Earl Spencer insists he’s telling the truth over 'monstrous' call with King Charles
Earl Spencer, brother of Diana, Princess of Wales, being interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg at his Althorp estate ahead of the publication of his book, 'Swan Song: Diana, My Sister', which is due to be published next week. Picture: Jeff Overs/BBC/PA
Earl Spencer has insisted he is “telling the truth” over the explosive allegation that Britain's King Charles said “we’ll forget her soon enough” following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.
Charles Spencer has made a series of damning claims about the king in a new memoir chronicling his sister Diana that prompted an “unprecedented” response from Buckingham Palace who said “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason”.
But in an extract of an interview with the BBC, Earl Spencer questioned whether the official response showed if the king was furious or embarrassed by the claim.
Speaking about an alleged row over Diana’s funeral arrangements involving her sons, the earl said: “(Theking) went ballistic, would be the right term, and started really going for my family as a whole, about their sense of duty, not being adequate enough, and ranted for a while, I have no idea how long, but it was a significant period, and I just listened.
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“And then he stopped, and I thought, ‘Oh now he’s going to pull himself together and say something more appropriate’.
“And then he said, ‘We’ll forget her soon enough’.”
Earl Spencer was questioned by broadcaster Laura Kuenssberg, who asked what he was thinking at that moment.
Diana’s brother replied: “I really was so stunned, and I just, after a stunned silence, I said, ‘I cannot believe you just said that’, and I hung up on him.”
Charles is said to have made the comments about his ex-wife in a row with the earl over whether the then Prince William and Prince Harry should follow Diana’s funeral cortege.
The earl says in his book — — that he insisted to the then Prince of Wales that his sister would not have wanted her boys to make the difficult public walk behind her coffin, it is claimed.
The memoir is being serialised in the , which says the book has been written to correct “untruths” told about his older sister, who died in a Paris car crash in August 1997.
During the telephone conversation, Charles told the earl he had walked in the funeral procession of his great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten, it is claimed.
But the king “went nuts” when the earl pointed out that Charles had been 30 at the time of Mountbatten’s funeral in 1979, it is alleged.
In response to the claims made in the memoir, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said on Wednesday: “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.”
Asked about Buckingham Palace’s response to his claims, Earl Spencer told the BBC: “Is he (the king) furious, or is he embarrassed? Because I can tell you, here and now, those are exactly the words he said.
“I’ve only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles at any stage of my life.
“I was hyper-alert to what he was saying, and those are precisely the words he said, and I promise that to you now, genuinely, that is what he said.”
Asked whether he has evidence of the king’s comments, the earl told the BBC: “I told friends and family straight away, close friends and family, about what had been said, because it was so monstrous.”
He added: “I’m telling the truth.”
The full interview with Laura Kuenssberg will air on BBC One at 6.30pm on Sunday.
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