Buckingham Palace has hit back at fresh claims made by the brother of the late Diana, Princess of Wales,, with a spokesperson saying “fraternal grief can cloud reason”.
In his new book, “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister”, Earl Spencer alleges that Charles said “rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough” during a discussion about arrangements for Diana’s funeral just days after her death in 1997.
A Buckingham Palace spokesman has responded to the claims, saying Charles is “mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason”.
The statement reads: “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.”
Charles is said to have made the comments about his ex-wife in a row over funeral preparations and to have questioned the Spencer family’s sense of duty.
The Earl says he insisted to the then Prince of Wales that Diana would not have wanted Prince William and Prince Harry, then aged 15 and 12, to have made the difficult public walk.
According to a book excerpt, one of Queen Elizabeth II’s senior aides told him that the princes were to walk in the procession, prompting the Earl to state “that’s not going to happen”.
Charles called minutes later and told him that 18 years earlier he had walked in the funeral procession of his great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten, it is claimed.
The Earl pointed out that Charles had been 30 at the time of Lord Mountbatten’s funeral in 1979.
In the excerpt, the Earl claims: “Prince Charles continued his stream of anger, without me interrupting. Then he stopped.
“I assumed the pause signalled 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. ‘Rest assured’, he hissed, ‘we’ll forget her soon enough!’”
The Earl says he then hung up the phone.
William, Harry, Charles, Prince Philip and the Earl walked behind Diana’s coffin in a funeral procession through central London to the funeral service at Westminster Abbey.
The Earl then delivered a passionate eulogy at Diana’s funeral, pledging the princess’ “blood family” would protect William and Harry “so that their souls are not simply immersed by duty and tradition, but can sing openly as you planned”.
According to the Earl writing in the Daily Mail, the memoir has been written to correct “untruths” told about his older sister, who died in a Paris car crash in August 1997.
Born Charles Edward Maurice Spencer, the Earl is Princess Diana’s younger brother and Prince William and Prince Harry’s maternal uncle.
He became the ninth Earl to inherit the Spencer title in 1992.
