The most explosive comments Earl Spencer has made in his book so far – including shocking King Charles claims

Charles Spencer has sparked a royal war of words with the publication of a new memoir about his sister, Princess Diana. 

The Earl, 62, has made a series of damning claims about King Charles, leading to an unprecedented response from Buckingham Palace – and the Earl’s retort that he is being “gaslit“. 

So far, the allegations have included Charles acting “giddy” following the death of his ex-wife in a car crash in 1997 and telling her he was not “in love” with her on the eve of their 1981 wedding. 

In response to the claims made in the memoir, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said on Wednesday: “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.”

As Swan Song: Diana, My Sister is published, HELLO! takes a look at the boldest claims that have come to light so far…

King Charles said ‘we’ll soon forget’ Princess Diana 

Prince William and Prince Harry walked behind their mother’s coffin at her funeral in 1997, aged just 15 and 12. 

According to one book excerpt, one of Queen Elizabeth II’s senior aides told the Earl that William and Harry were to walk in the funeral procession, prompting the Earl to state, “that’s not going to happen”.

Charles called minutes later and told him that 18 years earlier, he had walked in the funeral procession of his great-uncle, Lord Mountbatten, it is claimed.

The Earl pointed out that Charles had been 30 at the time of Lord Mountbatten’s funeral in 1979.

In the excerpt, the Earl claims: “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!'” The Earl says he then hung up the phone.

On what William and Harry might think of the comments being brought up, the Earl added the words “will not be a surprise” in an interview with the BBC.

King Charles was ‘giddily elated’ after Diana’s death

In other excerpts from Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, Earl Spencer spoke of how Charles’s phone call following the car crash in 1997 “all sounded strangely matter-of-fact”.

One passage read: “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.

“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.”

Earl Spencer’s concern for Prince Harry

In another extract of the earl’s book, he told of his memories of the funeral, and his concern for Harry, after he observed a “lack of obvious care” for the then 12-year-old Prince.

The Earl recalled how “tiny, and slight, and bereft” his sister’s youngest son, then 12, looked on the day of her funeral.

Earl Spencer walked behind Diana’s coffin during the funeral procession on 6 September, 1997, alongside Harry, William, then 15, Charles, and the late Duke of Edinburgh.

In an extract from his memoir of his sister, recounting his memories of the day, Earl Spencer said: “I could not get over how tiny, and slight, and bereft, Harry looked.

“Too small to be doing this, I thought, and wondered how on earth this heartbroken child could bear the ordeal of that moment, or how he could possibly be expected to deal with the agony that the day ahead would insist upon.”

Harry has spoken of his own experience of the funeral in interviews, and in his 2023 memoir Spare, saying he felt “numb” as he walked behind his mother’s coffin. 

King Charles was ‘in love with his valet’

Earl Spencer also claims that Princess Diana’s reason for wanting to divorce King Charles was that he was “in love with his valet”. 

He wrote that Diana invited her brother for lunch to tell him she wanted to divorce Charles for this very reason.

He wrote: “She looked up at me, nodded, and said quietly: ‘But, Carlos, my husband is in love with his valet.’ I gulped. ‘Well, I guess, in that case, you really don’t have a choice.'”

“She did not name the member of staff, and I never asked her who it was, or why she would believe such an improbable thing. It was not important: the end of her marriage, and of her dreams, was.”

When asked if he tried to be “faithful and honorable” to Princess Diana during their marriage, Charles replied previously: “Yes… until it became irretrievably broken down, us both having tried.” He later married Camilla Parker-Bowles in 2005.

What Charles said to Diana on the eve of their wedding

Charles Spencer said he visited his sister at Clarence House on the day of her wedding, writing that he found her “sitting quietly in front of a mirror”. 

He said he only found out much later that “her husband-to-be had told her the previous day that she needed to know he was very happy to marry her, but he was not actually in love with her”.

In their 1981 engagement interview, the couple was asked if they were in love. 

While Diana responded “Of course”, Charles awkwardly chuckled and added, “Whatever ‘in love’ means.” 

King Charles’s ‘chubby’ remarks to Diana

In one passage, the Earl shines a spotlight on Diana’s battle with her eating disorder. 

The Princess publicly and openly struggled with bulimia nervosa for many years, first revealing her battle with the eating disorder in Andrew Morton’s 1992 biography, Diana: Her True Story, and later during her famous 1995 BBC Panorama interview.

Charles Spencer wrote: “Her insecurity was increased a few days after the engagement announcement when Prince Charles had squeezed her waist and said, ‘Oh, a bit chubby here, aren’t we?’

“This was a comment she found devastating (she would later share with me that her waist shrank from 29 to 23½ inches between her engagement and her marriage).”

Earl Spencer’s conviction that Diana had ADHD

Charles Spencer also writes that he believes Diana had ADHD. 

He said: “I am convinced now that Diana had ADHD, and that as part of that condition she suffered from Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria (as do I). 

“This is an intense emotional pain in the face of others’ rejection or criticism, which amplified her wounded response to her husband’s suggestions.”

Princess Michael was Diana’s ‘nightmare neighbour’

Another revelation saw the Earl claim that she regarded Princess Michael of Kent as her “nightmare neighbour”. 

Prince Michael and Princess Michael live in Apartment 10 at Kensington Palace, a five-bedroom, five-reception room apartment. 

The couple have lived in the palace since the seventies and were once neighbours with Princess Diana, who lived next door at combined Apartment 8 and 9.

At Diana’s funeral, the Earl recalled: “I saw the face of Princess Michael, whom Diana had considered her ‘nightmare neighbour’ at Kensington Palace. 

“She had accosted my sister after she was deprived of her HRH title, and said, with feigned kindness: ‘Don’t worry, Diana – you only need to curtsy to me when we are in public !'”

Charles behaving ‘like a petulant child’

Earl Spencer claims that King Charles behaved like a “petulant child” in a conversation more than 30 years ago.

The exchange took place at the funeral of John Spencer, the Earl’s father and the 8th Earl of Spencer, in 1992. 

The future King told the Earl he was “so lucky” to be inheriting the Althorp Estate in his twenties.

The Earl wrote: “At this he stamped his foot in emphasis. I have to say, very much like a child; and a petulant one, at that.”

Charles became King in 2022, aged 73, following the death of his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth II. 

Swan Song: Diana My Sister is published on 22 September.