The book is \u201cSwan Song: Diana, My Sister,\u201d a memoir by Diana\u2019s brother, Charles Spencer. In the Daily Mail preview, Spencer reveals that the king expressed \u201cpent-up contempt\u201d for his ex-wife, six days after her 1997 death in a Paris crash. The then-Prince Charles also allegedly told her brother, \u201cRest assured, we\u2019ll forget her soon enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
The king made these alleged comments during a heated conversation he had with Spencer after Diana\u2019s death sparked a global outpouring of grief, the Daily Mail reported. The men were talking about plans for Diana\u2019s funeral and whether her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, then ages 15 and 12, would walk behind her coffin in the funeral procession.<\/p>\n
Spencer said he heard about this idea from one of Queen Elizabeth II\u2019s senior aides and declared, \u201cThat\u2019s not going to happen,\u201d the Daily Mail reported. Spencer said he received a phone call from Charles a few minutes later, during which he told Charles that his sister would not have wanted her sons to endure such a public ordeal.<\/p>\n
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(J\u200beff J. M\u200bitchell\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Prince Philip, from left, Prince William, Charles Spencer, Prince Harry and Prince Charles walk outside Westminster Abbey during the funeral service for Princess Diana on Sept. 6, 1997.<\/p>\n
According to Spencer, Charles questioned the Spencer family\u2019s sense of duty and said the idea came from his own experience, 18 years earlier, when he walked in the funeral procession of Lord Mountbatten. Charles\u2019 adored great-uncle was killed in a 1979 terrorist bombing. Spencer claimed that Charles \u201cwent nuts\u201d after he pointed out that the then-Prince of Wales was 30 years old at the time of Mountbatten\u2019s funeral.<\/p>\n
In what the Daily Mail called \u201cone of the book\u2019s most extraordinary passages,\u201d Spencer wrote: \u201cPrince Charles continued his stream of anger, without me interrupting. Then he stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI assumed the pause signaled an effort to bring himself under control, but then he unleashed down the phone what I have always taken to be his pent-up contempt for Diana, and his horror that the world was so bowled over by her death,\u201d Spencer continued.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s when, according to Spencer, Charles \u201chissed\u201d and said, \u201cRest assured, we\u2019ll forget her soon enough!\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n
Spencer wrote that he was \u201cso stunned\u201d by the future king\u2019s alleged remarks that he took a few seconds to reply.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018I can\u2019t believe you just said that,\u2019 I said flatly, before hanging up,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Spencer\u2019s description of the king\u2019s outburst threatens to reopen national wounds about Diana\u2019s death and the controversy surrounding her troubled marriage to Charles, their eventual divorce and his subsequent marriage to Camilla, who had been his mistress, the Daily Mail said. Spencer\u2019s book, described as \u201chistoric\u201d and \u2018extraordinarily moving,\u201d is due to be published worldwide next Tuesday.<\/p>\n
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(Johnny Eggitt\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Princess Diana, from left, Prince Harry and Prince William take part in commemorations for VJ Day in 1995.<\/p>\n
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson offered a seemingly sympathetic but ultimately dismissive response to Spencer\u2019s recall of the phone call and news about the book\u2019s publication, People magazine reported.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHis 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 spokesperson said.<\/p>\n The book could amplify divisions within in the royal family. The king is facing criticism over his handling of Harry\u2019s return to the U.K., while William reportedly wants nothing to do with his younger brother, from whom he is estranged.<\/p>\n Royal observers also have written about tensions between the brothers because of Harry\u2019s reported attempts to somehow claim that he\u2019s the true heir of their mother\u2019s legacy as both a public figure and as a global philanthropist. There have been reports that one reason that Harry and his American wife have moved back to the U.K. after six turbulent years in the United States is so that they can produce a documentary about Diana\u2019s life to mark the 30th anniversary of her death.<\/p>\n