King Charles at War With Diana’s Brother Over Explosive Memoir Claims

Earl Spencer’s Memoir Revelations and the Funeral Clash

Internal royal committee discussions at the time revealed that Sir Robin Janvrin, Queen Elizabeth II’s deputy privacy secretary, believed Spencer had to be persuaded to walk with Charles behind the casket out of fear that Charles might face public abuse if he walked alone, as reported by Page Six. Committee members ultimately decided that including Prince William, then 15, and Prince Harry, then 12, alongside their father and uncle would insulate Charles from public hostility. Spencer documented that Colonel Malcom Ross, head of the Lord Chamberlain’s Office, assured him the young princes were not being “dragooned” into the procession, though Spencer strongly opposed their participation.

When Spencer objected to the funeral arrangements, Charles allegedly launched into a heated phone call, berating his former brother-in-law in a “stream of anger,” according to Page Six. Most explosively, Spencer claims that in the immediate aftermath of Diana’s death, Charles made the staggering remark that she would be “forgotten soon enough,” according to the Daily Mail.

Buckingham Palace Issues Extraordinary Rebuttal

Buckingham Palace took the rare step of issuing an official statement addressing the claims, pushing back forcefully against the earl’s account. In a riposte that shocked royal observers, King Charles’s aides suggested that grief can “cloud reason, affect judgement and colour memory,” a formulation widely viewed as a barbed echo of the late Queen Elizabeth II’s famous “recollections may vary” response following Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview, as reported by the Daily Mail.

Former BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt told the Daily Mail that King Charles is “clearly absolutely incandescent” over the allegations. Julian Payne, who served as the King’s communications secretary between 2016 and 2021, noted that the highly unusual statement displayed the “strength of feeling that there must have been for them to feel that they needed to go out there and correct it,” adding that he did not recognize the characterization of the King in the book’s remarks.

Royal Experts and Observers React to Renewed Feud

Commentators quickly pointed out the deep rift forming between the monarchy and the Spencer family. Former BBC royal reporter Jennie Bond described the situation to the Daily Mail as “pure war now,” warning that the renewed public conflict risks hurting Princes William and Harry, who maintain affection for both their father and their uncle. Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine, told the Daily Mail that Diana would have been “horrified” by the disclosure of such remarks, noting that Diana had insisted to her six weeks before her death that she and Charles truly loved each other.

Meanwhile, senior members of the British establishment reacted sharply to the publication. One prominent establishment figure told friends that Earl Spencer “should be horse-whipped across town,” according to Daily Mail sources. Despite the escalating public dispute and intense media coverage, Prince William has reportedly opted to maintain his stance of “never complain, never explain,” as noted by The Times, choosing not to publicly engage with his uncle’s explosive memoir.