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Princess Diana’s brother, Earl Charles Spencer, fired back at Buckingham Palace after the royal household questioned his recollection of a conversation with King Charles III, saying he was being “gaslit” by the monarch.
Earlier this week, The Daily Mail published an excerpt of Spencer’s upcoming memoir, “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister,” in which the king’s former brother-in-law described having a heated conversation with Charles after Diana’s death. In the excerpt, Spencer alleged that Charles said, “We’ll forget her soon enough!,” regarding his ex-wife during their exchange.
Buckingham Palace later responded to Spencer’s claims, disputing the earl’s account of the conversation and suggesting that grief may have affected his memory of events surrounding his sister’s death.
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During an interview with The Mail on Sunday, Spencer took issue with the palace’s response.
“It is not every day you wake up to find you’ve been gaslit by the king,” he said. “It was astonishingly provocative and below the belt because it was essentially trying to say I’d lied without the King being able to deny what I’d said.”
Charles Spencer says King Charles III “gaslit” him in response to his claims about an alleged conversation they had after Princess Diana’s death. (Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images)
“I also thought it was a rather poor imitation of the ‘recollections may vary’ quote, which was a much more elegant way of putting things, but in these circumstances entirely out of place,” he added.
The remark referenced the palace’s famous “recollections may vary” statement issued after Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s explosive 2021 interview with Oprah Winfrey.
In the excerpt, published Wednesday, Spencer described a phone call he said he had with Charles six days after Diana died in August 1997.
“Prince Charles continued his stream of anger, without me interrupting. Then he stopped. I assumed the pause signaled an effort to bring himself under control, but then he unleashed down the phone what I have always taken to be his pent-up contempt for Diana, and his horror that the world was so bowled over by her death,” Spencer alleged. “‘Rest assured,’ he hissed, ‘we’ll forget her soon enough!’”
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Diana died in August 1997 following a car crash in Paris. (Getty Images)
According to the excerpt, the king and the 9th Earl of Spencer disagreed over the decision to have Prince William and Harry, then 15 and 12, walk behind their mother’s casket during the funeral procession.
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A Buckingham Palace spokesperson issued a rare statement responding to Spencer’s claims.
“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 statement said, according to People.
Spencer stood by his account of the alleged conversation during an appearance on BBC One’s “Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg.”
When Kuenssberg pointed out that Buckingham Palace had denied his version of events, Spencer pushed back, saying, “But they haven’t actually, Laura. They’ve sort of smudged that one, haven’t they?”
Kuenssberg then read the palace’s statement to Spencer, telling him that “the king is plainly furious.”
“Well, is he furious? Is he furious or is he embarrassed?” Spencer asked. “Because I can tell you here and now, those are exactly the words he said.”
Spencer alleged that Charles said, “We’ll forget her soon enough.” (Getty Images)
Spencer said he remembered the conversation clearly because he had spoken so infrequently with Charles, who was then Prince of Wales.
“I’ve only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles at any stage of my life,” Spencer said. “I was hyper alert to what he was saying and those are precisely the words that he said.”
Spencer said he repeated the alleged comment to close friends and family members immediately afterward “because it was so monstrous.”
“Which, Charles, are the public meant to believe?” Kuenssberg asked. “Are they to believe you or are they to believe the king, the head of state of this country who’s giving the impression very forcefully that this didn’t happen? Who are we to believe?”
“Well, I’m telling the truth,” Spencer replied.
“So, the king is giving an impression to the country that’s not true. Misleading people, even lying?” Kuenssberg asked.
“I can hardly be responsible for what Buckingham Palace says,” Spencer replied. “All I can tell you is what was said and what I heard and what shocked me. What else would have made me hang up on the king that day? It was something as outrageous as that slur against Diana.”
When asked whether William and Harry would be upset by his account of the alleged phone call with their father, Spencer suggested his nephews were already familiar with his version of events.
“Well, I don’t like to talk about what I’ve been speaking about to William and Harry, but this will not be a surprise to them,” he said. “I will tell you that these words will not be a surprise to them.”
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “We won’t be offering any comment.”
Spencer said his dispute with Charles was due to the monarch’s decision to have William and Harry walk behind their mother’s coffin in the funeral procession. ((Photo by Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images))
Diana died at age 36 after suffering injuries sustained in a car accident in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris, France. Her partner, Dodi Fayed, and the driver, Henri Paul, also died in the crash.
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At the time of her death, she and Charles had been divorced for about one year. The two married in July 1981, announced their separation in December 1992 and finalized their divorce in August 1996.
Harry wrote about the decision to have him and his brother walk behind their mother’s coffin in his 2023 memoir, “Spare,” saying that “several adults were aghast” and that “mummy’s brother, Uncle Charles, raised hell,” and that he told the royal family, “You can’t make these boys walk behind their mother’s coffin! It’s barbaric.”
Spencer previously spoke about his opposition to William and Harry walking behind their mother’s coffin. He told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” in 2017 that he found the decision “bizarre and cruel.”
Buckingham Palace has disputed the claims in Spencer’s memoir. (Getty Images)
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“It was the most horrifying half an hour of my life,” he said. “It was just ghastly. And it was far worse than having to deliver a speech at the end of it. It was the worst part of the day by a considerable margin, walking behind, well, my sister’s body, with two boys who were obviously massively grieving their mother.
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“And it was this sort of bizarre circumstance where we were told you had to look straight ahead,” he continued. “But the feeling, the sort of crashing tidal wave of grief coming at you as you went down this sort of tunnel of deep emotion, it was really harrowing actually, and I still have nightmares about it now.”
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“Swan Song: Diana, My Sister” is set to be released Sept. 22.
Fox News Digital’s Lori Bashian contributed to this report.
