Earl Spencer Says Then Prince Charles Told Him He Was Lucky to Inherit Young

2 min read

It’s been a tough week for the royal family as Earl Spencer’s book and its damaging claims about the King dominate the headlines. And in interviews to promote Swan Song: Diana, my sister. Spencer has not held back, saying in one that then Prince Charles told him he was lucky to inherit young.

Describing a “peculiar” conversation, the Earl said he had with Prince Charles a few days before his father died, Spencer said, “Prince Charles as he was then sort of said to me ‘You’re so lucky’ and I said ‘I’m so sorry sir?’ and he said ‘You’re so lucky to have inherited so young’,” he told CBS News. The Earl continued, “And I thought that’s such a peculiar way of looking at somebody’s family loss really and I suppose it betrayed his frustration at not being King, I guess.”

A PR war has broken out between Earl Spencer and Buckingham Palace since the contents of the book were released. The Palace took the rare step of commenting on it to push back against the claim by the Earl that Prince Charles had said “We’ll forget her soon enough” on the phone to him in the days following Diana’s death.

“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,” a Palace spokesperson said in a statement.

However, in a slew of subsequent interviews the Earl has doubled down. “It’s not every day you’re gaslit by a king, but I was really upset with that because I thought it was very, not only condescending, but not straight,” he told ABC News. He also told the BBC that he could have gone further, saying “This is not a threat, it’s a fact, I know lots of things about the King which I chose not to include in the book because they were not relevant.”

Town & Country Contributing Editor Victoria Murphy has reported on the British Royal Family since 2010. She has interviewed Prince Harry and has travelled the world covering several royal tours. She is a frequent contributor to Good Morning America. Victoria authored Town & Country book The Queen: A Life in Pictures, released in 2021.