Earl Spencer Claims King Charles Sounded ‘Giddily Elated’ After Diana’s Death as Palace Issues Rare Rebuttal

Buckingham Palace has issued a rare public rebuttal after Earl Spencer alleged in his forthcoming memoir that King Charles sounded ‘giddily elated — like a lottery winner’ in a phone call following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997.

The claim was published on Thursday in the latest extract from Spencer’s book, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, which is being serialised in the Daily Mail ahead of its release on September 22.

In the excerpt, Spencer wrote: ‘Unlike my other callers, who were stunned, barely able to articulate their condolences and offers of help, he [Charles] sounded giddily elated — like a lottery winner, I remember thinking at the time.’

Spencer, 62, also wrote that he suspected Charles’s first reaction to Diana’s death ‘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.’

Palace Responds to Claims

Buckingham Palace responded to earlier extracts from the book on Wednesday evening with a statement that royal commentators have described as unusually pointed. ‘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,’ a palace spokesperson said.

Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine, told the Press Association that the palace’s response was ‘unprecedented.’ She said: ‘I imagine it’s because the King was very upset and wanted to set the record straight — more on behalf of his sons than anything else.’

The dispute centres on Spencer’s account of a heated phone call with Charles before Diana’s funeral. Spencer claims he objected to Princes William and Harry, then aged 15 and 12, walking behind their mother’s coffin. He wrote that Charles ‘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.’

Further Allegations in the Memoir

The latest extract also includes allegations that Diana told Spencer she was certain Charles was ‘entering their marriage with his heart elsewhere,’ and that she tried to break off the engagement after finding a bracelet Charles had bought for Camilla Parker Bowles, now Queen Camilla.

Spencer further alleges that Charles may have contributed to Diana’s eating disorder, writing that her waist shrank from 29 inches to 23.5 inches between the engagement and wedding after Charles squeezed her waist and said, ‘Oh, a bit chubby here, aren’t we.’ He also writes that he believes Diana had ADHD and suffered from Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria.

The book also claims that Diana drove herself to Beachy Head, a chalk cliff in East Sussex, ‘more than once’ while contemplating suicide, but that ‘her love for her sons stopped her from going further.’

Book Theft and Publication Date

Earlier this week, four copies of the Dutch-language edition of Swan Song were stolen from a truck in the Netherlands while en route from the publisher’s printers to a warehouse. The book is due to be published in Britain and internationally on September 22 by Penguin Michael Joseph.

Royal Family Continues Public Engagements

The row has overshadowed a busy period for the royal family. King Charles appeared in public for the first time since the palace’s rebuttal on Thursday, hosting an AI summit at Dumfries House in Scotland where he warned of the ‘existential dangers’ of artificial intelligence falling into the wrong hands.

The Prince and Princess of Wales carried out their first official visit to the Isle of Bute in Scotland on the same day. The Duke of Sussex attended the inaugural Invictus Spirit Awards in London on Thursday evening, his first public appearance since returning to the UK from the United States last month.

Buckingham Palace has not issued a further response to the latest extracts published on Thursday. Swan Song: Diana, My Sister is scheduled for release on September 22.