Strange days for royalists, right? They’re now twisting themselves in knots to bash Princess Diana’s brother, the Earl Spencer, for writing down his recollections of Diana and everything that happened around her. The first big headline from Swan Song was Charles Spencer’s recollection of a phone call between himself and then-Prince Charles in the days after Diana’s 1997 death. They were arguing over the funeral arrangements and Prince Charles unloaded “his pent-up contempt for Diana, and his horror that the world was so bowled over by her death.” Then Prince Charles hissed at Spencer, “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough!”
This recollection led to Buckingham Palace releasing a bonkers statement in which they basically called the Earl Spencer a liar: “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.” The royal ecosystem has been in shambles ever since, with even hardened royal-bootlickers questioning whether the palace’s statement put more fuel on this particular fire. I guess the palace forgot that Charles Spencer also signed up for promotional interviews, and in his new BBC interview, he was asked about the palace’s statement and whether he’s lying about the current king.
In his first interview since the statement was released, the Earl insisted he was “telling the truth” about the phone call, telling the BBC: “I can tell you here and now, those are exactly the words he said.”
Reacting to the comment from the palace in an interview at his Althorp estate, he said: “Well, is he furious? Is he furious or is he embarrassed?”
He added: “I’ve only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles at any stage of my life…. 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. Genuinely, that is what he said. I don’t hear him saying he didn’t say that.”
When asked whether he had evidence to back up his claim, the Earl said he had told family and friends what had been said at the time “because it was so monstrous”.
He also described the palace rebuttal to his account as a “smudged one”, adding: “They’ve said that recollections may vary.”
Something I’m keeping my eye on is the performative shock AND the lack of shock in some quarters. The old-guard royal reporters who actually knew Diana and spoke to her often (like Richard Kay) are not shocked in the least by Charles Spencer’s revelations. Those are the reporters who remember the briefing wars and how the Windsors threw everything at Diana in an attempt to destroy her. But the performative-shock people are interesting too – like, given everything we know about King Charles, Spencer’s story sounds completely in character. I’m including the BBC interview below, alongside a clip of Richard Kay defending Charles Spencer and saying that of course Spencer kept notes and remembers what happened.
Richard Kay publicly confirns that Charles Spencer kept notes of everything that was said at all times and he was aware that King Charles has said this , apparently from Diana’s family, her sisters were very upset about it and her mother too. He also mentions that King Charles…
— Nina (@ShakeLS) September 18, 2026
Screencaps courtesy of BBC.
