LONDON – Princess Diana's brother, Earl Charles Spencer, and King Charles III are locked in a very public heated battle. The pair are trading blows over the tragic death of Diana almost 30 years ago as Spencer releases his new memoir, in which he makes a string of staggering claims about the royal family and its handling of her death.
The fallout began last week, when an excerpt from "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister" was published by the Daily Mail on Sept. 16. In the excerpt, Spencer claims that during an argument with Charles following his sister's death, the then-Prince of Wales told him: "Rest assured, we'll forget her soon enough."
The palace doesn't typically respond to books about the royal family, but in this case, an aide to the king did
release a statement to the bombshell revelation, telling the BBC: "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 color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss."
Over the weekend, Spencer reacted to the palace's statement, telling the Mail on Sunday that "it is not every day you wake up to find you’ve been gaslit by the king."
Spencer told the newspaper that the palace's statement "was astonishingly provocative and below the belt because it was essentially trying to say I’d lied without the King being able to deny what I’d said."
The book will be released globally on Tuesday, Sept. 22 and is expected to contain even more bombshells and criticism of Britain's royal family. Spencer claims his sister would have stood by the book's contents.
In the book, Spencer says that he and the king spoke over the phone to discuss Prince William and Prince Harry walking in their mother's funeral procession, an act Spencer feared would be too much of a public spectacle for his nephews, then just 15 and 12. He also believed that walking behind the coffin could traumatize the young royals, particularly Harry.
During the phone call, Charles "went nuts," Spencer writes in the book, adding that the future monarch then "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."
He also writes that he ended the phone call saying, "I can’t believe you just said that," before hanging up on Charles.
Charles Spencer says he is telling the truth in new memoir
In an interview with the BBC, which aired on Sunday, Spencer was asked about his recollection of that 1997 phone call and if his claims about the monarch were accurate.
"I can tell you here and now, those are exactly the words he said," Spencer said.
"I've only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles at any stage in my life," he continued. "I was hyper-alert to what he was saying, and those are precisely the words he said. And I promise that to you now. Genuinely, that is what he said."
The earl said that at the time he told "close friends and family" about the "monstrous" comment.
Spencer's book arrives a month after the 29th anniversary of Diana's death in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997. Next summer will mark three decades since her passing.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Princess Diana's brother doubles down on rift with King Charles
