LONDON — Charles Spencer’s memoir about his late sister, Princess Diana, was published Tuesday after excerpts triggered sensational headlines and prompted a rare response from King Charles III.
Nearly three decades after Diana died in a 1997 car crash in Paris, public interest in her life and death remains strong.
Penguin published “Swan Song: Diana, My Sister,” which Spencer wrote and which has been translated into 12 languages. Spencer said he wrote the memoir to speak for Diana and challenge accounts about her that he believes have become accepted over time.
Excerpts published in the British tabloid Daily Mail included claims about Diana’s relationship with Charles, her final years and the aftermath of her death.
Spencer claimed Charles, then the Prince of Wales, told him during a phone call shortly after Diana’s death, “Rest assured, we’ll forget her soon enough.”
He also said Charles reacted angrily when Spencer objected to Princes William and Harry, then 15 and 12, walking behind their mother’s coffin during her funeral procession.
Buckingham Palace issued a rare statement in response to the claims.
“His Majesty is mindful that the pain of fraternal grief can cloud reason, affect judgement and color memory in ways others do not recognize, even many years after such a loss,” a palace spokesperson said.
Spencer rejected the suggestion that grief had affected his memory. He told the Mail on Sunday that he remembered Charles’ words clearly and said, “I don’t hear (King Charles) saying he didn’t say that.”
The memoir also recounts Diana’s struggles with suicidal thoughts. Spencer wrote that she drove toward Beachy Head, a cliff in southern England, but said her love for William and Harry stopped her from going further.
Spencer also wrote that Diana told him she and Charles were divorcing because Charles was “in love with his valet.” Charles and Diana divorced in 1996, and Charles later married Camilla Parker Bowles, his longtime partner.
Royal experts have disputed some of Spencer’s accounts.
Royal biographer Robert Hardman said he witnessed Charles “distraught and in tears” at Diana’s funeral. Andrew Morton, who wrote “Diana: Her True Story,” described Spencer’s account of the alleged phone call as “incendiary and disputed.”
Royal commentator Jennie Bond called the memoir a “vindictive account.”
Spencer, 62, worked as a television journalist in the United States and describes himself as an historian. He inherited Althorp, the Spencer family estate where he and Diana grew up. Diana is buried on an island on the estate grounds.
Spencer delivered Diana’s eulogy at her 1997 funeral and vowed to protect her sons. He also criticized the media’s treatment of Diana and later connected the press attention surrounding Harry and Meghan with the scrutiny Diana faced.
The memoir also includes claims about Mohamed Al-Fayed, the father of Diana’s companion Dodi Fayed, who died alongside Diana in the Paris crash. Spencer wrote that Diana felt “revulsion” toward Al-Fayed and alleged that he made an inappropriate remark and touched her without consent.
Spencer praised Dodi in the memoir, describing him as kind to Diana.
