{"id":621908,"date":"2026-09-20T12:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T12:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/621908\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T12:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T12:54:08","slug":"king-charles-accused-of-gaslighting-by-princess-dianas-brother-in-dispute-over-book-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/621908\/","title":{"rendered":"King Charles accused of \u2018gaslighting\u2019 by Princess Diana\u2019s brother in dispute over book claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

Princess Diana\u2019s brother<\/a>, Charles Spencer, has accused King Charles of \u201cgaslighting\u201d him after Buckingham Palace pushed back at his claims about the monarch\u2019s conduct.<\/p>\n

Buckingham Palace released an unusually forceful statement Wednesday ahead of the release of a memoir by Spencer, which charts the breakdown<\/a> of then-Prince Charles\u2019s marriage to Princess Diana, and the fallout from her death in a Paris car crash in 1997, one year after the royal couple finalized their divorce.<\/p>\n

In an initial excerpt released ahead of publication, Spencer recalled a heated phone call with Charles amid a disagreement about funeral arrangements, claiming that a furious Charles had told him Diana would \u201csoon be forgotten.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile 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 color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss,\u201d the palace had responded.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Britain\u2019s Mail on Sunday newspaper, Spencer said: \u201cIt is not every day you wake up to find you\u2019ve been gaslit by the king.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was astonishingly provocative and below the belt because it was essentially trying to say I\u2019d lied without the king being able to deny what I\u2019d said,\u201d Spencer added. <\/p>\n

\u201cGaslighting\u201d is a form of manipulation where the manipulator is trying to get someone to question their own reality, memory or perceptions.<\/p>\n

Spencer also denied he was motivated by money in publishing the book, saying it \u201chas never even been the remotest consideration\u201d and stressing that \u201cmy primary responsibility as a historian is to tell the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The aristocrat, an earl whose family has generational ties with Britain\u2019s royal family, has made a number of other allegations in excerpts since released from the book, published in advance by the Daily Mail newspaper.<\/p>\n

In the excerpts, Spencer writes that Charles sounded \u201cgiddily elated\u201d and \u201clike a lottery winner\u201d when they spoke by phone immediately after Diana\u2019s death, adding: \u201cI 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

He also speaks about his sister\u2019s mental health and recounts conversations with her, recalling that she had told him how \u201cthings became very difficult indeed in the marriage early on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spencer\u2019s book, \u201cSwan Song: Diana, My Sister,\u201d is due to be released publicly on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Since its initial statement, Buckingham Palace has remained silent on the further allegations from Spencer\u2019s book. The palace again declined to comment Sunday.<\/p>\n

There has been no public comment from Princes William and Harry, Charles and Diana\u2019s two sons, on Spencer\u2019s memoir. <\/p>\n

Prince Harry, who quit as a working royal six years ago amid a reported rift with senior royals,<\/a> has remained close to the Spencer family, with his own memoir \u201cSpare\u201d thanking \u201cmy mother\u2019s siblings for their love, support, time, and perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with the BBC that is set to air Sunday, Spencer said that Harry and his wife Megan Markle\u2019s treatment at the hands of Britain\u2019s infamous tabloid press has \u201cechoes\u201d of what happened to Diana.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at an article in a tabloid about Diana or the couple that you were mentioning, Harry and Meghan, you know, they can be really, really unpleasant,\u201d Spencer said when questioned whether he believed Diana would \u201cidentify\u201d with the scrutiny faced by Harry and Megan.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI think it would be really beholden on people to learn from Diana\u2019s example. I\u2019m not here to speak for Harry and Meghan, but for anyone who\u2019s being destroyed in this way daily, it must be such a cancerous influence in their life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The royal family continued to undertake public duties this week even as Spencer\u2019s book has dominated the headlines, with Charles also meeting with senior figures in AI <\/a>at a summit in Scotland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Princess Diana\u2019s brother, Charles Spencer, has accused King Charles of \u201cgaslighting\u201d him after Buckingham Palace pushed back at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-621908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}