’s coffin during her funeral procession in September 1997, alongside Charles, Prince Philip and Earl Spencer.
Prince Harry stands between Earl Spencer and Prince Charles outside Westminster Abbey during Princess Diana’s funeral procession on September 6, 1997
Harry would later tell Newsweek magazine of the decision: ‘My mother had just died and I had to walk a long way behind her coffin, surrounded by thousands of people watching me while millions more did on television.
‘I don’t think any child should be asked to do that, under any circumstances. I don’t think it would happen today.’
The Duke of Sussex, newly returned to the UK with his wife Meghan and their two children, is ‘aware’ of the book but has not read it, sources have told the Mail.
He ignored questions from reporters about it last night as he attended the inaugural Invictus Spirit Awards at the historic Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich.
Swan Song: Diana, My Sister is due to be published next week.
However, several copies of the book were stolen from a lorry parked in a lay-by in the Netherlands earlier this week.
The tomes had been wrapped in black plastic to hide their contents, but publishing insiders believe they may have been deliberately targeted in an audacious bid to steal them before the official release.
