Buckingham Palace Responds To Charles Spencer’s Claim About King Charles And Diana

By Adejoke Henry

Nearly three decades after Princess Diana’s death, an argument over what happened during the painful days before her funeral has returned to Buckingham Palace.

And this time, the Palace has chosen to answer.

A new memoir by Diana’s younger brother, Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, has triggered an unusually direct response from King Charles III after Spencer alleged that the then Prince of Wales told him, days after Diana’s death, that they would “forget her soon enough.”

The allegation appears in Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, Spencer’s deeply personal account of his relationship with Diana and the turbulent days leading up to her death.

The book will be published globally on September 22, ahead of the 30th anniversary of Diana’s death next year.

At the centre of the controversy is a telephone conversation that only two men could fully account for: Diana’s former husband and her brother.

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Diana died on August 31, 1997, aged 36, after a car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris.

Britain was quickly overwhelmed by public grief. Flowers piled up outside royal residences as thousands of people gathered to mourn a woman whose relationship with the Royal Family had often been difficult.

Behind closed doors, another difficult conversation was taking place: how should Diana’s sons, Prince William, then 15, and Prince Harry, just 12, take part in their mother’s funeral?

According to an extract from Spencer’s memoir, he was told by a senior Palace aide that the boys would walk behind Diana’s coffin.

Spencer objected.

He believed Diana would not have wanted her grieving sons exposed to such an enormous public spectacle.

He says Charles telephoned him shortly afterwards, and the conversation became heated. Charles reportedly pointed out that he had himself walked in the funeral procession for his great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten, in 1979.

Spencer says he remained opposed.

According to his account, Charles then became angry before making the statement that has now reignited debate over one of the most difficult periods in modern royal history.

“Rest assured,” Spencer alleges Charles told him, “we’ll forget her soon enough.”

Spencer says he interpreted the remark as evidence of Charles’s feelings towards Diana and his reaction to the extraordinary public mourning that followed her death.

It is important, however, that the allegation remains Spencer’s account of a private conversation almost 30 years ago. There is no recording or independent witness publicly available to verify what was said.

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The Palace Answers

Buckingham Palace could have remained silent.

It often does.

The Palace generally avoids responding to claims made in books about the Royal Family. It notably did not publicly rebut the many allegations made by Prince Harry in his 2023 memoir, Spare.

But this time it responded.

“While we do not comment on books as a matter of principle,” a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said, “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.”

It was a carefully worded but unmistakably pointed statement.

Rather than simply asserting that the alleged words were never spoken, the response questioned the reliability of Spencer’s memory of events from an extraordinarily traumatic period.

Royal biographer and Majesty magazine editor-in-chief Ingrid Seward described the Palace’s intervention as highly unusual.

“It’s unprecedented as far as I can think,” Seward told the Press Association. “It’s very unusual, let’s say. Very unusual.”

She suggested the King may have wanted to challenge the account partly because of its implications for his sons.

“I imagine it’s because the King was very upset and wanted to set the record straight — more on behalf of his sons than anything else,” she said.

What About Harry’s Own Memory

The argument over whether William and Harry should have joined the procession is particularly significant because Harry himself has spoken publicly about that day.

In the end, both boys walked.

On September 6, 1997, William and Harry followed their mother’s coffin through London alongside their father Charles, grandfather Prince Philip and uncle Charles Spencer.

Millions watched.

Twenty years later, Harry described what it felt like to be the 12-year-old boy inside that extraordinary public moment.

“My mother had just died, and I had to walk a long way behind her coffin, surrounded by thousands of people watching me.”

The world awaits the release of “Swan Song: Diana My Sister” on September 22.
It promises to be quite telling, judging by recent events.

Photo credit: Stern

Cover picture credit: thecelebpost