Buckingham Palace issued an extraordinary statement accusing Earl Spencer of “grief clouded reasoning” following the publication of excerpts from his new memoir, which details bitter disputes with King Charles over Princess Diana’s 1997 funeral. According to the Daily Mail, the explosive book titled Swan Song: Diana, My Sister claims that a furious Prince Charles told the Earl days after Diana’s death, “rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough.”
The Dispute Over Prince William and Prince Harry’s Funeral Procession
The core of the confrontation detailed in Earl Spencer’s memoir centers on the decision to have Prince William and Prince Harry, then 15 and 12 years old, walk in their mother’s funeral procession through central London on September 6, 1997. According to the Daily Mail, Earl Spencer told a senior royal aide that allowing the young princes to endure such a public ordeal “That’s not going to happen.” Shortly after, then-Prince Charles phoned the Earl and insisted that he had walked in the funeral procession of his great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten, in 1979. Earl Spencer writes that Charles “went nuts” after pointing out that the prince had been 30 at the time, leading to the alleged outburst where the prince expressed contempt for Diana’s global mourning.
Buckingham Palace’s Response and Historical Parallels
Buckingham Palace broke its standard policy of not commenting on books to issue a sharp rebuke of the 62-year-old Earl’s claims. According to the Daily Mail, the Palace statement read: “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.” Observers noted the phrasing closely echoes Queen Elizabeth II’s famous “recollections may vary” response issued after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex made allegations of racism against the royal family, signaling a similarly firm institutional pushback.
The Legacy of the 1997 Memorial and Spencer’s Motives
Earl Spencer, who delivered a defiant eulogy at Westminster Abbey six days after Diana’s death in a car crash in Paris, states in his book that he wrote the memoir to correct “untruths” told about his older sister. The serialization of Swan Song: Diana, My Sister arrives as a flashpoint between the Spencer family and the monarchy, threatening to stir up historical grievances nearly three decades after the tragedy that riveted the global public.
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