Earl Spencer has insisted he is “telling the truth” after making a number of extraordinary claims about King Charles’ response to the death of his sister, Princess Diana. <\/p>\n
Excerpts of ‘Swan Song: Diana, My Sister’, published by the Daily Mail, include claims Charles told the former Princess of Wales he didn’t love her ahead of their wedding day, and sounded “elated” at the news of her death. <\/p>\n
Speaking to the BBC on Friday, Earl Spencer said he was \u201ctelling the truth\u201d about a claim in his new book that the now King told him that Diana would be forgotten \u201csoon enough\u201d following her death.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are exactly the words he said,\u201d Charles Spencer told the broadcaster. <\/p>\n
Buckingham Palace responded to the claims on Wednesday, saying “fraternal grief can cloud reason”.<\/p>\n
When asked about the Palace’s statement, the Earl told the BBC: \u201cThey haven\u2019t actually (denied the claims), Laura, they\u2019ve sort of smudged that one, haven\u2019t they? They\u2019ve said recollections may vary.\u201d <\/p>\n
Here ITV News unpacks the memoir’s biggest revelations. <\/p>\n
Before the marriage<\/p>\n
Charles met the then 16-year-old Diana in 1977 at her family home when he was dating her sister at the time. <\/p>\n
She attended his 30th birthday in 1978 at Buckingham Palace, and in the summer of 1980 their romance began. The pair were engaged the following February after only a few meetings.<\/p>\n
Diana and Charles announce their engagement, February 1981. Credit: AP<\/p>\n
In his new book, the Earl claimed Diana had told their father she could not go through with the marriage to Charles a month before the wedding, having been ignored by Charles all evening during Prince Andrew’s 21st birthday party. <\/p>\n
“Immediately after that evening of escalating heartbreak, Diana went to see my father. She told him she could not go through with marriage to a man who clearly did not love her,” the Earl wrote. <\/p>\n
“My father was appalled and said it was impossible to pull out of such an enormous commitment at that point.”<\/p>\n
He also wrote that he had seen his sister sitting quietly in front of a mirror on the morning of her wedding, having been told by Charles he was “very happy” to marry her, but was “not actually in love with her” the day before. <\/p>\n
Charles and Diana get married at St Paul’s Cathedral, July 1981. Credit: AP<\/p>\n
Mental health concerns<\/p>\n
Princess Diana married Charles at St Paul’s Cathedral on July 29 1981. A year later, Prince William was born, followed by Prince Harry in 1984.<\/p>\n
The couple separated in 1992 and finalised their divorce in 1996, following allegations of extramarital affairs.<\/p>\n
The Earl made multiple claims about Charles and Diana’s marriage, stating that Diana was having “explosive outbursts when she was at her unhappiest”. <\/p>\n
“It is a sad fact that, in her later years, Diana drove herself more than once to Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in England, while contemplating ending it all,” Earl Spencer wrote. <\/p>\n
He stated that it was love for her sons, Prince Harry and Prince William, which stopped her from taking her own life. <\/p>\n
Diana’s death<\/p>\n
On August 31 1997, Diana died from injuries sustained in a car crash in Paris, aged 36. She was being pursued by paparazzi when the driver lost control of the vehicle.<\/p>\n
Earl Spencer claimed the King sounded \u201cgiddily elated\u2026 like a lottery winner\u201d when he rang him following his sister’s death.<\/p>\n
One passage read: \u201cUnlike my other callers, who were stunned, barely able to articulate their condolences and offers of help, he sounded giddily elated \u2013 like a lottery winner, I remember thinking at the time.”<\/p>\n
Earl Spencer also said he was told by Charles his sister would be forgotten “soon enough”.<\/p>\n
Earl Spencer told the BBC: \u201cHe went ballistic, would be the right term, and started really going for my family as a whole, about their sense of duty, not being adequate enough, and ranted for a while, I have no idea how long, but it was a significant period, and I just listened.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then he stopped, and I thought, \u2018Oh now he\u2019s gonna pull himself together and say something more appropriate\u2019, and then he said, \u2018We\u2019ll forget her soon enough\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI really was so stunned, and I just, after a stunned silence, I said, \u2018I cannot believe you just said that\u2019, and I hung up on him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prince Philip Prince William, Earl Spencer, Prince Harry and Prince Charles at the funeral procession for Diana, Princess of Wales. Credit: Pool<\/p>\n
At the time, Charles was with his mum, the Queen, and sons William and Harry, aged 15 and 12, at Balmoral.<\/p>\n
The Earl said: \u201cHe let me know he had informed William and Harry of their mother\u2019s death, first thing that morning, in their bedrooms at Balmoral. It all sounded strangely matter-of-fact, given the enormity of the disaster.<\/p>\n
\u201cLooking back now, I suspect the prince\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Queen offers to restore HRH title<\/p>\n
Earl Spencer claimed the Queen offered to restore Princess Diana’s HRH title after she died. <\/p>\n
He described the Queen’s Private Secretary Robert Fellowes making the proposal as he travelled to his sister’s private burial in Althorp, Northamptonshire. <\/p>\n
The Earl wrote that Diana had been “dreadfully hurt” by the removal of her title in 1996 following the divorce, but said he decided to decline the offer as it had no use to her now.<\/p>\n
“I felt that I knew in my bones how she would view this posthumous award,” he wrote. <\/p>\n
“That’s very kind of the Queen, of course. But what’s the point, Robert? Now? I mean \u2013 Diana’s dead.”<\/p>\n
Princess Diana and Queen Elizabeth II smile as crowds wish the Queen a happy birthday, August 1987. Credit: AP<\/p>\n
The public were outraged by the monarch’s late response to her death in 1997. <\/p>\n
The flag at Buckingham Palace was not lowered to half-mast, and the Queen did not return to London until five days later, the day before her funeral. <\/p>\n
Buckingham Palace was cloaked with flowers and people sobbed, mourning the loss of ‘the people’s Princess’, as described by the then-prime minister Tony Blair.<\/p>\n
But as her coffin went past, the Queen bowed her head – a moment which made history for being the first time the Queen has ever bowed to a member of the public.<\/p>\n
Prince Harry and Diana during a holiday in Majorca, 1987. Credit: AP<\/p>\n
Buckingham Palace responds<\/p>\n
Throughout the years, several books have claimed to spill secrets about the Royal Family.<\/p>\n