Charles Spencer, 9th Earl Spencer, claims King Charles “sounded giddily elated – like a lottery winner” after Princess Diana’s death on August 31, 1997.
Charles Spencer has claimed King Charles “sounded giddily elated – like a lottery winner” during a phone call immediately after Princess Diana’s death.
The 9th Earl Spencer, 62, wrote the shock allegation in his memoir, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, in which he seeks to correct “untruths” about his sister and the monarch’s ex-wife, who died aged 36 after being fatally injured in a car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel on August 31, 1997.
In an excerpt from the book, serialised by the Daily Mail ahead of its release on September 22, Spencer said his phone “rang constantly” following the tragedy in Paris, France, which also claimed the lives of Diana’s 42-year-old partner, film producer Dodi Fayed, and their 41-year-old driver, Henri Paul.
He then claimed: “Prince Charles caught me as I crossed the landing upstairs.
“Unlike my other callers, who were stunned, barely able to articulate their condolences and offers of help, he sounded giddily elated – like a lottery winner, I remember thinking at the time.
“He let me know he had informed William and Harry of their mother’s death, first thing that morning, in their bedrooms at Balmoral. It all sounded strangely matter-of-fact, given the enormity of the disaster.”
Referring to 77-year-old Charles’ wife, Queen Camilla, 79, Spencer continued: “Looking back now, I suspect the prince’s first reaction must have been to think more of how this event might free him to marry the woman he loved, rather than appreciating the loss of one he did not.
“It can be hard to feel too much sympathy for an ex-spouse, or those who care for them profoundly, after bitter divorce.”
Spencer also claimed that, on the eve of Diana and Charles’ wedding at St. Paul’s Cathedral on July 29, 1981, she confided in a close friend that “he was very happy to marry her, but he was not actually in love with her”.
Spencer described the alleged admission as a “hammer blow” to Diana, claiming the Princess of Wales became “certain that Prince Charles was entering their marriage with his heart elsewhere”.
According to Spencer, Diana “tried to break off” their engagement after “having found a bracelet that Prince Charles had bought for Camilla”.
However, she did not go through with it after her father, John Spencer, 8th Earl Spencer, was said to be “appalled” by the idea and told her: “It was impossible to pull out of such an enormous commitment at that point.”
Spencer also claimed in his bombshell memoir that Diana was left “devastated” by a comment Charles, formerly Prince of Wales, allegedly made days after their engagement was announced on February 24, 1981, when he “squeezed her waist and said, ‘Oh, a bit chubby here, aren’t we?'”
Spencer said Diana was already battling an eating disorder at the time, and claimed she later told him it had caused her waist to shrink from “29 to 23½ inches between her engagement and her marriage”.
Spencer also wrote he is convinced that Diana had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and, like himself, suffered from Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria.
Swan Song: Diana, My Sister also alleges that Diana “drove herself more than once to Beachy Head, the highest chalk sea cliff in England, while contemplating ending it all”.
But noted: “Her love for her sons stopped her from going further.”
The memoir also claims that senior figures in the late Queen Elizabeth and then-Prince Charles’ households discussed who should walk behind Diana’s coffin during her funeral procession to Westminster Abbey on September 6, 1997.
According to Spencer, Charles was “adamant” that he wanted to take part, but the funeral committee feared “members of the public might shout abuse at him” if the royal walked alone.
They concluded that persuading Spencer and Princes William and Harry, who were 15 and 12 respectively, to walk alongside him “would surely guarantee against insults flying”.
The latest allegations against the King come a day after Spencer claimed in Swan Song: Diana, My Sister that, just days after Diana’s death, Charles told him: “Rest assured,’ he hissed, ‘we’ll forget her soon enough!'”
Spencer alleged he and his brother-in-law argued when debating whether William and Harry should walk behind their mother’s coffin during her funeral procession.
After Charles told Spencer he had walked in the funeral procession of his beloved great-uncle Lord Mountbatten in 1979, Spencer pointed out he had been 30 at the time and claimed the prince “went nuts”.
The Earl wrote: “Prince Charles continued his stream of anger, without me interrupting. Then he stopped.
“I assumed the pause signalled an effort to bring himself under control, but then 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!’”
In a very rare statement, a spokesperson for the King said: “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 judgement and colour memory in ways others do not recognise, even many years after such a loss.”
King Charles ‘giddily elated’ after Princess Diana’s death, Charles Spencer’s memoir claims
