{"id":625768,"date":"2026-09-24T08:10:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T08:10:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/625768\/"},"modified":"2026-09-24T08:10:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T08:10:15","slug":"swan-song-dianas-brother-flips-the-royal-family-the-bird-in-his-scathing-new-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/625768\/","title":{"rendered":"Swan Song: Diana\u2019s brother flips the royal family the bird in his scathing new book"},"content":{"rendered":"

Revenge is a dish best served cold, so the saying goes. Charles Spencer\u2019s new memoir, Swan Song<\/a>, arrives nearly three decades after his sister Diana\u2019s death, and it is icy in its contempt for both the British tabloid media and the \u201carrogance and entitlement\u201d of the royal family.<\/p>\n

Dedicated to \u201call those who have lost a sibling\u201d, and billed as revealing \u201cthe true framework of Diana\u2019s life\u201d, the memoir has been marketed as \u201cthe most intimate, loving and honest portrait\u201d of Diana yet.<\/p>\n

However, the book is as much about Spencer as it is about Diana. Over 350 pages, his litany of grievances swamps the loving tribute he ostensibly set out to write. King Charles, then the Prince of Wales, is cast as a petulant child and \u201cbellowing buffoon\u201d who was \u201calways extremely jealous of Diana\u2019s star power\u201d. <\/p>\n

Review: Swan Song \u2013 Diana, My Sister by Charles Spencer (Michael Joseph)<\/p>\n

Among the most damaging claims is that Charles was \u201cgiddily elated\u201d on learning of Diana\u2019s death, a reaction Spencer attributes to Charles\u2019 \u201cpent-up contempt for Diana and his horror that the world was so bowled over by her death\u201d, as well as what he sees as Charles\u2019s relief at finally being free to marry the woman he loved.<\/p>\n

\u201cRest assured,\u201d Charles allegedly hissed, \u201cwe\u2019ll forget [Diana] soon enough!\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week, the Palace \u2013 reportedly engaged in a war of words<\/a> with Spencer \u2013 pushed back against the claims. \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 colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, British commentator and journalist Piers Morgan announced<\/a> he is suing Spencer and his publishers over \u201cdemonstrable lies\u201d in the book, chiefly Spencer\u2019s wrongful claim that Morgan was editor of the Daily Mirror when it published intrusive photos of Diana working out in a leotard. Spencer has since apologised to Morgan<\/a> for the factual error, but he stands by other claims about Morgan and the media\u2019s role in Diana\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always believed the press would kill her in the end,\u201d Spencer says. \u201cIt was only a matter of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Charles Spencer, pictured here with Diana, dedicates his memoir to \u2018all those who have lost a sibling\u2019.
\n PA Images\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Regrets, resentments and righteous rage<\/p>\n

Spencer, a former journalist and historian with nine non-fiction books to his name, including four Sunday Times bestsellers, knows how to tell a story. Indeed, his first memoir, about surviving boarding school, was described by the Guardian<\/a> as combining \u201crighteous anger with therapeutic honesty\u201d.<\/p>\n

In Swan Song, his second memoir, he positions himself as Diana\u2019s fierce defender \u2013 a role he came to embrace as her youngest sibling, childhood playmate and only surviving brother. The youngest of four, the pair grew up together in \u201ca household divided by divorce and darkly punctuated by the death of a sibling\u201d. (Diana\u2019s older brother John, who was born with \u201ca hole in the back of his head\u201d, died after birth due to a thalidomide-like medicine that his mother was prescribed for morning sickness.)<\/p>\n

After that, \u201c[Diana and I] both had a real fear of the dark,\u201d Spencer writes. \u201cShe could not overcome her deep fear of the dark corridors that lay between us.\u201d Elsewhere, he writes: \u201cMy mother told me many times that she felt I knew Diana better than anyone else in the world.\u201d <\/p>\n

Weaving his early memories of Diana with the planning of her funeral, the memoir is structured as an extended eulogy that, in Spencer\u2019s words, attempts to \u201cget it as right as [he] can \u2013 for Diana primarily, but also for posterity\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am going to tell things how I remember them,\u201d he declares, \u201clay them down for good, for once and for all.\u201d Spencer does exactly that, settling scores, nursing slights, and oscillating between self-pity and self-regard.<\/p>\n

Charles in the crosshairs<\/p>\n

The royal family fares badly, and Charles worst of all. Spencer alleges Charles \u201cdisrespected Diana and disparaged [the Spencer family\u2019s] sense of duty\u201d. <\/p>\n

On the eve of the couple\u2019s wedding, he claims Charles told Diana \u201che was very happy to marry her, but he was not actually in love with her\u201d. While engaged, he allegedly told Diana she was \u201ca bit chubby\u201d around the waist. Spencer concludes his sister\u2019s eating disorder \u201cpartly stemmed from a feeling that she was unloved by the man she adored\u201d. <\/p>\n

Later, he writes of the prince\u2019s \u201cgrowing frustrations at being a middle-aged man still waiting to reign\u201d. After the death of Spencer and Diana\u2019s father, Charles reportedly told the earl: \u201cYou\u2019re just so lucky \u2013 you know inheriting when you\u2019re so young!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Prince<\/a><\/p>\n

On the eve of the couple\u2019s wedding, Spencer claims Charles told Diana \u2018he was very happy to marry her, but he was not actually in love with her\u2019.
\n AP<\/p>\n

In another scene, Spencer recalls the teenage Andrew \u2013 now the disgraced former prince<\/a> \u2013 smirking during a service at Sandringham when the priest mentioned \u201cthe virgin\u2019s womb\u201d. <\/p>\n

Princess Anne brusquely dismisses the teenage Spencer\u2019s awkward attempts at small talk, while Princess Margaret, still unable to forgive Diana\u2019s infamous interview with Martin Bashir<\/a> on the BBC\u2019s Panorama program (\u201can unforgivable act of treachery against the Royal Family\u201d), refuses to bow as Diana\u2019s coffin passes.<\/p>\n

Even Spencer\u2019s own family comes under fire. After Elton John was booked to sing at Diana\u2019s funeral \u2013 he had originally planned to perform Your Song<\/a> \u2013 \u201ca conservative member\u201d of the Spencer family allegedly objected: \u201cSurely we can\u2019t have a pop song delivered by a homosexual at Diana\u2019s funeral?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Elton<\/a><\/p>\n

A \u2018conservative member\u2019 of the Spencer family apparently objected to \u2018homosexual\u2019 Elton John singing \u2018a pop song\u2019 at Diana\u2019s funeral.
\n Paul Hackett\/AP<\/p>\n

In one of the more bizarre scenes, Spencer recounts how Prince Philip discovered the queen was weighing up surgery to pin back the young Charles\u2019 ears, since \u201ctheir protrusion\u201d had made him a target of teasing at school and in the press. Philip reportedly blocked the procedure and had the ears of one of the queen\u2019s corgis operated on instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I have no idea if these disturbing tales were true,\u201d Spencer writes, \u201cDiana believed them.\u201d <\/p>\n

After Diana\u2019s funeral, Queen Elizabeth reportedly offered to restore Diana\u2019s Royal Highness title. Spencer declined, dismissing the gesture as \u201chollow, however well-meaning\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe title should never have been removed during her life,\u201d he says, \u201cin which case it would not have been necessary to offer it to her in death. [\u2026] While she was no longer married to one future king, she would always be mother to another.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018A form of mental torture\u2019<\/p>\n

While Spencer\u2019s grudges overshadow the memoir, its obsessive returns and repetitions are characteristic of trauma. Beneath the score-settling, this is the story of a brother still grieving his dead sister, a man reeling from \u201cthe astonishing, incomprehensible, fact that [his] youngest sister was dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trauma resists closure, and Spencer keeps circling back to the moment of loss, unable to let go.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in thrall to two immense and related forces,\u201d he writes, \u201cthe shock of being a brother, with my dead sister before me; and the duty of being an uncle, whose young nephews needed my support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diana\u2019s funeral \u2013 a \u201cgrim procession of human tragedy and royal pageantry\u201d \u2013 was \u201csuffocating in its intensity\u201d. Spencer protested at the time against walking behind the coffin, and he recalls it as \u201cthe most harrowing experience of [his] life\u201d, one that has \u201creplayed for [him] in dozens of fitful nightmares\u201d.<\/p>\n

It is the sounds that have haunted me since. The horses\u2019 hoofs, and the soldiers\u2019 heavy boots crunching rhythmically on the road ahead. [\u2026] But it was those endless waves of emotion, crashing in at us from every side, that took their toll. Despite being so well-meaning, they constituted a form of mental torture.<\/p>\n

His respect for his nephews, William and Harry, alone in their \u201cdespair and torment\u201d, never wavers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI could not get over how tiny, and slight, and bereft, Harry looked,\u201d Spencer writes. \u201cToo small to be doing this, I thought, and I wondered how on earth this heartbroken child could bear the ordeal of that moment, or how he could possibly be expected to deal with the agony.\u201d<\/p>\n

William, then 15 and \u201csuffering equally terribly\u201d, was more \u201cself-possessed\u201d: \u201cthe image of his mother then, tall and handsome and dignified\u201d. Harry was Spencer\u2019s primary concern.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/a><\/p>\n

Spencer, pictured comforting his nephew Harry, describes walking in Diana\u2019s funeral procession as the \u2018most harrowing experience\u2019 of his life.
\n Tim Graham\/Photo Library via Getty Images<\/p>\n

The tabloid media, whom Spencer famously accused of having \u201cblood on their hands\u201d, are again condemned as culpable, \u201cegged on by members of Prince Charles\u2019 household\u201d and described as occupying, in relation to Diana, \u201cthe opposite end of the moral spectrum\u201d. <\/p>\n

Diana\u2019s \u201cgilded existence\u201d, Spencer writes, was snuffed out by the press: \u201cthose who inhabit the murky swamps of malevolence, and who need to suck their victims dry of their souls\u201d (a line he decided to remove from his eulogy).<\/p>\n

\u2018We knew we helped to kill her\u2019<\/p>\n

In one particularly troubling chapter, Spencer tells how Bashir, \u201ca self-serving fraud\u201d, tricked Diana into her 1995 Panorama interview in which she famously declared, \u201cWell, there were three of us in the marriage, so it was a bit crowded\u201d. To obtain the interview, Bashir forged bank statements<\/a> that falsely suggested Diana\u2019s private secretary was being paid to keep her under surveillance. <\/p>\n

According to the book, Bashir ensnared Diana in a web of lies, telling her the queen was seriously ill with a heart condition and expected to soon die, that an established royal had contracted HIV\/AIDS, and that William\u2019s watch had been bugged to record conversations between him and his mother \u201cfor use by her enemies\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is amazing, now, how outrageous Bashir\u2019s inventions were,\u201d Spencer writes, before adding: \u201cI believe Diana was so open to Bashir\u2019s accusations because she was an early and unknowing victim of phone-hacking\u201d and because his fabrications fit with \u201cDiana\u2019s reasonable concerns at that time\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Spencer says Diana told him that Mohamed Al Fayed, father of her partner Dodi, once groped her.
\n Patrick Bar\/AAP<\/p>\n

Spencer also has harsh words for Mohamed Al Fayed, the late Harrods owner and father of Dodi \u2013 Diana\u2019s partner, who died with her in the Paris crash. More than 400 allegations<\/a> of sexual misconduct have been made against Fayed, including rape, sexual assault and human trafficking. He died in 2023 without facing any charges.<\/p>\n

Spencer recalls Diana confiding in him \u201cwith revulsion how, early in her romance with Dodi, Mohamed had come up to her, dropped a hand onto her buttocks and squeezed them while saying in a leery, suggestive tone, \u2018And in Egypt, father-in-law gets first go\u2026\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe laughed when recounting the ghastliness of the episode,\u201d Spencer writes, \u201cbut she had been alerted to who Dodi\u2019s father really was.\u201d<\/p>\n

The memoir makes clear that Diana, hounded by the press and distrustful of those around her, feared for her life. (A tabloid editor reportedly told a member of Spencer\u2019s team, \u201cWe knew we helped to kill her, but we didn\u2019t need Spencer to tell the world.\u201d)<\/p>\n

The real tragedy<\/p>\n

In the end, Swan Song, despite its claim to be the authoritative account of Diana\u2019s life, is only another interpretation. <\/p>\n

The irony of Spencer\u2019s self-confessed need \u201cto speak on Diana\u2019s behalf\u201d is that his memoir is now part of the machine he abhors. It reminds us Diana remains, as always, subject to others\u2019 opinions: claimed, contested and reimagined by those who loved her, those who profited from her, and those who cannot let her go.<\/p>\n

Perhaps that is the real tragedy: she can no longer speak back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Revenge is a dish best served cold, so the saying goes. Charles Spencer\u2019s new memoir, Swan Song, arrives…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625769,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-625768","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\/625768","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=625768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}