{"id":851047,"date":"2026-09-17T14:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T14:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/851047\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T14:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T14:48:15","slug":"king-charles-issues-fiery-response-to-princess-dianas-brother-over-claims-in-new-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/851047\/","title":{"rendered":"King Charles issues fiery response to Princess Diana\u2019s brother over claims in new book"},"content":{"rendered":"

LONDON \u2014 Buckingham Palace has issued a rare and unusually forceful denial after the brother of the late Princess Diana<\/a> claimed that the then-Prince Charles<\/a> said his first wife would soon be forgotten in the days after her death.<\/p>\n

In a soon-to-be published memoir, Charles Spencer recounts the emotional days in the aftermath of Diana\u2019s 1997 death in a Paris car crash at the age of 36.<\/p>\n

One excerpt published Wednesday alleges a heated exchange with Charles, now the British king, over whether Princes William and Harry \u2014 then 15 and 12 \u2014 should walk behind their mother\u2019s coffin in the funeral procession.<\/p>\n

Spencer says he expressed that Diana would not want them to endure such an ordeal, and claims this was met with a \u201cstream of anger\u201d from Charles. The aristocrat writes that Charles \u201cunleashed 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. \u2018Rest assured,\u2019 he hissed, \u2018we\u2019ll forget her soon enough.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

\"InThe brother of the late princess alleges a heated exchange about whether Princes William and Harry should walk behind their mother’s coffin.Anwar Hussein \/ Getty Images file<\/p>\n

In response, Buckingham Palace issued a forceful statement denying the claims and suggesting that grief for his older sister may have affected Spencer\u2019s memory.<\/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 said the statement, released Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Diana\u2019s 1997 funeral procession is etched into modern memory.<\/p>\n

Her brother and two young sons were among those who walked solemnly behind her coffin as it passed through central London.<\/p>\n

\"Diana,Charles and Diana’s high-profile marriage ended in 1996.Tim Graham \/ Getty Images file<\/p>\n

India McTaggart, a royal correspondent at The Telegraph newspaper, told NBC News: \u201cEarl Spencer\u2019s book is expected to contain a number of incendiary claims, and perhaps this was the palace trying to get on the front foot and get ahead of some of the allegations we expect to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

The royal family mostly avoided commenting when Prince Harry published his autobiography \u201cSpare\u201d in 2023,<\/a> which also garnered global headlines with claims of bitter family feuds.<\/p>\n

Queen Elizabeth II famously issued a brief but forceful statement in 2021 <\/a>following allegations from Harry and his wife, Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, of racism in the family. \u201cRecollections may vary,\u201d the late queen famously noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe palace will certainly be bracing for more headlines\u201d as a result of the new memoir, McTaggart said.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, we\u2019ll see Harry carrying out public engagements this week, while the king and the prince and princess of Wales continue with theirs. It will be interesting to see how all of that is covered now that they\u2019re all in Britain at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diana was one of the most photographed women in the world after marrying Charles in 1981. Their high-profile marriage ended in 1996 and she died a year later, after being chased by paparazzi with her partner Dodi Fayed. Her death in a Paris tunnel brought the world to a standstill.<\/p>\n

At the time of her funeral, the royal family received criticism from the public and the press for appearing to be slow to react to the outpouring of love and grief from the public for a woman posthumously dubbed the \u201cpeople\u2019s princess.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spencer\u2019s book, \u201cSwan Song: Diana, My Sister,\u201d is due to be published next week. The Daily Mail published the first in a series of excerpts late Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2014 Buckingham Palace has issued a rare and unusually forceful denial after the brother of the late…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88],"class_list":["post-851047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}