Piers Morgan Threatens to Sue Earl Spencer Over Diana Memoir Claims
Piers Morgan says he will sue Earl Spencer and his publishers over claims in Spencer's memoir about Diana, Princess of Wales. He made the statement on his YouTube show Piers Morgan Uncensored, according to reporting published on 22 September 2026. The Guardian
The book at issue is Swan Song: Diana, My Sister. Its publisher is Penguin Random House. Spencer writes that he personally called round tabloid newspaper editors to uninvite them from Diana's funeral after they had been invited. The Guardian
In that account, Spencer claimed Morgan "snarled with annoyance" at being uninvited. ITV Morgan rejects the episode in full. He disputes that the call took place as described. He also disputes that he responded in the terms alleged.
The second disputed passage concerns photographs of Diana working out in a leotard, taken by an allegedly hidden camera in a gym. Spencer's book alleges Morgan was behind the publication of those photographs. The Guardian
Morgan's rebuttal rests on chronology. He stated the gym photographs were printed by the Sunday Mirror on 7 November 1993. He stated he joined the Daily Mirror in October 1995. He was editor of the Mirror from 1995 to 2004. At the time of the gym pictures, he said, he was doing a showbiz column for The Sun. The dates do not overlap.
Morgan described the book as containing "fabricated inaccuracies" and "brazen falsity". The Telegraph He separately described the claims about him as "demonstrable lies". He questioned Spencer's credibility by asking why anyone should believe anything else in the book.
The dispute has two strands. Spencer's book also includes the claim that King Charles said "we'll forget her soon enough" after Diana died. Buckingham Palace questioned that claim ahead of Princess Diana's funeral. Spencer said he left details about King Charles out of his book about Princess Diana as its release neared. Sky News The memoir has been released.
The broader context here is how a libel case is decided. Libel is a false written claim that harms reputation. Like an audit, it turns on documentation rather than recollection. Contemporaneous employment records, commissioning notes, and invitation lists carry more weight than competing memories of events nearly three decades old. Morgan has framed his defence around that kind of record, citing mastheads and dates. Spencer's account relies on personal recollection of private conversations and telephone calls.
In my view, the parallel royal allegation raises the stakes beyond a press conduct dispute. A contested quotation attributed to the monarch invites institutional rebuttal and close textual scrutiny of drafts, proofs and excised passages. The next signals to watch are a formal letter of claim, any demand for correction or withdrawal, and whether Penguin Random House defends the passages, amends future impressions, or discloses its fact-checking file. Intent to sue is not suit filed.
