Earl Charles Spencer has doubled down on explosive claims regarding a tense telephone conversation he shared with then-Prince Charles following the 1997 death of Princess Diana. In an interview with the BBC broadcast on Friday, Spencer defended excerpts from his upcoming memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which is currently being serialized in the Daily Mail.
The 1997 Phone Call Allegations
According to the BBC, Earl Spencer recounted that the phone call took place shortly after Princess Diana died in a car accident. Spencer stated that he had informed the prince that Diana would not have wanted her sons to walk in her funeral procession. In response, according to the Earl, the prince went “ballistic” and criticized his family’s sense of duty.
Spencer told the BBC that after a significant period of ranting, the prince concluded the conversation by stating, “We’ll forget her soon enough.”
“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,” Spencer said.
The book also alleges that the then-prince sounded “giddily elated like a lottery winner” during an initial call about Diana’s death, an attitude the author speculates may have stemmed from feeling freed to marry Camilla.
Buckingham Palace Response and BBC Interview
The publication of the book’s excerpts prompted an unusual statement from Buckingham Palace, which asserted that “the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason.”
When questioned about the palace’s reaction by BBC journalist Laura Kuennsberg, Earl Spencer questioned whether the King was furious or embarrassed, maintaining that his account is accurate. “I’ve only ever had two calls on the line with [Prince, now King] Charles at any stage of my life,” Spencer told the BBC. “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.”
Swan Song: Diana, My Sister is scheduled for publication next week.
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