King Charles’ Former Communications Secretary Speaks Out After Charles Spencer’s Diana Claims

A forthcoming memoir by Princess Diana’s younger brother, Earl Charles Spencer, has triggered an unusually direct response from Buckingham Palace — and now a former communications secretary to King Charles has questioned whether the monarch was really capable of saying what Spencer alleges.

Spencer’s book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, is due to be published on September 22. Ahead of its release, extracts have detailed his recollections of the days surrounding Diana’s death in 1997 and her funeral.

One of the most contentious passages concerns an alleged phone conversation between Spencer and the then Prince Charles.

Charles Spencer’s claim about Diana

According to an extract published by the Daily Mail, Spencer says he objected to Princes William and Harry walking behind their mother’s coffin during her funeral procession.

William was 15 and Harry was 12 at the time.

Spencer claims he told the royal family that Diana would not have wanted her young sons to endure such a public ordeal. He says the disagreement led to a heated conversation with Charles.

In his memoir, Spencer alleges that the then Prince of Wales questioned his family’s sense of duty before expressing what Spencer interpreted as longstanding contempt toward Diana.

He claims Charles eventually told him: “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough.”

Spencer writes that he was so shocked by the alleged remark that he responded: “I can’t believe you just said that,” before ending the call.

The claim has not been independently established. It is Spencer’s recollection of a private conversation nearly three decades ago.

Diana died in a car crash in Paris on August 31, 1997, aged 36. Her funeral took place on September 6, with William, Harry, Charles, Prince Philip and Spencer among those walking behind her coffin.

Buckingham Palace breaks with its usual approach

The allegations prompted a rare intervention from Buckingham Palace.

The Palace generally does not comment on books about members of the Royal Family. On this occasion, however, a spokesperson addressed Spencer’s account shortly after the first extract appeared.

The statement did not provide a point-by-point response to the alleged conversation. Instead, it questioned how memories of such a traumatic period might be affected by grief.

The spokesperson 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 color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss.”

The wording was widely noted because of how unusual it was for the Palace to respond so directly to a memoir claim. Reuters described the intervention as a rare and strongly worded response to Spencer’s allegations.

Former royal aide says the portrayal does not match the King he knew

Julian Payne, who served as communications secretary to the then Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall from 2016 to 2021, has also spoken about the controversy.

Payne said he did not recognize the portrayal of Charles contained in Spencer’s account.

“I just don’t recognize the way the King is characterized in those remarks,” Payne said.

Payne had been working with Charles during the 20th anniversary of Diana’s death in 2017, when media attention surrounding the late Princess of Wales was particularly intense.

He recalled that Charles was clear that Diana’s memory should be respected and that his communications team should not undermine her legacy, even when coverage of the former couple was highly critical.

Payne also described the Palace’s decision to respond to Spencer’s claims as highly unusual, saying it reflected the strength of feeling behind the decision to address the allegations publicly.

His comments do not establish what happened during the private conversation Spencer describes in 1997, but they provide a contrasting account of how Payne says Charles approached Diana’s legacy decades later.

Further claims emerge from the memoir

The controversy has continued to grow as additional excerpts from Swan Song: Diana, My Sister have emerged.

In a later extract, Spencer alleged that Charles sounded “giddily elated” when speaking to him after Diana’s death, comparing his tone to that of “a lottery winner.” He also suggested that some people within the Palace were relieved by Diana’s death. These are allegations contained in Spencer’s memoir and have been disputed by the Palace and those close to the King.

The memoir is being serialized ahead of its September 22 publication and has reopened questions about the events surrounding Diana’s death, her funeral and the relationship between her family and the Royal Family.

For now, the central dispute remains a matter of competing recollections: Spencer has presented his account of a private exchange in 1997, while Buckingham Palace has challenged the reliability of memories shaped by grief, and Payne has said the description of Charles does not resemble the man he knew.