Earl Spencer Publishes Diana Memoir With Claims About King Charles
Charles Spencer, Earl Spencer, has published a memoir about his sister Diana, Princess of Wales, that makes painful claims about King Charles III.
The book is titled Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, also shortened to Swan Song. It was scheduled for publication on 22 September. Spencer, Diana's younger brother, was 62. Hello! reports it is the first time he has written about his sister at length.
According to that reporting, the book claims Charles told Spencer about Diana: "we'll forget her soon enough". The same reporting says the book describes Charles as "giddy" and "giddily elated" after Diana's death in a car crash in 1997. It also claims Charles told Diana on the eve of their 1981 wedding that he was not "in love" with her.
These are claims made in a memoir as reported by a magazine, not findings by a court or inquiry. Buckingham Palace answered them with a statement about grief and memory. A Buckingham Palace spokesman said: "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."
Spencer has defended the claims about the King made in the book, BBC reports. In a BBC interview, Spencer said the reaction of Diana's sons to the book's comments "will not be a surprise". Prince William and Prince Harry were 15 and 12 when they walked behind their mother's coffin at her funeral in 1997.
For readers picking this up fresh, that funeral walk is part of why the book is sensitive. Diana, who married Charles in 1981 and divorced in 1996, died in Paris in August 1997. Her sons walked with Charles, Spencer and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, behind the coffin in London.
The publishing operation is global. Penguin Random House imprints were to publish Swan Song simultaneously in numerous countries on 22 September, according to Bertelsmann. Penguin Press was to publish Swan Song: Diana, My Sister in the United States. People reports the book was to be translated into 12 languages.
What makes this stand out is the source. This is not a distant commentator. It is Diana's brother, writing about his sister and about the then Prince of Wales who became King.
