The Prince and Princess of Wales spent the weekend in Scotland as the fallout from Earl Spencer’s memoir about Diana, Princess of Wales, continued.
William and Catherine are thought to have travelled to Royal Deeside after their visit to the Isle of Bute on Thursday, while the monarch stayed at his Birkhall home on the Balmoral estate, following two days of engagements at Dumfries House in Ayrshire.
Catherine stayed for two nights before returning to Windsor alone on a British Airways flight from Aberdeen on Saturday morning.
Neither Buckingham Palace nor Kensington Palace would comment on whether they had spent time with the King. The monarch and his heir have made a point of enjoying private time together in Scotland in late September in recent years.
Last year, William stayed with the King on his Scottish estate, where he also reportedly hosted friends for a shooting party.
While the Prince has made no public comment on the allegations in his uncle’s memoir Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, his proximity to his father over the weekend may be interpreted by some as a show of support amid a series of damaging claims made against the King by his former brother-in-law.
© Getty ImagesEarl Spencer’s shock allegations
Among them is an account of a furious row Earl Spencer says he had with the then-Prince Charles in the days following Diana’s tragic death in a car accident in 1997. Earl Spencer claims Charles said of his former wife, “We’ll forget her soon enough.”
He says the two men argued over the decision to have Prince William, 15, and Prince Harry, 12, walk behind their mother’s coffin at her funeral in 1997.
Last week, the Palace hit back, with a spokesman saying: “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.”
© Getty ImagesOver the weekend, Earl Spencer conducted a series of TV interviews, during which he accused the monarch of “gaslighting” him and insisted he was telling the truth about the conversation.
He also alleges that Diana told him Prince Charles was in love with his valet and that Charles sounded “giddily elated” and “like a lottery winner” in the hours after her death.
Elsewhere, he recounts how Queen Elizabeth II offered to reinstate Diana’s HRH styling, which she had lost following her divorce, after her death, a move he rejected.
© Getty ImagesIt is understood that neither William nor Harry was aware of the contents of the book prior to last week.
Harry stayed with Earl Spencer and his wife, Dr Cat Jarman, at Althorp, where his mother is buried, back in July. William is not thought to be close to his uncle.
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