Princess Diana's brother, Earl Charles Spencer, is standing by his account of a contentious exchange with King Charles III.
Spencer, who leveled allegations against Charles in his new book, doubled down on his claims in an interview with the BBC, released Friday, Sept. 18.
In his memoir "Swan Song: Diana, My Sister," which is due for a Sept. 22 release, Spencer alleged that days before his sister's 1997 funeral, Charles, then the Prince of Wales, hissed, "Rest assured, we'll forget her soon enough!" The excerpt was published by the Daily Mail on Sept. 16, with additional passages set to be serialized in the newspaper in the coming days.
Buckingham Palace quickly responded to the bombshell revelation in an unusually firm statement to 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."
Reflecting on the growing controversy, Spencer told the BBC of Charles, "Well, is he furious? Is he furious, or is he embarrassed?"
"I can tell you here and now, those are exactly the words he said," Spencer, 62, added. "I've only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles at any stage of my life."
According to the Daily Mail, Spencer says in his book that when a senior aide to Queen Elizabeth II told him that Prince William, 15 at the time, and 12-year-old Prince Harry would take part in Princess Diana's funeral procession, he replied, "That's not going to happen."
He alleges that minutes later Charles called to discuss the matter, noting he had walked in the procession for his great-uncle Lord Mountbatten in 1979. When Spencer said Charles was 30 years old at the time, the prince allegedly "went nuts."
Charles, whose divorce from Diana was finalized in 1996, "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," Spencer reportedly wrote.
Despite the palace's criticism of his allegations, Spencer maintained the accuracy of his account.
"I was hyper alert to what he was saying, and those are precisely the words that he said and I promise that to you now," Spencer said. "Genuinely, that is what he said. I don't hear him saying he didn't say that."
Spencer's book arrives as the 30th anniversary of Princess Diana's death, Aug. 31, 2027, approaches. In an August news release promoting his book, the earl said he was inspired to "tell the truth about Diana from her brother's perspective."
"This has convinced me to write down my own thoughts and memories, once and for all, rather than having the discomfort of again reading the opinions of others, many of which are based on untruths that have become accepted over time," Spencer said. He added that in the book, he aims to "speak on Diana's behalf and do so in an openly positive way."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Princess Diana's brother doubles down on scathing King Charles claims
