‘Gaslit by the King’: Princess Diana’s brother hits back at palace attempts to refute his statements about her death

After Buckingham Palace’s firm response to Princess Diana’s brother, Earl Charles Spencer, he has now accused King Charles of gaslighting. Per NBC News, the Palace’s response was unusually forceful when the excerpt from Spencer’s book was released. The book itself, Swan Song: Diana, My Sister, tracks the end of Princess Diana’s marriage and life, and will be released on Tuesday.

In the excerpt, Spencer reportedly recounted a heated phone call with Charles. After they disagreed over the funeral arrangements, a furious Charles allegedly told Spencer, “We’ll forget her soon enough.” The palace responded by stating, “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.”

Spencer clearly wasn’t pleased with that characterization. NBC noted that he remarked in an interview, “It is not every day you wake up to find you’ve been gaslit by the king.” He further noted, “It was astonishingly provocative and below the belt because it was essentially trying to say I’d lied without the king being able to deny what I’d said.”

He wants to pay tribute by being honest

In a longer interview with the BBC, Spencer told journalist Laura Kuenssberg that he felt a duty “as an eyewitness to history” to record these events. When challenged about the accuracy of his statements, Spencer remained firm. “I can tell you here, and now, those are exactly the words he said,” he explained. 

He became rather intense as he continued, “I’ve only ever had two calls on the line with Prince Charles at any stage in my life. I was hyper-alert to what he was saying, and those are precisely the words 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.” He also noted that in terms of proof, he had mentioned the conversation immediately to friends and family. 

After taking a moment, Kuenssberg asked who should be believed, the King or Spencer. Spencer firmly told her, “Well, I’m telling the truth… what else would have made me hang up on the King that day?” Spencer recounted that the argument erupted when he opposed the plan for Princes William and Harry to walk behind their mother’s coffin. When he told a palace official that Diana would not have wanted that, he claims Charles called him to express his frustration. 

Per the outlet, Spencer claimed that the king countered by allegedly arguing that he had participated in the ritual during Lord Mountbatten’s coffin. Per the BBC,  Spencer replied, “Yes, but you were 30, and he wasn’t your mother.” He alleges that Charles then went “ballistic” and made the remark that they would “forget her soon enough.” Spencer says he was so stunned that he hung up on the future King.

In the memoir, he also described the hours after they heard about the news of the crash. Spencer, who was in Cape Town at the time, recalls receiving a call from Charles. “I felt there was a sort of giddy tone,” he told the BBC. “I’d had a lot of calls that day from people who cared, who were stunned… and I just felt there was a lightness in his tone about Diana’s death that really jarred with me.” 

In the book, he reportedly compared the tone to that of a “lottery winner.” Per NBC News, he mused, “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.”

When asked if he was certain about the King’s internal state, Spencer told the BBC, “I cannot be sure, I’m saying that’s what I assume from the tone is a possibility.” He emphasized that his renowned funeral eulogy, where he stated his sister’s qualities would never be “extinguished from our minds,” was intended as a direct rebuttal to the comments made by the King.

Despite the intensity of these revelations, Spencer reportedly insisted that his book is not motivated by money or a desire to settle scores. He described it as a “loving tribute” and his final word on the matter as he enters the final season of his life. However, another controversy is unfolding in a difficult year for the family, courtesy of former Prince Andrew. He also told the outlet that his nephews, Princes William and Harry, wouldn’t be surprised by his revelations. 

He told the BBC that he misses Princess Diana every day, noting, “That’s the thing with sibling loss, you never get over it.”