King Charles allegedly told Princess Diana’s brother to “rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough” days after her tragic death, according to a bombshell new memoir set to be serialised in the Daily Mail.
Charles, who was prince at the time, made the apparent remarks to Earl Spencer during a major dispute over funeral arrangements after Diana died in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997.
The argument came after the decision was made to have princes William and Harry, who were aged 15 and 12 at the time, walk in their mother’s funeral procession, a decision that has since been the public of widespread public debate.
Earl Spencer claims, in his memoir titled Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, that he argued Diana would not have wanted her sons to join the procession.
Charles afterwards phoned him, and remarked in a “stream of anger” that his ex-wife would soon be forgotten.
“He 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. ‘Rest assured,’ he hissed, ‘we’ll forget her soon enough!’” the memoir claims.
A Buckingham Palace spokesperson told The Sun: “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.”
The Independent has contacted Buckingham Palace for comment. It has not seen Earl Spencer’s memoir detailing the allegations.
The book is likely to be highly critical of the royal family, and comes during a painful period marked by several scandals and family disputes.
The Daily Mail says the book will include a “string of further extraordinary claims about Diana’s failed marriage to King Charles and the tumultuous aftermath of her tragic death in a car crash in Paris in 1997”.
It was reported earlier today that copies of Charles Spencer’s new memoir about his sister Princess Diana have been stolen from a lorry ahead of its release date, according to reports.
Diana’s death in 1997 caused an outpouring of grief across the world and especially in the UK, where she was a very popular figure.
But her death exposed a rift between the royal family and the British public who were angry at the royals’ reserved response, which failed to match the grief of the rest of the nation.
Prince William and Prince Harry have spoken out about the day of their mother’s funeral.
The latter recently said while speaking to royal biographer Angela Levin for her book ‘Harry: Conversations with the Prince’: “I don’t think any child should be asked to do that, under any circumstances. I don’t think it would happen today.”
“No child should lose their mother at such a young age and then have his grief observed by thousands of people.”
Prince William said in a 2017 BBC documentary called Diana 7 Days that he felt “completely numb, disorientated, dizzy”.
