Scotland Yard’s former head of Royal Protection has revealed how then-Prince Charles really reacted after receiving the news of Princess Diana’s death.
Earl Charles Spencer, the brother of the late Princess Diana, this week released a memoir titled Swan Song: Diana, my sister, which contained a number of explosive allegations about King Charles III.
However, it is the 62-year-old’s bombshell claim that Charles sounded “giddily elated” when he spoke to him on the phone following Diana’s death that has raised eyebrows worldwide.
Princess Diana tragically passed away following a high-speed car chase in Paris on August 31 in 1997 alongside her partner Dodi Fayed and their driver Henri Paul.
When Charles called the Earl following the accident, the Prince’s reaction was that of a “lottery winner”, claims Spencer.
“I suspect the Prince’s first reaction must have been to think more of how this event might free him to marry the woman he loved, rather than appreciating the loss of one he did not,” he wrote in the book.
Now, an ex-security chief has challenged Spencer’s claims about then-Prince Charles’ demeanour, telling GB News that he himself was at Balmoral with members of the Royal Family in the week after Diana’s death.
“I really am astonished at some of the claims here. I was around at that time,” Dai Davies, who was head of Scotland Yard’s Royal Protection Command for four years, told GB News.
“I went up to Balmoral during that infamous week, and I can assure you the mood there was sombre.
“The information I came back [with] about King Charles, as he is now, was that he was grief-stricken, along with other members of the Royal Family, and they were looking after the children,” he said, referring to Prince William and Prince Harry.
Earl Spencer’s book has been a major talking point since it was serialised by the Daily Mail last week, and includes a number of explosive claims about the Royal Family.
Spencer writes in the book that Princess Diana was “convinced” then-prince Charles was in love with his valet, and cited it as the main reason she wanted a divorce.
Elsewhere in the tome, he claimed that Charles told him, “We’ll forget Diana soon enough,” during a bitter phone call just days after Princess Diana’s tragic death.
In response, King Charles hit back at Spencer’s claims via a Buckingham Palace statement last week, which stated 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.”
Earl Spencer reflected on his decision to publish the deeply personal memoir, telling readers that he wanted to correct what he says are longstanding inaccuracies about his sister and her life.
“With the 30th anniversary of Diana’s tragic death on the skyline, I’ve been inundated yet again with requests for interviews about my sister,” he said.
“This has convinced me to write down my own thoughts and memories, once and for all, rather than having the discomfort of again reading the opinions of others, many of which are based on untruths that have become accepted over time.”
Read related topics:Earl Charles Spencer MemoirKing Charles