King Charles ‘Hissed’ Diana Remark After Her Death, Earl Spencer Claims in New US TV Interview
Earl Spencer has reignited the long-running tensions surrounding Princess Diana’s death with a fresh allegation about King Charles, claiming the then-Prince of Wales told him, “We’ll forget her soon enough” in the days after Diana’s death in 1997.
Speaking to ABC News ahead of the release of his memoir Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, Diana’s brother said the remark was not delivered casually.
“I’ll never forget the five words ‘We’ll forget her soon enough’ — and he didn’t say it, he hissed it,” Spencer said.
The alleged exchange reportedly took place during disagreements over arrangements for Diana’s funeral, including whether her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, should walk behind their mother’s coffin. At the time, William was 15 and Harry was 12.
Spencer has maintained that his account is accurate. Buckingham Palace, however, has pushed back against the claim, issuing an unusually direct response.
Palace challenges Spencer’s recollection
The Palace said it does not normally comment on books, but acknowledged the emotional circumstances surrounding Diana’s death.
A spokesperson said that “fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgment and colour memory,” suggesting that grief could influence how events are remembered many years later.
Spencer strongly objected to the response.
In his ABC interview, he accused the King of “gaslighting” him and said he was deeply upset by what he regarded as a condescending response to his recollection.
“It’s not everyday you’re gaslit by a King,” Spencer said, arguing that what he had written was based on what he remembered as a straightforward and truthful account.
The dispute has become one of the most contentious elements of Swan Song, which was released on September 22.
Spencer says he “didn’t hold back”
In his new book, Diana’s brother claims they rowed over the phone call about funeral arrangements following her tragic crash
The memoir contains several critical descriptions of King Charles. Spencer refers to him as a “petulant child” and a “bellowing buffoon,” while insisting that he deliberately included only material he considered relevant to the story he wanted to tell about Diana.
“I didn’t hold back,” Spencer said in the ABC interview, adding that he could have gone “an awful lot further.”
He also rejected the idea that the book was simply an attempt to settle personal scores, saying the material he included was necessary to understand Diana’s story.
The disputed funeral conversation is not the only allegation involving Charles. In another section of the memoir, Spencer claims that the King sounded unusually upbeat when speaking to him after Diana’s fatal car crash, describing his tone as “giddily elated.” Spencer later acknowledged that he could only interpret what he heard through his own perspective at the time.
Buckingham Palace has not endorsed Spencer’s account of those conversations.
Piers Morgan threatens legal action
The controversy surrounding the memoir has also spread beyond the royal family.
Broadcaster Piers Morgan has announced legal action against Spencer and the book’s publishers over claims made about his role in the media coverage of Diana.
Spencer writes that he contacted newspaper editors before Diana’s 1997 funeral and asked them not to attend, arguing that her family should be protected from further press intrusion. According to Spencer’s account, Morgan — then editor of the Daily Mirror — reacted angrily to the request.
Morgan disputes that account and has publicly described the allegations as false. He has also challenged Spencer’s account of photographs taken of Diana exercising at a gym in 1993.
Morgan points out that the photographs were published by the Sunday Mirror on November 7, 1993, while he did not join the Daily Mirror until October 1995. He has said he intends to pursue legal action over what he calls “demonstrable lies” in the memoir.
The dispute adds another layer of controversy to a book already drawing intense scrutiny because of its claims about Diana, Charles and the royal family.
A memoir reopening old wounds
Spencer has presented Swan Song: Diana, My Sister as an account of Diana’s life and legacy from the perspective of her brother.
The book revisits the aftermath of the princess’s death, the arrangements for her funeral and Spencer’s memories of conversations with members of the royal family. Its most disputed passages, however, have reopened questions surrounding Charles’s reaction to Diana’s death and the painful period immediately afterward.
For now, the central accounts remain sharply contested: Spencer stands by his recollection of what the King allegedly said, while Buckingham Palace has pointed to the possible effects of grief on memory. Morgan, meanwhile, is challenging separate claims about his role in the press coverage of Diana.
With the memoir now officially released, those competing accounts are likely to remain at the center of the debate over Spencer’s version of one of the most painful chapters in the royal family’s modern history.
